The Cenci Flashcards
Shelley’s view on tragedy
Criticises for being ‘a weak attempt to teach doctrines’
Shelley on poetry
Most to be desired in times of ‘an excess of the selfish and calculating principle’
Bruhn - realism
Moves towards realism by emphasising ‘scene and environment’ over ‘character’
Bruhn - distinction…
‘distinction between changeable and unchangeable…forms of human nature’ central to Cenci
Bruhn - the notion of character
‘Dramatic character is altered and redefined…the notion of “character” becomes destabilised and therefore subject to situation’
Bruhn - violations of neoclassical tradition
Mentions time and place, ‘domestic’, ‘grotesque’, mixes high and low [e.g. Beatrice]
Curran - realism
Achieves ‘realism in the realm of the psyche’, if not the everyday
Curran - antiquated techniques
‘antiquated techniques used to discuss advanced ideas’
Dempsey
Critique of “the mechanisms of the confessional state”
Dempsey - Beatrice
‘frustrated from achieving release through self-knowledge’
Donohue - Beatrice
‘radical innocence…the crime she commits is somehow separate from the person’
Bruhn - Beatrice
Movements from high to low style inform audience of Beatrice’s character development
But ascends back to high style in final scene - introduction of idea of ‘essential’ character?
