Byron's Don Juan VII-VIII: Characters' Diverse Attitudes toward Glory through War

The purpose of this article is to examine how Byron's Don Juan VII-VIII depicts the various facets of characters' minds and actions in taking attitude toward glory during wartime in Ismail, Turkey. It explores the multifaceted sides of their hidden intentions and military activities in the self-centered and ruthless battle. Byron investigates their diverse and unreasonable causes, which drive them to undertake their particular deeds while participating in the combat. He unfolds the complex, dark layers of man's motivations and acts in responding to such martial ideals as fame, honor, success, or triumph. By making an effective characterization of four major figures such as Suwarrow, Juan, Johnson, and the Turkish Khan, Byron, indeed, enriches the poem with a variety of their different conceptions and stances toward these remarkable achievements. While fighting in the same battle, they, interestingly, reveal strikingly different attitudes, especially in responding to the complex aspects of reputation, glory, war, manliness or fate. The article also considers how the two Cantos of Don Juan feature the ironic results of the characters' quest for glory, which bring about an extensive range of inhuman consequences. The poet accentuates the diverse, negative aftermaths of their illusionary, abusive pursuit of fame and honor. In doing so, he effectively utilizes figurative portrayals of brutal pictures to highlight the unanticipated boundaries and dreadful outcomes, which have been caused by the undesirable or irrational exercises of their freedom of choice in pursuing such self-centered desires and renown.