Manfred

Act II begins by portraying the Chamois Hunter as a pure, good-intentioned figure wholly unlike the dark and tortured Manfred. Literature of Romanticism often features idealistic depictions of people close to nature, like the Chamois Hunter, who are ruled by a good heart and a noble purity. These figures represent the lost ideal that can no longer be achieved by fallen characters like Manfred. Befitting his noble heart, the Chamois Hunter shows care for Manfred, respects his nobility, and urges the lord to seek solace in religion. Manfred rejects this suggestion outright, implying that his dark soul feels unable to be saved by religion. However, Manfred shows slim signs of his own once more integrated soul by not rejecting the Chamois Hunter himself; or the hunter’s good intentions, Manfred respectfully says “I need them not, / But can endure thy pity” (56).

The tenderness of the Chamois Hunter is strongly contrasted to the dramatic way that Manfred reacts to his hospitality. When the hunter offers him some wine to warm up, the liquid becomes a symbol in Manfred’s mind of the blood “[w]hich ran in the veins of my fathers,” as well as Astarte’s (52). This comment, as well as Manfred’s reference to a time when he and Astarte “were in our youth, and had one heart / And loved each other as we should not love” are some of the strongest allusions in Manfred that the two were involved in an incestuous relationship (52). The comparison between wine and blood is also reminiscent of the Christian tradition of the Eucharist, aligning the Chamois Hunter with the Christian notion of salvation and the absolution of sin that will later be explicitly represented by the Abbot of St. Maurice. Through his reaction to the wine, Manfred implies that his relationship with Astarte was acceptable neither in the context of the natural world nor within the bounds of Christian morality, once again insinuating an incestuous nature to the relationship.

Act II also deepens the sinister Gothic tone of the drama, as Manfred contacts the Witch of the Alps. She alludes to Manfred’s dark reputation, noting, “I know thee for a man of many thoughts, / And deeds of good and ill, extreme in both” (59). Manfred shows the same boldness displayed when shunning the spirits in Act I when he casts away the Witch of the Alps, refusing to relinquish any of his own power even for the possibility of her help. Isolated from help because of his inability to humble himself before nature or the supernatural, Manfred descends further into despair. Manfred foreshadows his terrible end when he says to himself “[w]e are the fools of time and terror […l]oathing our life, and dreading to die” (65). Thus, the act coincides with an ominous sense of Manfred’s impending death, and emphasizes Manfred’s central role in his own suffering.

Manfred’s visit to the Destinies and Arimanes reiterates these themes even more dramatically. The Destinies prove more powerful than the spirits Manfred evokes in Act I or the Witch of the Alps. Unlike the Chamois Hunter or the Witch of the Alps, the Destinies are more aware of the role Manfred’s pride and pursuit of secret knowledge have played in his suffering, mocking mortals like Manfred who “dared to ponder for themselves, / To weigh kings in the balance, and to speak / Of freedom, the forbidden fruit” (70-71). This derisive evaluation forces Manfred to consider the value of his own boldness and intellectual powers. Yet when Manfred meets with the Destinies’ leader, Arimanes, his haughtiness returns and he refuses to bow down to Arimanes, instead suggesting that both he and Arimanes should “kneel together” in reverence to “[t]he overruling Infinite” (76). This irks Arimanes, yet Manfred’s boldness also earns the respect of these spirits as he aligns himself with the most powerful supernatural forces, supported by the dark arts he has pursued and his forbidden knowledge via his relationship with Astarte. This alignment with the supernatural is exemplified when Arimanes agrees to summon the spirit of the decease Astarte.

Despite Manfred’s formidable will, however, Astarte’s spirit is shocking to him. Since her death, her spirit has changed appearance, but most significantly, she refuses to speak to Manfred at first. This signifies the devastating separation between the two former lovers, and Manfred’s inability to clear his guilty conscience. He notes, “[s]he is silent, / And in that silence I am more than answer’d” (79), and takes it as a sign that he must “bear / This punishment for both” (81). When Astarte does finally speak in response to Manfred’s desperate pleas, it is to announce Manfred’s impending death. Astarte’s condemnation of Manfred suggests that responsibility for their unnatural relationship lies primarily with Manfred, indicating that Manfred is isolated even in his blame.