Much to be loved and hated

The contrast between Lara, a prime example of The Byronic Hero, and Don Juan, an example of a Byronic un-hero, is exemplified by the amount of description each protagonist recieves from the poet. As we see in this excerpt from Lara, there is much to be described about the hero's complex personality. On the other hand, there is little to no real description of Don Juan's personality - only the attention his mother puts into shaping it. There is "much to be loved and hated" in Lara, and he is fodder for others' gossip because he's so interesting and so mysterious:

Opinion varying o'er his hidden lot,
In praise or railing ne'er his name forgot;
His silence form'd a theme for others' prate —
They guess'd — they gazed — they fain would know his fate.

In comparison, Juan seems relatively bland: events and other people seem to govern his action and Byron gives us no lengthy description of his character, as we might expect in a poem with his name as the title. Unlike Lara, Don Juan does not seem to fully possess the poem named for him, reflecting his status as less-than-hero.

Byron admits to Juan's less-than status in the opening lines of his poem, saying, "I want a hero," something difficult to come by in these shallow and fickle times. So, since he "should not care to vaunt" these false heroes, he "therefore take(s) our ancient friend Don Juan." Instead of indicating that he takes Juan as his protagonist because he is an "ancient" hero, it seems like Byron is taking him as a sort of last resort, because there's no one else better around. Lara, on the other hand, is a hero that is truly the focus of his poem, an old fashioned hero for a medieval romance, someone who merits description and gossip.