In Byron’s Cain, we learn the perspective of the Cain and Abel story through Cain’s eyes. If one can make it through the old English text, you come to understand what exactly Cain was struggling with. Cain could not believe that God’s gift of life would ultimately mean he would certainly die and unexpectedly because of the sin of his parents. He was, for all intents and purposes, the first human born into an unjust fate. It simply wasn’t fair. The carelessness of his mother and father stole away his chances of immortality before he had known it. There was such a fear of death that he almost developed an obsession with it. He saw this as an extremely cruel act of a God. It would be Lucifer who would show him what death truly was. Originally we only knew of Lucifer as humanity’s antagonist but in Byron’s Cain we are able to see Lucifer as an ambivalent entity. He explained plainly to Cain that immortality is simply endless suffering. He brought reality to Cain’ s naivety.
