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Loosing through surviving (Click to select text)
Lord Byron's Euthanasia George Gordon, also known as Lord Byron, was born on January 22nd, in London. Lord Byron was born witht the physical deformaty known as a "clubfoot" or lame foot. As a chail, Byron lived with his mother, Catherine Byron, in Scotland, they were fairly poor. He stayed with his mother in Scotland until he inherited the estate of the "wicked" Lord Byron, George Gordon's uncle. The estste was called Newstead Abbey. During Byron's youth he was plagued by his foot and batteled constantly with obesity. He went to school in Dulwich, in 1799, and to Harrow in 1801. In 1803 he went back to Newstead Abbey to live with his tenant, Lord Grey. It was here that he started to court his distatnt cousin, Mary Chaworth, and "as she became sick of that 'lame boy', he began to see her as a symbol of the perfect, yet unattainable love, and turned his sadness into poetry." (Wolf, 19) Byron traveled and wrote a lot for the next few years and his mother died on August first, 1811. On January second, 1815, Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke. They had one daughter, Augusta Ada, on December 10, 1811. Byron and Anne Milbanke divorced one year later and Byron left London forever. Byron went to Switzerland where he befriended Percy Shelly, another promenent poet at the time, and became fairly obsessed with him. In 1824, after Byron had send over 4000 pounds to the Greek fleet, he sailed to join Prince Alexandros Mavrokordatos, to join his forces and fight with him. Byron contracted a fever and died on April 19th, 1824 in Missolonghi, Greece. Lord Byron's poem "Euthanasia" was published in 1812. It reflects how Lord Byron felt about his life. It is it tells you an almost direct summary of his life when you read it. In lines 5-8 Byron wrote: "No band of friends or heirs be there, To weep or wish the coming blow, No maiden with dishevell'd hair, To feel, or feign, decorous woe." In this section he is lamenting about his relationships to people. Byron was only married once and that marriage ended in divorce. His wife left to visit her mother with his daughter and sent a note saying she was never coming back. He never saw hiswife or daughter again. He had no real heirs to his estate bieng that he wasn't marred and had no proper children. "Proper" meaning that his one daughter was with her mother and his other daughter was an illegitamate child that died on April 20th, 1822., therefore leaving no proper relatives. His one other love, his half sister Augusta Leigh, who he had reportadly had many affairs with, was married so he couldn't have her. Also Lord Byron's father died while he was three and his mother when he was 23 so he had no family at all to support him. Byron, accept for a few friendship, had no real friends and felt he wasn't accepted for most of his life. In lines 17-20, Byron wrote: "T were sweet, my psyche! To the last Thy features still serene to see: Forgetful of its struggles past, E'en pain itself should smile on thee." When Byron refers to "psyche" he is refering to his own subconciousness. He is saying that it is the one part of him that is still bueataful because it doesn't remember all the struggles its had and the pain its felt. It is unaware of the torment he went through with his lame foot, or the torment of bieng overweight and having to diet and battle with mental deseases such as anorexia and bolemia, both which it is suspected Byron dealt with. He believed it was the one part of him that was untainted. In lines 23 and 24 Byron wrote: "And womens tears, produced at will, Deceive in life, unman in death." Byron didn't trust women or life. Byron had been hurt many times by women. From his mother that was short-tempered and believed to be "slightly abusive" , to his first love, his cousin Mary Chaworth, to his wife, who left him. He knew they were able to deceive man and have tears "produced at will". Byron refers to death multiple times in this poem, even in the title "Euthanasia", which means "an easy mode of death: the act or practice of putting to death painlessly, esp. in order to release from incurable suffering" is a referral to death. Byron was obsesed with death, and this obsession led to many rumors, such as one in which it was said that Byron dranks from a cup made out of a monk's skull and had silver plates polished into it. In lines 33-36 Byron reflects on his life as a whole. He writes: "Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen, Count o'er thy days from anguish free, And know, whatever thou hast been, 'T is better not to be." Byron is saying here that when he looks back on the joys he has had in life, and weighs those against the pains he's had, the pains win. He is saying that everyone would see the same way if they thought about it and it would have been better to never have existed. He always felt his life was tormenting and that to not have existed would have been a much easier alternative. The poem "Euthanasia" is one of Byron's best works and reflects of his life greatly. It shows his outlook on life as well as tells his opinion on his experievcecs and feelings like no other account has or can. In many ways, "Euthanasia" is the embodiment of George Noel Gordon Byron.
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