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Page 3
other "living being" (II.i.75-80). This
unwillingness to trade does not make him a sacrificial hero, but he is not as
selfish as other Gothic heroes, such as Brown's Carwin or Lewis's Monk, who would
escape penalty at cost to others. When
the spirits do bring the phantom of Astarte, Manfred hopes that he "bear[s] /
[t]his punishment for both-that...[she] will be / [o]ne of the blessed and
that...[he] shall die (II.iv.125-127).
The Witch of the Alps notices this paradox in Manfred's love and
loathing of humanity when he tells her about the pitiful way Astarte dies. The Witch reminds him that Astarte is "[a]
being of the race...[he]...despise[s] / [t]he order, which...[he]...would rise above,"
and that he is willing to "forego / [t]he gifts of...great knowledge, and
shrink...back / [t]o recreant mortality (II.ii.121-126). The Witch would have Manfred be more like
Osmond from Lewis's Castle Spectre who says he "will not sacrifice...[his]
happiness to hers (Angela's)" (II.i.).
Unlike Prometheus, who is willing and able to sacrifice himself for
humanity as a whole, Manfred despises humanity in general while seeming to love
some humans in particular, especially Astarte, who he believes shares so many
features and characteristics with him.
What further aligns Manfred with Promethean ambition is that, unlike other villain-heroes, Manfred remains unwilling to sell his soul and is not tempted by worldly and material gains. In his preface to Prometheus Unbound, Shelley says Milton's Satan is characteristically close to Prometheus but that he prefers Prometheus's motivation: The only imaginary being, resembling in any degree Prometheus, is Satan; and Prometheus is, in my judgment, a more poetical character than Satan, because, in addition to courage, and majesty, and firm and patient opposition to omnipotent force, he is susceptible of being described as exempt from the taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandizement, which, in the hero of Paradise Lost, interfere with the interest. [...] But Prometheus is, as it were, the type of the highest perfection of moral and intellectual nature impelled by the purest and the truest motives to the best and noblest ends. (1) Satan provides a better source for many of the earlier villain-heroes, especially Lewis's. The monk Ambrosio, once he has forfeited his perfection to sin, becomes ravenously hungry for someone, and maybe anyone, to give him his sin again. Also. this "moral and intellectual nature" provides a certain contrast for Walpole's Manfred, who wants to continue his hereditary line by forcing himself on the young Isabella (10). Similarly, Byron's Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 |
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