Byron And The Cain Tradition

Since Cain’s first appearance in the Bible, his image becomes a hot and controversial topic. The Cain-Abel story is showed in the works of many late writers, and these writers quote or adapt the story. In these works, Cain is represented in different images, thus forming the different Cain traditions. In the large sense, there are three main Cain traditions:Cain as a devil, a "Citizen" and a sacred executioner. Every time when Cain appears in the work, it will arouse controversy, especially at the release of Byron’s verse drama Cain. Byron’s Cain, because of the huge difference from the tradition, it arouses quite a lot of controversy and attacks. In fact, Byron’s Cain belongs to the category of regenerated Cain. Byron’s Cain plays a very important part in the development of Cain tradition. There are both inheritance and transcendence in his regenerated Cain.The evil Cain tradition comes from the Bible. Cain in the Bible is figured as the first murderer of all human beings,he kills his brother Abel out of jealousy and so he is cursed by God, and from then on,he begins the life of forever wandering. And Cain is marked as guilty and evil after he has committed the crime. Because of the classic and the wide influence of the Bible, Cain’s evil image has been widely accepted, thus forming the evil Cain tradition. Philo then introduced the conception of "Citizen" to define the Cain tradition; it gradually formed the tradition of Cain as "Citizen". In Philo’s opinion,the relationship between God and his created beings, including human beings:all God’s created beings were aliens and sojourners to him and they all belonged to the category of "Citizen" in the sense of God. The reason of Cain and Abel’s fight was because of the dualistic thinking. Cain was self-centered and Abel was God-centered,which is the freedom of the "Citizen". This kind of Citizen Cain tradition had a great influence over the period which was reigned by Christianity, and it was used to divide Christians and pagans.Byron assimilated the previous tradition and created a new Cain.In his verse drama Cain, he figured Cain as a young human being who dared to go against the tyrant God, which was utterly different from the traditional Cain;thus Byron was attacked by many powers, especially by the Church. He was considered by the Church as the "devil" who was anti-Christ. Actually Byron had a lot of similarities with the character Cain, for example, they were both called "devil" and they had the same fate-wandering. It was just the same experience that made Byron sympathetic to Cain. Cain was referred to and quoted many times, besides the verse drama Cain;there were also Manfred, Childe Harold, from whom we saw the trace of Cain. All of these contribute to Byron’s regenerated Cain tradition.Compared with the previous Cain traditions. Byron has made a lot of innovations. Byron creatively adds the character Lucifer to its adaptation of Cain-Abel story, which is what the previous tradition does not have. Byron describes Lucifer as the soul mate of Cain, which is innovative and also necessary. Besides,that Byron reintroduces the female Adah, who is ignored by the previous traditions, is also a brand-new innovation. The ordinary female Adah and the "loving God" make a vivid comparison,which makes us more approved of the rebellious Cain Byron has created in his verse drama. In fact,Byron inherits Philo’s "Citizen Cain" in some senses. We can consider Byron’s Cain and Abel as "Citizens" in God’s eyes.The different values and quarrels are all the characteristics of what we call "Citizen".But because of the circumstances both before and after the killing event, and Cain’s refusal of forgiveness, he is more like a sacred executioner. This Byronic Cain is inherited by the following writers and is gradually acknowledged by the universals. Besides, because of Byron’s rebellion against the evil Cain tradition which is universally acknowledged, his Cain liberates the minds of the westerners.Byron, with his unique attitude towards God and demons, harshly criticizes and satirizes the Church, the clergyman and the Christians.The thesis ascends the traditional Cain:the evil Cain and "Citizen" Cain and also analyzes the regenerated Cain in Byron’s verse drama. From this comparison,I have explored the inheritance, the innovation and the devotion of Byron’s Cain.