Byron as Others

This article argues that sympathy is the radical heart of Byron’s poetry. For sympathy, possible via the imagination for David Hume and Adam Smith, allows Byron to be someone else as far as that is possible, withal Smith’s caveats. This article posits that Byron’s potential doubles are not poor caricatures that see the Romantic poet throwing his voice. Instead, Byron creates performances that explore and exploit the limits of sympathy. Such limits co-exist with potential. And for Byron, sympathy is not an unmitigated good. Through sympathy, we might ignore our professed values or extend our sympathy to those for whom we should not feel. Byron’s sympathy opens him up to becoming other people to some degree, to living other lives, and inhabiting other selves. Byron shows us that sympathy, like selfhood, is slippery. This article argues that Byron makes us rethink sympathy and its value.