Manfred
Manfred is the title of a dramatic poem in three acts by George Gordon Lord Byron from the year 1817. It is one of the most important works not only Byron's, but the whole romance.
- 4.1 Literature
- 4.2 Radio Plays
- 4.3 Music
- 4.4 painting
History
The work was written 1816-1817 and is clearly inspired by Byron's stay in Switzerland in 1816, during which time he undertook numerous hiking in the high Alps. Byron's work was written in the tradition of the gothic novel, and along with the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley his acquaintances among the most important works of weird fiction in English Romanticism.
Action
Act I
The protagonist Manfred is on a Gothic gallery in the middle of an exorcism. Of the now appearing elemental spirits he sought oblivion. Since this wish him can not be met by the spirits, Manfred crashes down. The next morning he wakes up to the summit of the Jungfrau in the Bernese Oberland. He wants to jump to his death, but is held by a simple chamois hunter of them.
Second Act
Manfred leaves the chamois hunter and meets a waterfall a fairy, he laments his suffering. Here are the reasons for Manfred's world of pain for the first time clearly: Inadequate world - knowledge, and the death of his beloved Astarte. He then returns to the Jungfrau summit, where he met spirits and the goddess Nemesis. Nemesis agrees to Manfred's plea, his lover Astarte to call out of the realm of the dead, so that he could talk to her. However, Astarte just says his name and that his suffering would end the next day. Manfred wants to know about her, whether he be forgiven his sins, but it receives no response.
Act Three
Manfred is visited at his castle of an abbot, the Manfred compounds have come to dark powers to ears. Manfred, the attempts of the abbot, to move him to repentance, but decidedly grateful back. In the evening the servant Hermann and Manuel talked about earlier mysterious experiments of their Lord Manfred. These relationships are, however, not been elucidated in the course of the drama. In the last scene of the abbot appears again and finds Manfred, near death, in his room before. However, Manfred, the retrials by the abbot to move him to repentance and thus to the salvation of his soul back. But also he defies gloomy spirits who already look at him in agony as their property. He was addicted to death, but not hell. The demons disappear, Manfred dies. The abbot decides the drama by saying, expresses his fear of uncertainty, where the soul of Manfred would now attain unto.
Interpretation
The exorcism scene at the beginning sets striking little importance to the introduction of the protagonist. Only in the course of the drama, the past and the motives Manfred become apparent.
The scene has significant parallels to Goethe's Faust I, where the protagonist also summons a spirit due to lack of knowledge, which he wants the same. Byron wanted to know his drama seen as a response to Goethe's Faust.
Manfred is a prime example of the tragic figure of the Byronic Hero type. Although he is emotionally confused and emotionally unstable, but is willing to bear the consequences of all his actions. That he finally rejects both the threats of ghosts and the blessing of the abbot, emphasizes its claim to complete individuality.
In addition to this emphasis on individuality and the wildly romantic alpine scenery and the presence of ghosts and medieval buildings as typical elements of Romanticism can be detected.