Manfred

As a lord, Manfred is heir to his family’s castle. As his servants Herman and Manuel remark in Act III, Scene 3, Manfred is known to spend significant time in his tower. Manuel notes, “night after night for years / He hath pursued long vigil in this tower” (93). Manuel also admits that “it were impossible / To draw conclusions” about what Manfred does in the tower, though the implication is that the tower is the site where Manfred pursued his quest for knowledge and even dabbled in the dark arts (93). Indeed, Manuel notes that “to be sure there is / One chamber where none enter” (93). This chamber is the site of Manfred’s invocations of spirits, and in the final scene of the drama, his death.

The tower symbolizes how Manfred is isolated and removed from other people. The other characters—Herman and Manuel—can only see Manfred in his tower from afar. In addition, the tower, being an enclosed spaced, consists of literal walls that represent the metaphorical ones he has put between himself and others; the people around him know that Manfred suffers from guilt and is involved in dark ventures, but he does not divulge the exact nature of his secrets.