FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF MARANHO

HUMANITIES CENTER
LETTERS COURSE

THE DECONSTRUCTION OF A BIBLICAL DOGMA IN CAIN, A MYSTERY BY

LORD BYRON.

ST. LOUIS
2016

REGIVALDO BRAGA MOREIRA

THE DECONSTRUCTION OF A BIBLICAL DOGMA IN CAIN, A MYSTERY BY

LORD BYRON.

Paper presented during the Letters

Course from Federal University of
Maranho in the discipline Foreign
Language Literature- Theatre ( English),
taught by Professor Aracy Serra to
obtain a grade.

ST. LOUIS
2016

Sumrio
1.

INTRODUCTION....................................................................................... 4

2.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY..............................................................5

3.

THE OTHER FACE OF GOD........................................................................7

4.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS..........................................................................9

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................ 10

1. INTRODUCTION

This work aims to expose the point of view of the biblical character Cain on the
early events of human history according to the account of the Holy Bible. The play Cain,
a mystery, from the English author Lord Byron was published in 1821. The work has the
form of a play, but it was not written with the intention to be represented on stage. This
play is a special kind of play called a closet drama. Closet dramas, unlike traditional
dramatic scripts, are not meant to be performed on a stage. Instead, they should be read
either silently to oneself or aloud in a small seated group of people.
Byron named his play Cain, A Mystery, because he wanted it to conform to the
language of ancient mystery plays. Mysteries were plays written in medieval Europe that
retold stories from the Bible. However, unlike the medieval mystery plays, which were
largely reverential to God, Byron's mystery has a decidedly ironic undertone to it and
appears as a kind of satirical play.
The playwright George Gordon Byron was born in London on January 22, 1788
and died in Missolonghi on April 19, 1824 at the age 36. Byron is considered one of the
greatest British poets and one of the most influential figures of Romanticism.
This work is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is about the events that
led Cain to increase their displeasure with God and become averse to the worship given to
the Creator.
The second chapter discusses the persuasive and specious arguments of the Devil
about God to Cain revealing another side of the Divine hitherto unknown to Cain.

2. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY

The play "Cain, a mystery," is a philosophical reflection about God. It dates back
to the episode of the beginning of human existence occurred in Eden and narrated in the
Bible book of Genesis. This play is divided into three acts and three scenes. The play
begins with the family of Cain offering sacrifices to God while Cain himself refuses to do
so, resentful because her mother had eaten the forbidden fruit and they have lost eternal
life. Cain asserts that he has nothing for which to be grateful to God, since God denied him
immortality.
Later Cain meets the character Lucifer, the devil, and tells him about his troubles
and fears about an unknown: death, which is the result of having eaten the fruit from the
tree of Knowledge of what is good and what is bad. From this moment Lucifer leads Cain
to the Abyss of Space and shows him the wonders and beauties of God's creations.
Stupefied by what he sees, Cain realizes how small and insignificant he is before the divine
greatness.
Then the devil takes him to the gate of Hades and there he sees the other side of
God's creations. An article on "Cain, a mystery," describes this situation as follows: Cain
is horrified by shadowy Hades, the 'realm of Death.' Lucifer explains that the phantoms
flying around are the spirits of beings that God made and destroyed before he made
mankind. All of this disgusts Cain, so much so that he simply wants to die and get it over
with. He asks to stay in Hades, but Lucifer tells him he cannot, at least not yet. They return
to Earth.
In the conversation with Lucifer Cain exposes arguments from God about why his
parents sinned and were cast out of paradise. Then the devil argues against reasoning with
Cain from a different point of view. An example is the following passage:

CAIN: Ah! didst thou tempt my mother"?

LUCIFER: I tempt none. Save with the truth: was not the tree, the tree
Of knowledge? And was not the tree of life still fruitful'? Did I bid her
pluck them not ?
Did I plant things prohibited within the reach of beings innocent,

and curious By their own innocence ? I would have made ye Gods;

and even He, who thrust ye forth, so thrust ye Because ye should not eat the
fruits of life, And become gods as we." Were those his words?

CAIN: They were, as I have heard from those who heard them, In thunder. (pags.
106, 107)

In the following passage the devil argues that it was not he who tempted Eve to
eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. The fragment shows that in a conversation with
Jesus, God did not want humans to become gods as they were and passed to have the
knowledge of what is good and what is bad. In a way Lucifer insinuated that the Almighty
was hiding something good from humans.
In another passage that corroborates the fact that God was hiding the truth of the
human, it becomes clear in the following excerpt:

CAIN: He is a god.
ADAH: How know'st thou?
CAIN: He speaks like a god.
ADAH: So did the serpent and it lied.
LUCIFER: Thou errest, Adah! Was not the tree that of knowledge?
ADAH: Ay to our eternal sorrow.
LUCIFER: And yet thai grief is knowledge so he lied not: And if he did betray
you,t was with truth; And truth in its own essence cannot be But good. (pag146)

As we can notice in the excerpt above, Lucifer replied Adahs argument on the
fact that the serpent had lied and deceived Eve, leading her to eat the forbidden fruit. The
devil reasoned saying that truth cannot be a lie because the truth cannot be anything but a
good thing. Lucifer insists that the deceiver and liar is God who was hiding the truth from
humans. We have also seen in the excerpt the high power of persuasion of the devil in his
arguments in talks with Cain, till the point that he said that Lucifer spoke like a god.

3. THE OTHER FACE OF GOD

We can infer from the play "Cain, a mystery that the main character Cain appears
disillusioned and completely disappointed with his Creator having his faith in Him already
undermined. The devil, with their specious and insidious placements only contributed to
further increase the displeasure of Cain with God. One of these placements is located in the
following passage:

CAIN: But there are spirits loftier still the archangels.

LUCIFER: And still loftier than the archangels.
ADAH: Ay but not blessed.
LUCIFER: If the blessedness Consists in slavery - no.
ADAH: I have heard it said, the seraphs love most cherubim know most
And this should be a cherub since he loves not.
LUCIFER: And if the higher knowledge quenches love, what must he be
you cannot love when known? Since the all-knowing cherubim love least,
the seraphs' love can be but ignorance: That they are not compatible, the
doom of thy fond parents, for their daring, proves. Choose betwixt love
and knowledge since there is No other choice: your sire hath chosen
already; His worship is but fear. ( pags. 160, 161)

Based on the passage quoted above Lucifer calls into question the way the Divine
treats those who are at his service in heaven: the angels. The devil asserts that God keeps
them as slaves and the worship they provide to Him is based on fear, not love. Thus, the
devil paints God as a tyrant who abuses power and not as a loving master.
Elsewhere in the text Lucifer attributes to God evil characteristics and describes
him as a deceiver, keeping humans far from the truth, blinding them with falsehood. This is
clear in the following excerpt:

LUCIFER: Let He who made thee answer that. I shew thee what thy
predecessors are, and what they were thou feelest, in degree []
A Paradise of Ignorance, from which Knowledge was barr'd as poison []
(pag.241)

As we can see in the passage quoted, the Devil said that God held human in
ignorance not allowing them to have access to the truth at any cost, that it should be
avoided like poison. In another passage in the text Lucifer calls the Divine, of God of
Ignorance, asserting that God manipulated them and kept hidden truth, out of their reach.
After hearing so many questions and arguments calling into question the goodness
and love of God for humans by Lucifer, Cain became bitterer than he was already, refusing
completely to participate in offering sacrifice to God with his brother Abel. The following
excerpt explains some reasons:

CAIN: I have toil'd, and till'd, and sweaten in the sun According to the curse:
must I do more'? For what should I be gentle? For a war with all the elements ere
they will yield the bread we eat? For what must I be grateful? For being dust,
and groveling in the dust, Till I return to dust? If I am nothing for nothing shall I
be a hypocrite, And seem well-pleased with pain"? For what should I Be
contrite? For my father's sin, already Expiate with what we all have undergone,
And to be more than expiated by the ages prophesied, upon our seed? Little
deems our young sleeper, there; the germ of an eternal misery to myriads is
within him! Bettert were I snatch'd him in his sleep, and dash'd him 'gainst the
rocks, than let him live to - . ( pag 372 , 373)

As stated in the fragment above Cain did not want to offer the sacrifice to God
because he had nothing to be thankful for. As he stated, if he pretended he was satisfied
with his life of pain and suffering with the certain prospect of death, he would be a
hypocrite. At the end of the play Cain attacks his brother Abel and kills him, after both
have offered sacrifice to God, but He just liked the Abels sacrifice and not Cains.
The play "Cain, a mystery," is an attempt to retell the biblical story of Eden seeing
the "wronged side of the story, the Cain's. It also gives voice to the questions and
antagonistic points of view, giving us the chance to know both sides.

4. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The play "Cain, A Mystery," was influenced by the work of John Milton "Paradise
Lost." Both works deal with the biblical theme of original sin and the expulsion from the
Garden of Eden. However, the Byrons play Cain is more specific to show the point of
view of the character Cain on the events in Eden, since the biblical version brings only the
point of view of God on these events.
We can consider the work of Byron a kind of bold if we take into account the
religious conservatism of the Judeo-Christian tradition. All we know about the events in
Eden is through the Holy Bible, and it tells us that Adam and Eve were expelled from
paradise because they were disobedient and sinned against God. God had said that sentence
sin was death, and so it happened. In this play of Byron, Cain asks why all the descendants
of Adam and Eve had to be punished with the loss of immortality if only his parents
sinned.
About the offer made by Cain and Abel, the bible says that God looked with favor
to the sacrifice of Abel and not Cain's, and that the reason for this was not that Abel's
offering was better than the Cain, but Abel had a good heart and Cain did not. Also
according to the Bible, taken by envy and jealousy Cain killed Abel. On the other hand, the
play shows that Cain argued that he had no reason to offer sacrifices to God because he had
no reason to be grateful and that doing so he would be a hypocrite, also, that God liked
more the sacrifice of Abel for he wanted to see blood poured and not vegetables and fruits.
The questions and arguments from the Devil about God makes room to think of
the Creator in a different perspective, seeing him about another prism and reach conclusion
for ourselves about the real Divine identity, his existence, attributes, motivations and
actions.

10

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BYRON, Gordon George. Cain, A Mystery, with notes. Notes by Harding Grant. London,
1830. Published by The Library of Victoria University, Toronto.

Found in:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/cain-by-byron-summary-analysis-quiz.html.

Accessed in March 15, 2016.

Found in: http://www.enotes.com/topics/cain. Accessed in March 15, 2016.