Mona Sulaiman Farraj Albalawi

A Comparison Between Two Turkish Heroines in Lord Byron's Poetry: Leila in "The Giaour" and Leila in Don Juan Mona Sulaiman Farraj Albalawi

This Book demonstrates and examines the similarities of two Turkish heroines in Lord Byron?s poetry, Leila in ?The Giaour,? and, Leila in Don Juan, and asserts that both Leilas are portrayed as passive characters, with no role and no effect on the hero's life. Both heroines are being silenced. Their voice is nowhere to be found in Byron?s poetry. Both heroines experience different types of death, one physical as punishment for infidelity, and the other is cultural, erasing her Islamic identity and adopting a western perspective through Western education. The analysis support critics? views of Byron?s relationship with the East, that Lord Byron is an ?Orientalist? whose portrayal of both Leilas reflects a superior attitude toward the Turks, and reflects an unsympathetic view toward Islam through the repetition of the negative stereotypical images of the Turkish women that existed in his time. While silencing both heroines, Byron plays the role of the benevolent colonist and the western liberator.