For Cenci religion certainly presents no rule for moral conduct as neither fear nor love of God provides any check for his vile actions. He appears to equate himself with God at least once when he says “He does his will, I mine!” (V.i.139), a statement implying that there is in fact no difference between the will of God and his own. At the very least he obviously feels he is a tool of God and has the right to deliver any punishment he sees fit to his children or anyone else that may stand in the way of his desires. This is made clear when he declares his intention to leave nothing but his infamous name to his heirs and he says “my soul, which is a scourge, will I resign Into the hands of him who wielded it;” (IV. i.64-65). His black soul is a whip in the hands of God used to punish those who dare to oppose him and as any good torturer he is adept in its use.
His adeptness for contriving hellish tortures becomes very apparent when Beatrice dares to challenge him on the occasion of the dinner given to celebrate the almost simultaneous deaths of two of his sons, which she publicly suggests he has engineered. Cenci is outraged at her defiance of his authority before his peers and knows that in order to retain their respect for his power he must maintain that authority, especially in his own home. As always, his retribution is swift and malignant and he determines to break Beatrice’s will to oppose him once and for all. She is the only member of his family strong enough to stand up to him and he is aware that it will not be easy to destroy that spirit which has already stood against him for so long. He reveals that true horror and nature will exist in that retribution in I.iii.166-179 when he says “I know a charm shall make you meek and mild” (I.iii.167). The remaining lines of this passage indicate that this charm is not one that is necessarily acceptable and he needs wine to fortify himself and strengthen his spirit so that he will be able to carry the deed through. He visibly overcomes any hesitancy and swears to carry the purpose through whether the “charm” is right or wrong as long it results in the subjugation of Beatrice, physically, mentally and spiritually. Cenci has no conscience and the mere fact that such an evil and sadistic man should need to fortify himself prior to administering the “charm” foreshadows the depravity he intends to practice on his daughter.
Beatrice Cenci possessed an inner strength, purity and faith that allowed her to stand up to the count in a way that no other could. Shelley describes her as appearing “to have been one of those rare persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell together without destroying one another: her nature was simple and profound.” (586) It was this very union of inner strength and goodness that Cenci felt threatened by. He realized that in order to break her he had to destroy those inner qualities that so contrasted with his own inner nature. His ultimate purpose is to drag her down to his own level and in order to do that he must make her believe she is truly contaminated, in body and soul so that her inner purity will slowly erode.
Count Cenci had obviously chosen his torture well. From the initial threat uttered after the dinner Beatrice’s courage begins to fail and her innocence starts on its path towards destruction. The day following the dinner Beatrice is unable to articulate to Lucretia and Bernardo what it is that Cenci had said or done to her. She tells them “Oh he has trampled me under his feet and made the blood stream down.” (II.i.65), perhaps an allusion to lost, or soon to be lost virginity. Her fear of him is very visible as he enters the room in contrast to her bold condemnation of the previous night. Cenci recognizes her fear and gloats in the power he now perceives he has over her. It seems that the charm had begun its nefarious work and he has re-established himself in his patriarchal authority. He is once again secure as the domestic tyrant who is backed by the mores of his society and the religious power of the pope and church who neither want to go against the rules inherent in a patriarchal society nor forego the revenues that Cenci’s misdemeanors so frequently bring them.
Cenci is very aware of the fact that his actions are unforgivable and forbidden and this is made very clear when he orders Lucretia to make ready to travel to Castle Petrella where he will be safe from the prying eyes of Rome and free to continue to perpetuate his crime against Beatrice undetected until her spirit is entirely extinguished and she is lost in the “darkness” of his deed against her. He is aware that what he has already initiated he must follow through with if his goal of destroying the only opposition he has to his evil actions. He also knows that he must be quick to strike while Beatrice is weak because if allowed to recover from her initial shock she might still defeat him and retain what she is close to loosing. He is anxious to “walk secure and unbeheld Towards my purpose. — Would that it were done.” (II.i.192-193)
Prior to the removal to Petrella Beatrice again refers to blood: “ my eyes are full of blood; just wipe them for me” (III.i.2) as if wiping the blood will wipe away the crime of her body finally being physically violated by her father. At the same time she is struggling to keep that horror from entering her mind but the incest shows itself as a pollution of her body and mind. (III.i.16-23) Beatrice questions if it is her fault as many rape victims do (III.i.70-76) and wonders how she can cleanse herself of the pollution and blames that she feels. (III.i.85-101) Her anguish is made worse by the fact that the crime cannot be named, only guessed which is reinforced when Lucretia says, “ It must indeed have been some bitter wrong; Yet what, I dare not guess. Oh! My lost child.” (III.i.103-104). That the taboo against verbalizing the crime of rape and incest is unbreakable is made clear again when Beatrice tells Orsino about “the great wrong that she has endured since last they met,” (III.i.138-166). Orsino advises her to accuse Cenci of the deed to which she responds that is unable to find the words to articulate the crime and even if she could society would so ostracize her for speaking of it that life would be even more unbearable. The act of incest itself is only referred to as a wrong, or a deed. Cenci is safe within both the social mores of his day and the exercise of a patriarchal authority, which makes wives and daughters little more than slaves to his whims and they have no recourse other than to bear the treatment or kill the perpetrator.
The lack of recourse available to Beatrice in this situation is the primary reason that she is unable to withstand the horror into which she has been impelled by her father’s action against her. She is too immersed in her own belief that she has been polluted body, mind and soul to realize the truth of Shelley’s statement that “no person can be truly dishonored by the act of another; and the fit return to make to the most enormous injuries is kindness and forbearance, and a resolution to convert the injurer from his dark passions by peace and love. Revenge, retaliation, atonement, are pernicious mistakes.” (585) This is exactly what Cenci had counted on when conceiving his vicious plot to destroy his daughter’s innocence and bring her to his evil way of thinking or totally annihilate her in the attempt. She is unable to forgive the and as Murphy says “her gaze is forced inward, to recognize the contamination within her and she realizes that she is what she contemplates.” (167) Had she been able to forgive she would have been able to see past the contamination of her body and rise above the need for revenge that makes her the equal of her father and this is what ultimately leads to her downfall.
Like her Cenci Beatrice turns to God for the justification she needs in planning and executing the murder of her father. When Lucretia suggests that death should be the punishment for what she has suffered she responds “Ay, death – the punishment of crime. I pray thee, God, Let me not be bewildered while I judge.” (III.i.126-128) She apparently has been answered in the affirmative by God and uses his authority when she tells Lucretia:
“As I have said, I have endured a wrong, Which, though it be expressionless, is such as asks atonement, both for what is past, And lest I be reserved, day after day, to load with crimes an overburdened soul, And be – what ye can dream not. I have prayed To God, and I talked with my own heart, And have unraveled my entangled will, and have at length determined what is right.” (III.i.213-221)
This is the true point at which her innocence and goodness are lost. When she turns to revenge through parricide and justifies it as the will of God she has followed in her father’s footsteps and willingly relinquished her inner goodness and become her father’s true child. According to Murphy the following passage marks Beatrice’s moves through the stages from purity to evil and “reflect her innocence, the rape, her pride in “untainted fame”, her derangement, hate, religious righteousness, and finally her “hard heart” that dares to speak of justice and mercy.” (179)
“What evil have we done thee? I, alas! Have lived but on this earth a few sad years, And so my lot was ordered, that a father First turned the moments of awakening life To drops, each poisoning youth’s sweet hope; and then Stabbed with one blow my everlasting soul, And my untainted fame; and even that peace Which sleeps within the core of the heart’s heart. But the wound was not mortal; so my hate Became the only worship I could lift To our great Father, who in pity and love, Armed thee, as thou dost say, to cut him off; and thus his wrong becomes my accusation. And art thou the accuser? If thou hopest Mercy in heaven, show justice upon earth: Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart.” (V.ii.118-133)
She adheres to the belief that she has only acted as the hand of God and done his will in punishing a crime that the earthly authorities would have only ignored had she brought it to their jurisdiction. This lack of faith in the authorities proves justified when she and her fellow perpetrators are arrested and charged with the murder of Cenci, by the same people of power that she feels should have protected her and her family from the count. She steadfastly persists in her insistence that Cenci’s murder was the will of God and therefore justifies their actions and innocence of any crime when she tells Savella
“ Culprits? ‘Tis ye are culprits! That poor wretch Who stands so pale, and trembling, amazed, If it be true he murdered Cenci, was A sword in the right hand of the justest God, Wherefore should I have wielded it? Unless the crimes which mortal tongue would never name, God therefore scruples to avenge.” (IV.iv.124-129)
While forgiveness could have saved her, revenge in the form of parricide, even though it may have been justified is still a crime and Beatrice Cenci is guilty of that crime even if she was acting as the hand of God. In death Count Cenci achieved what he could not in life; by murdering her father Beatrice Cenci loses her innocence and faith becoming the same as he was, corrupt and evil while claiming to be a tool of God.
Works Cited
Murphy, John V. The Dark Angel Gothic Elements in Shelley’s Works. London:
Associated University Presses, Inc., 1975.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “The Cenci” Selected Writings of The British Romantic
Period 1780-1830. Vol. III Ed. Anne McWhir. Calgary: University of
Calgary, 2005. p. 584
