The Byronic Hero in Manfred and Prometheus and Nietzche's conception of Ubermensch
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Course
HSS
Institution
National Institute Of Technology Tiruchirappalli
Includes
1) Lord Byron as a Romantic Poet
2) His poems Manfred and Prometheus as examples of the presence of the Byronic Hero
3) Influence of Lord Byron on Nietzche's conception of the Ubermensch
4) Manfred and Gothic Tradition
Byron was the most romantic of the romantic poets for his extensive
self-assertion and aggressive individualism seen in his Byronic hero. He
stands for aggressive individuality and egotism. Byron himself was
known to be iconoclastic, proud and reclusive and imbibes the Byronic
hero like Manfred these characteristics and gives them a divine status
as they have mastered arts and sciences along with dark arts. He uses
the Byronic hero to assert his self and individuality. Through the
Byronic hero, he yields to the morals and ideals of the world. Thus
similar to Byron the Byronic hero is also a problematic figure.
Manfred by Byron
Manfred is an aristocratic figure. He is in a personal crisis as Astarte
killed herself due to shame and he feels responsible for that. He is
yearning for forgetfulness, so he turns to the dark forces as he can’t
live with this knowledge of causing the death of his beloved.
There is a tussle between his conscience and will. Prometheus not only
has self-awareness and foresees his future, but he also moulds man
from clay. Prometheus becomes Manfred’s antecedent. He doesn’t even
yield to the spirits showing active defiance. Compared to him, Faust
yields spiritual powers. There are frailties in Manfred as well, when a
spirit takes Astarte’s form he loses his self-awareness and is not in
control of himself. He is aware of the concreteness of death, so
doesn’t ask the spirits to bring back Astarte. The incantation
foreshadows Manfred’s fate. A reference to the wandering Jew, he is
in a private hell from which he can’t get out. Some incorporeal spirit
, curses Manfred that wherever he is that is hell, an allusion to Satan
for whom hell and heaven are states of mind. Acts of blessing and
curse are performative acts. The incantation problematizes the notion
of will itself. Is the decision to commit suicide taken voluntarily or is
he cursed to do it? Does he fulfil his destiny or is he defying fate? He
is defying the moral, theological and philosophical order. Also
conventional forms of penance. He is not seeking absolution. He is sad
that he has contributed to her death but not remorseful that he has
done wrong. The Byronic hero has his morality. He is in a strange
conundrum.
Manfred commits suicide because he is not afraid of confronting his
sins in the afterlife. After the Renaissance hell was not seen as a place
of physical torture but as existential torture. This is the same that
happens with the wandering jew. When the Abbot asks him to pray with
him, Manfred says that he is already in hell. This anticipates the
Postmodern concept of hell as well. He can’t justify his evil deed to
himself which he calls the last infirmity of evil. If he has been
completely evil his conscience won’t be affecting him. There is
metaphorically a line which he is trying to tread. The Last Infirmity of
Evil is alluding to the final bit of goodness in Manfred that mitigates
evil or is it the last step in Manfred giving over to complete
degeneracy? This ambivalence in the Byronic hero which Coleridge was
afraid of. His cessation of justifying might mean that there is hope for
redemption, which implies that he is confronting the mistake which
would make Byronic a hero who is not beyond good or evil. If he was the
evil incarnate he wouldn't be suffering like this. In Manfred the
essences in him are mixed and he is a murky mess - neither fully a
spirit nor a human.
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