SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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Her darling sins, has any charms for her.
I have mark’d her praying: not one wand’ring thought
Seems to steal meaning from her words.—She prays
Because she feels, and feels, because a sinner.
(I.3.152-160)
Benedict, though acknowledging the Countess’ inner strength and true character, and
despite his vocation, resents her and plots her downfall. As a representative of the
church, he is scheming, manipulative, and self-serving. His superficial belief system is
marked in the fact that he can even conceive of beliefs, hymns, and saints as sources of
amusement instead of matters of salvation. He recognizes in her what he lacks in
himself. By lying about the marriage of Adeliza and Florian, he caused the fatal
confrontation at the end of the play—and gained the estate as he had planned all along.
Benedict recognizes and fears the power of true piety to “unbuild” the entire Church.
This may explain his determination to destroy her. She embodies both true devotion and
incredible sinfulness. These two parts of her, genuine maternal love and weakness in
controlling her physical passions, war with each other. While Edmund was absent she
could control her emotions and tried to do good, as several of the characters
acknowledged. But Benedict’s scheme led to a frenzy of emotion, perhaps even fits of
madness, as her worst fears were realized. She dies and her family and property are
dispersed; the sins of the mother do not pass to future generations because her sins
destroy her son.
The Mysterious Mother and The Castle of Otranto have at the center of their plots
fear of the disruption of the social order. The anxieties found in works known as Gothic
spring from fears and uncertainties arising from instabilities in personal, social, religious,