SOURCE: Clancy, Charles J. “Aurora Raby in Don Juan: a Byronic Heroine.” Keats-Shelley Journal 28 (1979): 28-34.

In the following essay, Clancy argues that the character of Aurora Raby is a feminine version of the trademark Byronic hero.

Aurora Raby is one of the most fascinating characters in the English episode of Byron's Don Juan. Her character, and her significance, have elicited comment from a large number of Byron critics. They indicate, in their variety, a lack of agreement as to her role in the totality of the poem. T. S. Eliot calls Aurora “the most serious character of his [Byron's] invention.”¹ Edward E. Bostetter refers to her as “the most cryptic of all his [Byron's] women characters.”² Karl Kroeber notes that she is Byron's “most complex representation of his dream heroine, the pure and wise child-woman.”³ Andrew Rutherford refers to her as “exceptionally interesting, not as a successful character...