Topic > The Role of the Self in the Works of Byron and Keats

The primary source of feeling comes from within the self. At least that's what Manfred and Lord Byron's "Lara: Canto the First" and Keats' "Four Seasons Fill the Measure of the Year" tell us. The implications of this are that once the internal Self has begun a process of internal torment, there is little in the universe of external circumstances that can do anything to stop or change that process. The Self's ability to influence a person's overall disposition and outlook on life may be stronger than man's ability to overcome it, and in a sense foregrounds man's association with himself, others and its environment. In Byron's two works we see examples of men tormented by some past memory that they cannot forget. In Keats's work we see a description of the mind's dominion over its subject. It is the recognition of memory and mood that inform the individual's actions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The idea of ​​a traumatic memory is something that is brought up in both of Byron's poems. In the case of Manfred, the protagonist is tormented by the ambiguous loss of a love. The memory itself is described without ever being fully fleshed out, as in lines 213 to 216 when Manfred says "Not with my hand, but with the heart - that broke her heart; / She looked at mine and withered. I shed/ Blood , but not his - and yet his blood was shed - I saw it, and could not stop it" (Byron, Manfred, 213-216). This adds to the mystery of the memory itself, which suggests that the impression of the sum of the entire memory is more important than its individual details, and that the unique perspective of the mind subject to the impression is likely to have the greatest influence on the memory same. the form that the impression takes in the mind. Evidence of this idea can be seen in Manfred, when he says "My sleeps, if I sleep, are not sleep, but a continuation of lasting thoughts" (Byron, Manfred 3-4) and in "Four seasons fill the measure of a Year,” where Keats writes “There are four seasons in the mind of man.” (Keats, 2) In “Lara: Canto the First,” we also meet a gentleman tormented by past regrets and who, as a result, finds himself disconnected from the rest of society. In this poem, the idea of ​​this man being tormented by his own mind is mentioned quite explicitly, when Byron writes "A thing of dark imaginations, that fashioned / By choice the perils he chanced to escape; / But 'scap would be in vain, for in their memory still/ His mind would be half rejoicing and half regretful." (Byron, "Lara: Canto the First", 317-320) This is similar to lines of Manfred, such as: But we, who call ourselves his sovereigns, we, Half dust, half divinity, equally unfit To sink or soar, with our mixed essence creates a conflict of its elements, and breathes the breath of degradation and pride, struggling with low needs and high will, until our mortality predominates, and men are what they do not call to themselves , and they don't trust each other. (Byron, Manfred, 300-308) Indeed, the lines seem to conceptually mirror and reinforce the recurring theme in Keats that the mind is tempered by internal contradictions, experience, and age, much like the changing of the seasons. The difference between Byron's poems and Keats's is that Byron does not separate the temperament of the mind so much by age as by experience. Manfred's youth is noted in contrast to his brooding spirit, as in Act II, Scene I, where he says to the chamois hunter: Do you believe that existence depends on time? It's like this; but theactions are our eras: mine have made my days and nights imperishable, infinite and all the same, like sands on the shore, innumerable atoms; and a cold, barren desert, upon which the wild waves crash, but nothing rests, except carcasses and wrecks, rocks and the salty seaweed of bitterness. (Manfredi 51-58)In "Lara:Canto Primo", a similar connection is made to the torment of experience in the mind, as the poem states: "He lives, nor is he yet past the prime of his manhood, though burned by effort, and something touched by time" ("Lara", 55-56). In this poem, however, Lara is described as having had her Keatsian "spring" (Keats, 3) of her youth, having been energetic and full of verve. This is not a question of maturity, but rather of temperament, for Byron's Manfred may be biologically young, but psychologically he goes from the desire to forget to the will to die (which would essentially be a dark "summer" stage of remembering (Keats, 5 )), and passes to a "winter" phase (Keats, 13). Likewise, Lara "ruminates" (Keats, 7) in a summer phase, with all the sadness and morbidity associated with her regrets. This desire to forget brings Manfred to a low level. path of transcendental magic, where he attempts to dominate a series of spirits and wishes them to undo his curse of memory. Ironically, it is this memory that dominates him, since no spirit can cancel it. However, his memory finally confronts him in the form of the ghost of his lost love, and this is the catalyst for his existential winter, as the Ghost says "Manfred! Tomorrow your earthly woes end./ Goodbye!" (Manfredi 521-22). Here, Manfred is dominated by his tormented self, despite all his knowledge, power and mastery. And it is only by facing his torment, instead of forgetting it, that he can move on to death. However, when the demons come to take him, he repels them, saying: The mind which is immortal makes itself a reward for its good or bad thoughts, it is its own origin of evil and its end, and its own place and time; its innate sense, when stripped of this mortality, does not draw color from external fleeting things, but is absorbed in suffering or joy, born of the knowledge of its own desert. (Manfred, 389-296) The idea that feeling comes from within the mind, and not from without, is expressed explicitly. The implication of this is that no matter what hell or heaven Manfred experiences, it is always his mind that torments him the most. Manfred's duality and the torture of his own mind is also present in "Lara: Canto the First", when Byron writes: In him inexplicably mingled seemed to be much loved and hated, sought and feared. Varying opinions on his hidden fate, in praise or in insults, his name has never been forgotten; his silence formed a theme for the chatter of others; they imagined - they looked - that they would want to know his fate. . ("Lara", 289-294)This is a caricature of a brilliant and promising man, with the disconcerting darkness and bitterness of an old veteran. There's something about him that seems contradictory and alluring in a morbid way, and despite his brilliance and moments of goodness he still inspires fear with his behavior. The main discrepancy between the two works is that Manfred examines the transcendental to find manifestations of his own torment, and Lara presents the duality of the self among mortals. However, this mindset caused Lara to reject her own mortality, as seen when Byron writes "She invited Nature's self to share the shame, / And laid all faults on the fleshly form." ("Lara", 332-333) Lara isolates herself from former company and society, for example out of some sort of shame, but avoided showing what she had seen,, 2009.