The Romantic period and the formative experience among the BrontësThe Romantic period had a formative experience among the Brontës. In order to examine this formative experience, we must first assume that the Brontë sisters were exposed to many of the writings of Dark Romanticism/Gothicism that shaped their worldview and influenced their literary products. So we'll have to take a look at some of the Gothic-Romantic works that certainly could have had an impact on the different ways in which the Bronte sisters crafted their literary characters and created their fictional worlds. The creation of Manfred and Emily Bronte from Lord Byron the morbid passion experienced by Heathcliff and Catherine. In order to investigate Emily Bronte's debt to the works of Byron, particularly his work Manfred, I will focus in this part of the article on the author's appropriation and emphasis on Gothic elements featured in the work of Lord Byron. "Manfred", such as the Gothic setting (Manfred's castle), the spectral nature of Astarte, and the supernatural aspects of Manfred's nature. “Manfred” is one of Lord Byron's dramatic poems which tells the story of a man with supernatural abilities, internally tortured by a mysterious guilt. The nature of the Byronic hero's guilt is largely associated with an incestuous relationship with his sister Astarte, for whose death Manfred feels responsible. “Manfred” represents Byron's expression of the Byronic hero, a figure so superior to other humans that he need not be bound by the constraints of human society. Likewise, he does not submit to any spiritual authority, rejecting pantheism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. He uses his mastery of language and spellcasting to summon seven spirits, which he sees...... middle of paper...... 2-4). It is in this respect that there are many Gothic analogies between Lord Byron's "Manfred" and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. It is in this respect that Emily Bronte's literary mind is strongly influenced by the writings of Byron. The similarities between the two characters also align in Manfred's first act monologue, in which the Byronic hero identifies himself with Satan: "Half dust, half divinity, equally unfit to flow or soar, with our mixed essence, create a conflict of these elements and breathe the breath of degradation and pride, struggling against small wants and high will, until our mortality predominates, and men are — what they do not name for themselves, and do not confide in each other. (Lord Byron: act 1). A parallel description is given to Heathcliff when he is called, in a passage from the Brontëan text, "dark almost as if from the devil" (Emily Bronte).: 36)