Manfred's Quarrel with Immortality: Freeing the Self
Manfred's Quarrel with Immortality: Freeing the Self
This chapter examines the meaning of death in Manfred. When the figure of Astarte speaks to Manfred in the Hall of Arimanes, she not only promises him release from life but also creates one of the play's central ambiguities. She offers him the death he has long sought, but she does not clarify for him the meaning of death. Since Manfred's pain is a mental one, derived from his sense of guilt over the death of Astarte, only an extinguishing of mind and thought, of all the details of memory that form the identity of the self, can deliver him from suffering. The liberation from the past that he seeks in death requires an annihilation of consciousness.
Keywords: plays, Byron, Manfred, immortality, death, consciousness
Liverpool Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
