The Giaour

Byron’s Heaven and Hell William Blake was ahead of his time, not just with his writings, which impacted the writers and cultures that came after, but his lifestyle and mentality pushed the envelope for the human thought process. His writings contemplated the morality of man, leaving such a mental mark on the reader, as they are left to see Blake’s world blend into theirs after reading. These bold ideas that stemmed from Blake’s psyche, were that which outlined Lord Byron’s own view with the world. Byron created a character model of an individual that was more than that of man, curious, in search for endless answers, rebellious, questioning that which interacted with his soul, and persistent, which allowed the character to brace and venture into other worlds. This character in its own, is like Blake’s personality, who questioned everything from the powers that make up our world, to acknowledging the grand mechanics working around them giving astonishment and admiration to how nature can influence one’s thought in solitude. Blake wrote onto his own platform, etched plates, for these prophetic writings, symbolizing the sublime he brought into this world, with awe and wonderment through this visionary aspect, blending in the biblical aspect of this visual device. Lord Byron had his own character is such a light, being able to be a visionary while facing terror in other worlds, bringing shock to the reader, while showing the broken and asymmetrical thoughts of a rough and…

A passage from Lord Byron’s, “The Giaour”, caught my attention it reads: “But first, on earth as vampire sent/ Thy corse shall from be rent:/Then ghastly haunt thy native place/And suck the blood of all thy race/ There from thy daughter, sister, wife/ At midnight drain the stream of life;/ Yet loathe the banquet which perforce/ Must feed they livid living corse:/ Thy victims ere they yet expire/ Shall know the demon for their sire, / As cursing thee, thou cursing them” This is the first text…

power and strength mostly through their conspiring with Satan. (my words) Vathek is considered as an “Oriental tale of terror”, and the source of this terror is Vathek’s mother. Carathis is a determined and strong willed woman who has one “great object, which was to obtain favour with the powers of darkness”. She uses all her evil skills and spells in order to see her son on the throne of the subterranean realm. With the help of her Negro slave girls, she “invokes the powers of darkness in…