SOURCE: Davy, Daniel. “The Harmony of the Horrorscape: A Perspective on The Cenci.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 5, no. 1 (fall 1990): 95-113.

In the following essay, Davy explores elements of Gothic darkness and mystery in The Cenci.

Most of the body of criticism devoted to Shelley's The Cenci approaches it as tragedy, and, moreover, as tragedy which is essentially in the Aristotelian mold.¹ Beatrice, the obvious protagonist in the play, goaded by countless outrages at the hands of her father Count Cenci, finally retaliates in kind by murdering her tormentor, and is consequently destroyed. Her capacity to participate in the Count's basic “action” (the pervasive evil which he embodies and represents—killing, blood lust, etc.) constitutes her hamartia; the actual murder of the Count constitutes the peripety of the play's action which then leads on to Beatrice's fall.² The Count, a lurid and sensational figure, is usually relegated...