Lord Byron's "Cain" Summary
Rubén del Mazo Villanueva
3 January 2013
CAIN
by
GEORGE GORDON BYRON (LORD BYRON)
In this paper we are going to analyze the work Cain by the British poet Lord Byron, published in 1821, in which we can appreciate an outstanding influence of John Milton's Paradise Lost. The story of Cain and Abel appears in the book of Genesis in the Bible, and the reader must understand that this myth is placed within the Christian doctrine. On the one hand, through this kind of fable the exile of man from Garden of Eden is explained. Because of the mortal sin Eve committed when eating the apple, humanity was cursed and expelled from Paradise. On the other hand, it also explains why human beings suffer during their lifes and finally die. Death is something extremely complicated for humans to understand, and even more difficult to accept. In the Christian doctrine the opposite places of hell and heaven are used to keep people under control and make them follow some rules or dogmas: if they obey they will succeed and go to a beautiful place called heaven but on the contrary if they don't they will be punished and sent to hell, were they will be unhappy for the rest of their lifes. If we look closely to this work, we can perceive that heaven is the same as Garden of Eden (living with God and worship Him) and exile and living in pain wandering on earth wold be a representation of hell. Lord Byron's Cain is considered as a critique to the Christian doctrine, a way to show his own skepticism and an attack to the theocentric conception of universe as appearing in the Bible. His work has been accused of being plainly heretic and blasphemous but otherwise it can be interpreted as a reflection of how dificult is to understand and distinguish the bloody and wrathful God from the merciful and loving one. Lord Byron's Cain is greatly influenced by Romanticism and its way of thinking; its spirit. The author tries to understand the world in all its complexity (which is a hard
3 January 2013
CAIN
by
GEORGE GORDON BYRON (LORD BYRON)
In this paper we are going to analyze the work Cain by the British poet Lord Byron, published in 1821, in which we can appreciate an outstanding influence of John Milton's Paradise Lost. The story of Cain and Abel appears in the book of Genesis in the Bible, and the reader must understand that this myth is placed within the Christian doctrine. On the one hand, through this kind of fable the exile of man from Garden of Eden is explained. Because of the mortal sin Eve committed when eating the apple, humanity was cursed and expelled from Paradise. On the other hand, it also explains why human beings suffer during their lifes and finally die. Death is something extremely complicated for humans to understand, and even more difficult to accept. In the Christian doctrine the opposite places of hell and heaven are used to keep people under control and make them follow some rules or dogmas: if they obey they will succeed and go to a beautiful place called heaven but on the contrary if they don't they will be punished and sent to hell, were they will be unhappy for the rest of their lifes. If we look closely to this work, we can perceive that heaven is the same as Garden of Eden (living with God and worship Him) and exile and living in pain wandering on earth wold be a representation of hell. Lord Byron's Cain is considered as a critique to the Christian doctrine, a way to show his own skepticism and an attack to the theocentric conception of universe as appearing in the Bible. His work has been accused of being plainly heretic and blasphemous but otherwise it can be interpreted as a reflection of how dificult is to understand and distinguish the bloody and wrathful God from the merciful and loving one. Lord Byron's Cain is greatly influenced by Romanticism and its way of thinking; its spirit. The author tries to understand the world in all its complexity (which is a hard