Analyzing Aaron's Love Of His Son

This passage demonstrates Aaron’s love of his son who is the ‘bastard’ child of him and Tamora. Lines 88-89 demonstrate four instances of imagery in which the words “burning,” “tapers,” “shone,” and “brightly” are closely linked together to validate that his child was conceived in the light of the world which differentiates with the darkness of his skin. This contrast of light and dark is repeated in line 101 when Aaron says, “Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white.” This line serves as a metaphor to reference the appearance of the child in which it is not possible to scrub the colour off his skin. This also mirrors the beginning of the passage where the child was conceived in light, and the child himself is a combination of light imagery

He demonstrates this by saying, “Coal-black is better than another hue/ In that it scorns to bear another hue;” (98-99). This develops Aaron’s idea that it is an insult to have any other skin colour besides black, reinforcing the theme of racism. It is typical of Caucasian people depicting Moor’s as being evil during this time period, but Aaron reverses the accusation. This gives the reader a different idea of Aaron as a victim in a racially biased society instead of a villain. It is also a possibility that the racism put against him may be his motive for his set path of destruction in what he does. Shakespeare hardly uses exclamation points, and in this passage there are two on lines 91 and 96 which represents a furious moment for Aaron during his speech about this racist time period. Throughout the passage, he reflects on light and darkness which coincides with the equation of black with evil, and white with virtue. It is at this moment in the play, when the reader understands what Aaron is thinking and feeling, which makes the reader believe that he is a victim of racism. However, this is not necessarily the only cause of his villainess. At the beginning of the passage, Aaron calls to the “murderous villains” (87) which is an ironic statement since he is a villain himself. At this particular moment, he comes to a realization that he is not the villain, but everyone else is for expressing the wish to kill his