“The ineradicable taint of sin”: Lord Byron’s The Giaour

Abstract

Yu, Jie-ae. ““The ineradicable taint of sin”: Lord Byron’s The Giaour.” Studies on English Language & Literature. 32.3(2006). 1-15. In The Giaour, Byron investigates the Giaour’s unforgettable memory of past sin, which leads to hampering the power of his autonomy in the face of fate. The contemporary reviews of Byron’s The Giaour (1813) in publications such as the Antijacobin Review (1813), the British Critic (1813), and the Edinburgh Review (1813) disregarded such complexity of the Giaour’s inner turbulence, declaring that Byron was so fascinated by his own image that he projected his own personality onto the hero of The Giaour. Most modern critics have also tended toward views similar to that of the poet. However, the problem with such an interpretation is that it does not do justice to the psychological subtlety and intensity of Byron’s characterization -the figure of the Giaour being an important illustration of this point. This paper will show how Byron creates a psychologically rich character in the person of the Giaour. It will highlight the clash between fate imposed upon himself by his past wrongdoing and his eagerness to be free from the unremovable stain of his past sin. His strong perception of sin eventually enfeebles his determination to defy his sorrow, whereby he becomes a victim of his own helplessness. (Changwon National University)