Possibly one of the worst things that can happen to a child is abuse from close family members. Family is there to support and take care of the child. The early years are the most impressionable to a youth. Lord Byron was greatly effected by his mother's actions and opposing moods while growing up. Upon the desertion of her husband Catherine felt the need to place her attentions upon someone as important, to take place of the feelings for her husband. Unfortunately, she was only able to offer Byron pain and suffering. She could not control her emotions well and confused Byron about their relationship. The wavering of her attention upon him, resulted in his cries for attention in other places. It is true that his mother was not aware of all of the dealings in the house. Even if she was conscious of the problems, she did not do much to hinder the mistreatment.

George Byron was born with a deformed right foot. His mother was quick to get the doctors involved and make the poor boy feel like a cripple. After careful observation, the foot was diagnosed as being clubbed with the heel being drawn upward and the sole of the foot turned inward (Marchand 9). His mother was convinced by numerous doctors that the correction was fairly easy with a bit of time and money. The condition that Byron had was actually impossible to fix, but possible to improve. The obsession with the foot brought much misery to the young lad. He was given corrective boots with straps around the ankle that caused the boys at school to make fun of him. Dr. Lavender was one of the quack doctors that rubbed oils into his leg and then put it into a machine that gave excruciating pain (Raphael pg. 15). New doctors came up with new diagnoses of what to do with the boy's foot. Any attention to the imperfection distressed Byron greatly. Whenever the object was mentioned, he would fly into a fit of rage (Trueblood pg. 19).

In his youth, Byron was loved and crippled by people close to him, all at the same time. Byron was born in a shabby apartment to a devastated woman. Catherine was constantly abandoned by Captain John Byron to go search for get rich schemes. George's father was a selfish man who had been running from creditors all his life. When he married Catherine Gordon, he brought her into the same situation. She had settled down in a cheap old apartment in England when the Captain ran off to France with most of her money. When George was just three years old, Catherine received news of the Captain's death.

Even though the Captain was a poor father and husband, Catherine was greatly distressed over his death. She had no shoulder to cry on and no one to give her attention onto, but the boy. "She assuaged her passionate grief by a mingled hatred and love of the son who reminded her of him." (Marchand pg. 11). The young Byron could not handle his mother's vacillating moods. She could not decide whether to anger him or shower him with kisses of excessive indulgence (Trueblood pg. 19). The loss of her husband that Catherine was faced with, made her compare the boy to his father constantly. She used to say, "Ah, you little dog, you are a Byron all over; you are as bad as your father!", but then shower him with kisses of affection again (Marchand pg. 11). In her attempts to anger him, she would call Byron a "lame brat" (Raphael pg. 19).

The changing disposition of his mother did little to appease Byron's lust for love and attention. His mother was not able to give Byron what he needed. At the young age of ten, Byron was introduced to May Gray, a young servant girl. Starving for love he could understand he was pulled into her sexual games. He craved affection and feared himself repulsive due to his clubbed foot. He believed that the girl could furnish what he was too ashamed to seek elsewhere (Raphael pg. 13). He was a true Calvinist (due to the teachings of Agnes Gray) and held strong beliefs. Unfortunately, religion did nothing to make him understand or give up the devilish game that he was playing (Trueblood pg. 19). "My passions were developed very early-so early, that few would believe me, if I were to state the period, and the facts that accompanied it." (Marchand pg. 20(Byron)).

In 1798, George Byron become the heir to the mansion of the Lord Byron V and therefore also attained the title of Lord Byron. The house was left with a lot of debt, but his mother was proud of the new upgraded status. There he was hired a young tutor that noticed the brilliance and the inadequacy of his education. Hanson took Byron to London and found him a boot maker that improved the outward appearance of the boot and enabled him to walk as normally as possible (Raphael pg. 15). Hanson also made sure that Byron was admitted to a new school (Harrow) with the other boys his age. The move was ideal because Byron was able to distance himself from his mother and he was able to grow and mature without being hampered by the abuse of the household. He was still jeered at by boys from his new school, but he was able to earn their respect by humiliating them (the younger boys) and eventually earning the friendship of the older boys (Raphael pg. 25).

The distance from his mother brought him great good. He stopped paying as much attention to his lame foot and became less self-conscious of the imperfection. The doctors had finally constructed a genuine remedy, but Byron was still often very neglectful over the foot (Trueblood pg. 22). He even started to join in such games as cricket with the other boys at the school. He was starting to feel the freedom and self worth without the constant badgering of his mother. But it was also at the Harrow school that he attained bisexual feelings. It was either the atmosphere of the all male school or the effects of his newfound passionate friendships that caused the realization. "Byron had strong bisexual tendencies throughout his life, though, on the whole, his emotional needs were satisfied more extensively and over longer periods of his life by his relationships with women" (Trueblood pg. 25).

It is obvious that Byron's childhood must have greatly affected his later life as an adult. The role that his mother played is not as apparent. Byron never had any long relationships with women. His moods inflated and deflated depending on the situation. He was never able to stay in one place too long and enjoyed frequent travel. Byron was extremely insecure about his foot for an immense part of his life. The pain that he experienced from the mental and physical abuse must have never been forgotten. Because of the instability of his childhood, as an adult, Byron's life was not very stable.

"Byron, your mother is a fool", once said one of his friends, " I know it," replied Byron (Raphael pg. 15). It is not exactly known what his disposition towards his mother was. It seems as though he received his personality directly from his mother. When asked what he felt about her, he often said that the feeling was hatred. The surprise was at the end when the message of her death was given to him, "I had but one friend in the world, and she is gone!" was his reply (Trueblood pg. 44). It is true that he had gotten along a lot better with her at a distance (Marchand pg. 103). He was able to keep open the lines of communication and even wrote her loving letters to tell her of his latest escapades (Gregory pg. 94). "Whatever his mother may have said in anger and exasperation, Byron knew that she had been devoted to him in her fashion."(Marchand pg. 103).

Catherine Gordon Byron was a woman of irresolute attitudes. She raised Lord Byron in a home full of mental and physical abuse. Byron starved for the love and attention that his mother seemed unable to give him. In his life, Byron experienced many relationships, but always broke them off. He seemed to have been looking for approval that he did not receive as a child. He felt insecure about his foot and his general looks even though he was considered very attractive. The bisexuality that he experienced might have been due to his seemingly feminine personality or the need of a male influence in his life. His father was never there for him and he had no male servants of great impression. The instability of his home life as a child and the deformity of his foot scarred Lord Byron for the rest of his life.