SOURCE: THEINDIANEXPRESS
April 19th
marked the 200th death anniversary of Lord Byron (1788-1824). A
Romantic hero himself, he was described as “Mad, Bad and dangerous to know” by
Lady Caroline Lamb. Two centuries on, his persona has manifested scores of literary
heroes capable of love as well as destruction. Lending support to the Greek war
of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, he died at Missolonghi at just 36. One
of the best poetic talents of his time, his misadventures, elegance and
rebellion seal his reputation as the Romantic period heartthrob notwithstanding
his somewhat deformed foot.
The Byronic
hero is a tortured soul. Prone to intense brooding yet impulsive, kind as well
as mysterious and torn, charming but dangerous are difficult to love but also
to hate. Clearly, this paradoxical being is a rebel with a cause. His great acts
of heroism uplift the masses and has left a lasting impression on an entire
generation. Don Juan’s amoral, amorous and lovesick escapades are balanced out
with stately duties and his responsibility towards an orphan. Childe Harold is a
brooding young hero with an emotional baggage. He undertakes a journey of
self-reflection. Byron’s piece of personality is reflected in every male
protagonist of his. Similarly, Manfred mourns the death of his adored sister.
The protagonist is scripted after Byron and his incestuous affair with his half
-sister Augusta Leigh whom he loved deeply. No sooner the philanderer caught in
a string of affairs got published, his magnetism came to be unmatched. His
daughter, Ada born out of an abusive marriage with Annabella Milbanke became
the famous mathematician Ada Lovelace who pioneered the computer as we know it
today. Proud and loud, his works
established an archetype that runs the mill of writers and producers even
today. His promiscuity, scandalous affairs made him a social outcast. “…. born
for opposition” he left Britain in 1816. In the company of his doctor William Polidori,
en route to Italy; he sat on a stormy night with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary
Godwin Shelley to write ghost stories. Though the poets gave up, Polidori produced
a novella The Vampyre, the folk-monster shaped after the suave Byron and
Mary Shelley started working on her piece which later turned out to be a remarkable
Gothic novel, Frankenstein.
Byron’s
footprint can be found worldwide. Some of the examples are as follows: Erik in
Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of Opera (1909); prince Damon Targaryen in Game
of Thrones; Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955); Severus Snape
in J K Rowling’s Harry Potter; Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov
(1880), and such others. The appeal of a troubled hero continues to sway the
imagination of the masses. But there’s a rise in Byronic heroines. Women want
out from straitjacketed existence- but the outlet is not necessarily a man. The
transition to grey areas of personality has not been historically accorded to
women. But, in the recent times, there’s has been emphasis on women exploring
their inner selves while taking on the world. One such example is Tara Khanna
in Made in Heaven. The disjuncture leads us to the richness that women’s
lives can provide.
Image
source: Historic UK