Part 1) Elements of the Byronic Hero & themes of “Nature”

Elements of the Byronic Hero: Manfred is a classical embodiment of the Byronic Hero; perhaps an extreme version due to his melancholic qualities. Looking at it in different scopes:

  • Suicide
    • “Fierce thirst of death” (Act II. Scene I)
  • The Sublime – Unknown secret haunts Manfred – Source of his guilt: Incest/Murder?
    • Upon seeing “blood upon the brim”: “I say ‘tis blood – my blood! / which ran in the veins of my fathers, and in ours / When we were in our youth, and had one heart / and loved each other as we should not love” (Act II. Scene I)
    • This quote can be looked in a self-guilt way: “In proving every poison known. I found the strongest was thine own.” (Act I. Scene I)
  • Pride
    • Denying help from others and religion.
      • Refusing the deal with the Witch.
      • Final scene: accepts the hand of the Abbott.
    • Seeing himself different or above others.
      • “I do know my route fully well and need no further guidance” (Act II. Scene I)
      • “Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine / I am not of thine order”(Act II. Scene I)
      • “My spirit walk’d not with the souls of men / Nor look’d upon the earth with human eyes;” (Act II. Scene II)

 

Themes of Nature: Different concepts of nature

  • Death & Decay
    • Refusing other “forces” and “accepting death” because like nature, everything decays.
  • The Elemental Spirits allude to nature
    • (Air, Mountain, Ocean, Earth, Winds, Night, and “Destiny”)
  • Return to nature
    • Maternal Earth
      • “My mother Earth! /And thou fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains, / Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye” – (Act I. Scene II)
    • Dust = Humans made of dust (Genesis) = Earthly Bodies
      • Man as “half dust, half deity, alike to unfit/ To sink or soar” (Act I. Scene II)

 

Part 2) Original form/medium: 1876 Byron collection – John Murray

Part 1 Q Final Scene: Why do you think Manfred agreed to finally accept the Abbott’s hand?

Q What is about Manfred that makes him Byronic?

Part 2 Q How does reading the old medium change our perception or ideas of the text?

 

Image : Anthony Perkins in Psychopath