influences
INFLUENCES
Lord Byron influenced romantics writers from 19th century, above all with his heros and antiheros (see: Byronic Hero). His characters have an idealized but defective characteristic whose qualities included:
-a great talent
-display of passion
-aversion caused by society and by social institutions
-frustracion caused by an impossible love due to limits imposed by society or death
-rebelliousness
-exile
-dark past
-self-destructive behaviour
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron#Obra_po.C3.A9tica
Byron’s magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since John Milton‘s Paradise Lost.The masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, has roots deep in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, equally involves itself with its own contemporary world at all levels — social, political, literary and ideological.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron#Don_Juan
FIELDING’S INFLUENCE ON BYRON’S EARLY WORKS
The present chapter sets forth what is known of Byron’s earliest acquaintance with Henry Fielding’s writing. The period to be covered is 1805 to 1811, the years which saw Byron’s first commitment to writing, his first modest success in literature, and his famous tour of Greece and
Albania. During this period, Fielding was not a major influence upon him, but as early as 1807, Byron began to develop an interest in the writer he would later describe as a «prose Homer.»
A study of Byron’s early poems and letters does point to one particularly interesting conclusion: Fielding’s mock-heroic play Tom Thumb had a greater influence upon Byron than has been generally realized. This play was quite popular during the early years of the nineteenth century. Although it had no particular effect upon Hours Of Idleness , it inspired at least two significant passages of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. It had an even greater effect upon Hints from Horace ; in fact, Byron later decided that he had allowed it to become too influential. In revising Hints from Horace: Byron significantly changed its tone by deleting several allusions to Tom Thumb.
Since Fielding and Byron were both reacting to a well-wom cliché, this parallel only proves that they had similarities in their ways of thinking. A convincing argument for direct influence would require corroborating extemal evidence.
Only one critic has suggested so much as a similarity
between Fielding’s works and any of Byron’s early poems.
Alluding to «An Occasional Prologue,» William J. Calvert
states that Byron’s «plea for free and frank speech . . .
would probably have been the reaction of a Swift or a
Fielding to the time.» As a matter of fact, «An Occasional
Prologue» does have some interesting parallels to Fielding’s
Prologue and Epilogue ±o Love in Several Masoues. Both
prologues open with ironic praise of contemporary taste;
both authors picture themselves as young men apprehensive of
their reception by the audience; and both profess to seek
approval by providing moral entertainment. These parallels
could be developed at length, but Calvert’s point has already
been made: Byron’s poera deraonstrates affinities with Fielding’s
way of thinking. A more positive conclusion would
only be conjectural.
Byron often
compared his acquaintances to Fielding’s characters. Lady
Caroline Lamb reminded him of Miss Matthews in Amelia and
Laetitia in Jonathan Wild. Byron described men as well as women in Fieldingesque
terms, even portraying himself as the hack writer in
Amelia or as Partridge in Tom Jones. Considering the context
of many of his allusions, Byron probably saw himself
as recreating the role of Tom Jones.
4 major influences upon Byron’s Don Juan
Byron needed still another literary source before
he could solve his formal problems. He did not wish to
imitate the dramatic forra of the previous Don Juan vérsions.
Seeking a less liraited forra, he experimented with the novel,
but ultimately rejected this genre. He wrote his Memoirs.
but he realized that a straightforward autobiography could
not be published during his lifetirae. Byron found the missing
ingredient for Don Juan in the Italian jocose epic. In
the humorous, digressive ottava riraa poems of Pulci, Berni,
and Casti, and of their English imitators J. H. Frere and
W. S. Rose, Byron finally hit upon a form and mode of
narration suitable for his diverse materials.
Thus, Byron’s Don Juan sprang frora four primary
sources. The most important influence of all was autobiographical;
the other three were literary. Of this latter
group, two were literary traditions, and one was a single
great masterpiece. Byron’s personal experiences gave him
the raw materials and the impetus for writing. The Don Juan
tradition gave Byron his protagonist and suggested in a
general way the incidents to be included in the story. Torn
Jones gave Byron a more detailed model for developing
characters and incidents and also had a significant influence
upon his mode of narration. Finally, the jocose epic
tradition gave Byron a genre; in conjunction with Tom Jones.
it provided a stylistic raodel; and it was a rainor source for
plot details.
http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-11042009-31295015067381/unrestricted/31295015067381.pdf