Page 21 - GALIET EMPATHY and Byron´s Hero IV

A thousand images of one that was,
The same 3⁄4 and still the more, the more it breaks; And thus the heart will do which not forsakes, Living in shattered guise; and still, and cold,
And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches,
Yet withers on till all without is old,
Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold.”
(Childe Harold, Canto III, XXXIII)
Byron’s alienated heroes, imprisoned in their shattered multiplicity, cannot ever be free. Freedom’s two-fold essence, says Hegel, relies on categorical autonomy and independence, and on knowing oneself to be free.35 Yet Childe Harold, feeling that objects and desires dominate his heart, dwells in a shattered and sleepless guise sharing Manfred’s identical curse: his spirit, forever haunted, will not sleep: shades, memories and thoughts will not vanish 3⁄4 thus haunted and haunted 3⁄4 alone he will never be.36 To overcome their multiplicity, they breathlessly chase absolute freedom: ‘the nature of Geist [is] to alienate itself in order to find itself again. This movement is just what freedom is... By reverting to itself, Geist achieves its freedom...where everything foreign has vanished...Geist is absolutely free, at home with itself.”37 Byron’s impetuous and daring heroes, doomed in their alienation from self and others, recklessly seek to escape, to run away, to withdraw either into
35 Cooper, David. Existentialism. Cambridge: Blackwell Printing, 2001. Philosophy and Alienation. 29
36 Manfred. I.I.200-210. Heath, William. Major British Poets of the Romantic Period. New York: McMillan Publishing Co., 1973.
37 Cooper, David. Existentialism. Cambridge: Blackwell Printing, 2001. Philosophy and Alienation. 29
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