Manfred

Manfred is wracked by guilt throughout Byron’s drama, and he makes no attempt to disguise it. He alludes to feeling like his relationship with Astarte was a mistake, and to believing that he himself must bear punishment for that mistake. Even when the Abbot of St. Maurice sets out to provide “patience and pardon” through religion, Manfred feels that the religious counselor is there only to “prove and punish” (102). While Manfred wears his guilt on his sleeve, he avoids directly discussing the root cause of that guilt.

In the first scene of the drama, Manfred announces that his crimes are blatantly visible, stating, “[o]f that which is within me; read it there” (37). Already then, however, he suggests his own hesitance to discuss his fault, saying simply, “[y]e know it, and I cannot utter it” (37). In the second act of Manfred, there is another instance in which Manfred avoids directly mentioning what happened between him and Astarte, or what was wrong with their relationship. Byron has Manfred recall his “thirst of knowledge, and the power and joy” of his “bright intelligence,” which continued “until—” (62), abruptly ending Manfred’s sentence with a hyphen, suggesting that Manfred does not want to or is unable talk about what happened in his past. Byron, showing even Manfred’s speech to be impeded by guilt, presents guilt as an isolating force, which causes Manfred to turn inward in self-loathing, and to reject the external forces of friendship, nature, or even the supernatural which might aid him in relieving his guilt.

Manfred does speak willingly about his love for Astarte. In Act III, Scene 3, Manfred’s servant Manuel also acknowledges his master’s love for Astarte, saying that she was “of all earthly things / That lived, the only thing he seem’d to love” (113). He adds that this love seemed fitting, as he “by blood was bound” to love “Lady Astarte, his—” (113). Like Manfred, Manuel interrupts his thoughts just before saying who Astarte was, but the notion that she and Manfred were bound by blood is one of the strongest indications in Byron’s play that the relationship between Manfred and Astarte was incestuous. Manfred echoes this elsewhere, stating that the two “loved each other as we should not love” (52). Manfred’s avoidance of discussing his crime in detail, or the exact nature of his relationship with Astarte, exemplifies his guilt as well as the way he has repressed the memories of his past. On a broader level, by censoring itself through the use of interrupted sentences, the drama Manfred plays a part in repressing memories of the past and emphasizes the protagonist’s guilt over the cause of that guilt itself. In other words, the dramatic tension of the drama is based in Manfred’s internal conflict, not in solving the mystery of his transgressions.

Byron also uses Manfred’s guilt to explore the conditions and possibilities of salvation. Although both the Chamois Hunter and the Abbot insist that salvation is unconditionally available through religion, Manfred refuses their help and insists that he is beyond any powers of help but his own. Byron characterizes salvation as requiring submission to a force greater than oneself, whether that force is natural, as with the solace of a majestic landscape, supernatural, as with the demonic spirits, or spiritual, as with the Abbot’s offer of religious salvation. Through Manfred’s inability to overcome his guilt in the absence of these forces except by death, Byron also indicates that forgiveness of the self requires the ability to accept the self as fallible and compromised, a notion that is incompatible with Manfred’s arrogance and desire for knowledge.