The Self in History: Wordsworth, Tarkovsky, and Autobiography

beyond the reach of the play. Greek tragedies occur in se quences but the norm for later European tragedy is for the end to be the end. Byron's decision not to shape Cain as a tragedy is instructive here. Cain's "me" will resound and be inherited beyond its ending just as Abel's death will, in some other history, effect atonement rather than vengeance. Each mystery play generates action and resonance elsewhere in the huge and mysterious sequence of which it is a part. Byron will in fact go on to write Heaven and Earth beyond this ending.