Shelly and Artaud's Narration of The Checi

The current research is trying to make a comparative analysis of an old story in two different culturs and temporal eras. Although many people are familiar with Shelle's adaptation of the Cenci, many researchers in the field of dramatic literature man not have not considered the fact that the story The Cenci has more than one adaptation. The real story named The Cenci (1599) has been adapted twice for stage: Once by the 19th century British playwright and poet P. B. Shelley (1812), then by A. Artaud (1935). The present research seeks to find answers for two questions: Why Artuad as an influential theoretician of theatre has not been successful in performing The Cenci. Artaud was a prominent member of the Avant Guard French theatre between the two World Wars. In response to realism and naturalism, he shared his ideas with people such as Craig and Appia, and influenced people such as Jean Luis Barrolt and Peter Brook in terms of his ideas in theatre of cruelty. Artuad tries to extract the concept of ruthlessness in nature from the story of The Cenci, and be faithful to this concept as much as possible. That is why he believes the poetics of Shelley as a barrier in reaching his goals. This article wants to prove that in performing The Cenci, Artaud is dependent on Romanticism, although he apparently rejects it. This article does so not only by checking the internal and external signs of this play, but also by providing some real sign in eference to the mental effects in his literature, through a Freudian approach. Also, by referring to some references used by Artaud such as Shelley's The Cenci and Standall's The Abbess of Castro, it tries to recognize carefully the social atmosphere of the transition period (reneaissance and the Second world war), as well as considering the European history in terms of the literary and theatrical movements of that important period. Given the fact that Shelley's field of work was related to Romanticism and Artaud's field was dealing with Theatre of violence, our criterion of judgement for the characters and their actions in these two plays are based on the concept of expressionism and romanticism. Also in this article, the effects of each of these historical and cultural periods in the development of the aforementioned works has been studied. In the time between the two World Wars, named as the harassment and fear years of Hitler, Artaud started his work, and Shelley started his work during the time of Napoleon's wars. It can generally be claimed that some theatrical patterns of the French artists (especially in thesecond half of the establishment of "Live Theatre", which is highly experienced in some Avant Guard shows and performances. As a matter of fact, this article shows how the difference between theory and practice may lead to the failure of Artuad's The Cenci. Freud's ideas have also been effective in reaching this objective.