Manfred himself is his worst enemy. The strongest gift the voice coudl find is his own poison. He lost himself in thinking about things beyond his nature and so he 'forgot' to learn something about daily life. He knows too much about mankind, but at the same time the common man is totally alien for him. He is even alien to himself. And he put himself into this position. He lost contoact to the earth, mataphorically, spiritually as he regards himself as being better than men and equal or even mightier than the Spirits. And yet, he has to stay on earth, cannot get out of it, cannot die. At least, this is what the voice says: "nor to slumber, nor to die, / Shall be in thy destiny" (ln. 254f.). But then I don't understand why he dies in the end. Something must have changed but I cannot see what this could be. Manfred asks for oblivion but this wish is not fulfilled. He asks for forgiveness - but does not get an answer. Or is the prophecy that he will die the next day some sort of forgiveness? In the sense taht he is redeemed from his restless, forlorn life? The voice also says that hhe can never be alone - but as I see him, Manfred is the loneliest person on earth. Does this mean that he will always be persecuted by his thoughts, always persecuted by the "Spirits that (he) called" (Goethe: Der Zauberlehrling)?
The question is still there: what has changed, where and when did Manfred change? Did his constant suffering make him humble? I don't really believe this.
And there is the question about the abbot, why an abbot, why Manfred asks for his hand... I don't have any answers eiter. And I can hardly think about these questions, the thoughts criss-cross in my mind, create confusion. This is frustrating. Yes, I somehow become Manfred, I want to know the answers. Or do I have to accept that there are no answers?
Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the setting of Manfred
In view of this breathtaking landscape - should not I just stop asking questions? And admiring, enjoying the beauty of Earth?
By the end of your post, you did start sounding a bit like Manfred. But what can you do when there are questions that seemingly no one can answer? In an attempt to quell some of the questions that the end of the poem creates instead of answers, I think we should think about where Manfred goes. He dies, yes, but where does his spirit go? Perhaps he is going to some hell dimension where he will live in worse pain than his quest for unhuman knowledge ever gave him. Or perhaps he must spend an eternity chasing after Astarte who will always remain just out of reach, never affording him the forgiveness that he so desperately desires. We do not know, and the end presents us with some strange tidbits about the nature of life and dying that are never fleshed out. In a way, this ending exactly speaks to the unknowable nature of these things; we will not know death until we die; Manfred does not know and appreciate life until he is dying.
ReplyDeleteI longed for some of the same answers when we discussed Manfred. I looked at my peers and Professor Schwartz for the answers because I knew that they would have it. After all, my peers often possess great insight and Professor Schwartz usually has all the answers. However, when the answers weren’t revealed and the light bulb did not immediately turn on inside of my head, I wondered why that was. I knew I yearned to know the answers because I just needed to know the answers; knowing the answers would make me feel as if I had learned something. (Not to say that I had not learned anything about Manfred, but knowing the answer to the more puzzling questions would make me feel accomplished) In this aspect, I could see myself as resembling the traits of Manfred and Victor; yearning to uncover the secrets before anyone else; having an upper hand over others because of knowledge. However, unlike them, I was not able to uncover the answers that I had sought. I was stuck until we discussed that having all the answers, although it may provide satisfaction, was not necessary. This moment of acknowledging the constraints of knowledge, showed not only how truly human we were but also how we resembled the exact same insight as the romantic poets that we have been studying. Thus, I think that sometimes reflecting on the answers that we don’t have, perhaps even accepting that it is okay not to have all the answers, sets us apart form Manfred and Victor, two brilliant beings with flawed intelligence.
ReplyDeleteWhen Manfred asks for the hand of the Abbott I felt a shift in his character too. He didn't seem like the kind of person who would give in to anything Earthly. I love your question though,
ReplyDelete" Do I have to accept that there are no answers? "
funny thing is I don't know.
But we all know that there are certain things that will remain unanswered until Death. Another question might be "Is there anything wrong with accepting that there simply are no answers at this point in time? " Ignorance is bliss. Is there anything wrong with that ?