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.