Interpretive Essay 7

Submit an essay by e-mail on the following topic. In the subject line of your message write "Essay on Byron".

Topic assignment:Write an essay in which you discuss the Byronic hero as he appears in the assigned excerpts from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Canto 1 of Don Juan included in your text. Begin your essay (1) with a paragraph announcing your purpose. Next, (2) summarize in your own words, with brief quotations if you wish, the definition of the Byronic hero given by the editors of your text and the course instructor. Proceed next (3) to briefly summarize Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and discuss the degree to which the narrator and the protagonist appear to fit that definition, taking into account, for example, passages you will be directed to below which characterize Harold (who stands for Byron himself) as "the most unfit of men to herd with Man" and speak of him as the "self-exiled Harold." Proceed next (4) to consider whether the narrator and protagonist appearing in the assigned canto of Don Juan substantiate this definition. You are forewarned that in this canto, the youthful, utterly naive Juan will fit the pattern of the Byronic hero less well than he will in later cantos, which are not present in your text.In treating the assigned excerpts, do not fail to consider both the narrator and the protagonist of each work. The important thing will be for you to support your position as to whether the narrator and protagonist fit the pattern of the Byronic hero by reference to specific passages, which you should paraphrase in your own words (with brief quotations if you wish). Be sure to include in your evidence passages to which you have responded in this Reader's Log.