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Conrad’s devotion to Medora. While love is the highest value for each, they dodescribe it as being able to motivate them to faith.To return to Thorslev’s comment upon the difference between the Gothic Villain andthe Romantic hero, the implication is that the Romantic hero “engages oursympathies” by resisting “the moral codes of society”. However, our sympathies, ourshared feelings, depend upon emotional connection, and the Byronic Hero is alsoprovided with other ways of connecting with the audience.Love is not the Byronic Hero’s only redeeming feature. The Giaour has not merelylove, but passion: he burns for Leila with a blazing passion which shines from line1099 to line 1140 in a declaration rarely matched for the ferocity of its attachment. Inthis, he is a symbol of freedom from those constraints of social behaviour which makecivilisation possible. Selim needs no redemption, as he lacks vice. Conrad, however,is honourable and dutiful to a fault: pre-empting Seyd’s attack, to protect his ownfollowers, at the expense of parting from Medora (C 1.14); saving the women in theharam, at the expense of his own attack (C 2.5); honouring the deaths of hiscompatriots by refusing to flee, at his own expense (C 2.14.472-3). Lara provides forthe poor and the oppressed (L 2.8.168-219), demonstrating the general love known asphilanthropy. 350 Alp is the exception, being consumed so utterly by vengeance that heeven chooses that over Francesca. For all of the others, the sympathies of the readerare engaged by the character’s demonstration of values which the reader shares. Forthe Giaour and Conrad, this also includes their honesty and their sympathy with theirenemies: the Giaour says that he would have acted as Hassan did (G 1062-3); Conradsays that he would have acted as Seyd did (C 2.11.371).However, the Byronic Hero is doomed, and, to a great extent, he is doomed by hisclinging to the past. He owns his guilt as depending upon the deeds which he hasdone, but he will not repent of them, and will not surrender himself so utterly toreligion as to allow it to change him. Thus,350 The instruction to do this is, incidentally, one of the most-repeated in the Bible as well as being oneof the Pillars of Islam, which makes Lara’s adoption of it very orthodox indeed.224