Byron's Heroines"Alas! the love of women! it is known/ To be a lovely and fearful thing!" (Don Juan, st. 199) Traditionally seen as an archetypal masculine poet, better known for his relationships with women than for the sympathetic study of them, Lord Byron has not lent himself easily to a feminist critique. In this, the first such example, Caroline Franklin takes an original and polemical standpoint, reading Byron within the setting of the contemporary debate on the nature, role, and rights of women in society. The heroines of Byron's narrative and dramatic verse are considered, not from a biographical perspective, but by relating these representations to ideologies of sexual difference which held in the poet's day. Viewed in their literary-historical context, these Byronic heroines are compared with other female protagonists of the age, thereby revealing the poet to be unusually honest and bold in his portrayal of female sexuality and its relation to political issues. |
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Adah Aholibamah Anah ancien régime Angiolina aristocratic Astarte Aurora authority beauty Book of Enoch bourgeois Byronic hero Cain Cain's Canto character chastity chivalry Christian compared Conrad contemporary corruption Corsair critics daughter death demonstrates domestic Don Juan drama dynastic effeminate father female sexuality feminine feminism feminist Foscari French Revolution gender genre Giaour Greek Gulnare Haidée Haidée's harem Heaven and Earth hero's heroine heroine's human husband ideal ideology individual influence Jehovah Kaled Leila liberal libertine liberty literary London lover Lucifer male Manfred Manfred's Marina Marino Faliero marriage masculine McGann Medora Meiners monarch moral Myrrha nature Neuha novel oppression Oriental passion passive patriarchal play poem poet poet's poetry political portrayal portrayed relationship represents republican revolutionary romantic love Romanticism Rousseau's Sardanapalus Scott Ségur Selim sentiment sexual role slave social society Southey's spirit subversive symbol thou traditional tragedy Turkish virtue whilst wife Wollstonecraft woman women Zuleika