SOURCE: Clancy, Charles J. “Death and Love in Byron's Sardanapalus.” The Byron Journal 10 (1982): 56-70.

In the following essay, Clancy considers the relationship between death and love in Sardanapalus.

Sardanapalus¹ has been compared to the tragedies of Seneca by Kahn,² and to the heroic tragedies of Dryden by Cooke.³ It has been read by a number of critics as an autobiographical play,⁴ and considered from the point of view of its acting in its bowdlerized editions by Nurmi, Taborski, and Howell.⁵ The most prevalent critical approach, which takes a number of forms, is that which examines the principle of duality in the play. G. Wilson Knight argues that bisexuality is the key to Sardanapalus;⁶ Paul Elledge agrees and further suggests that the play unfolds as the hero's character evolves positively;⁷ Allen Whitmore argues that Sardanapalus' heredity inclines him to bestiality and cruelty;⁸ while Paulino Lim argues the opposite point...