Discuss The Cenci as a revenge tragedy.
Answers
The vertex of Percy Shelley’s drama was a tragedy “Cenci” (1819), based on Italian material. Shelley saw the tragedy as the most important dramatic genre, as in the drama the hero goes through the pain and difficulties, overcomes them, and morally rises; the more he suffers, the more strengthened his desire to eradicate the evil becomes.
The conflict of love is given the secondary role, while the main thing is the struggle against evil, which also generates evil. Shelley shows how breaks the line between good and evil, and he is against such indistinction of good and evil.
In the preface, he writes that Beatrice, following the way of revenge to her father, made a tragic mistake: she was to act with love and kindness instead of violence. Her death is the price paid for the mistake.