Hand Gestures In The Play 'Titus Andronicus'

Authors tend to write plays in order to express themselves and convey messages to a broad audience. In the play “Titus Andronicus” written by William Shakespeare and edited by Russ McDonald, there is a lot of emphasis and importance on the decapitation of hands. Hand gestures are a way of communication and in some form they are a universal symbol of obtaining power. Shakespeare uses diction, imagery, and symbolism when describing the hands of the characters and this is important because a handful of the characters in the play have their hands cut away from them implying they have essentially lost their power that they originally attained.
The play “Titus Andronicus” has multiple genres. Some believe that it is a tragedy and ‘the one who holds

In Act 3, Aaron is considered to be a very intelligent villain and enters with a message for Titus. The message was that if Titus were to cut off one of his own hands, his sons Quintus and Martius will be released by the Emperor. The messenger enters the scene with two heads and a hand. The Messenger states,
“Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid For that good hand thou sent’st the emperor. Here are the heads of thy two noble sons, And here’s thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back, Thy grief their sports, thy resolution mocked, That woe is me to think upon thy woes More than remembrance of my father’s death.” (Shakespeare 55.)
Marcus and Lucius argue that they should be the one to sacrifice their hands, but while Titus sends them off he gets Aaron to cut off his hand hence the quote "Lend me thy hand, and I will give you mine.” (Shakespeare 53). The message turns out to be a trick. After Titus loses his hand he receives the severed heads of his two sons Quintus and Martius. Titus is now devastated and completely overwhelmed from what he has seen. Aaron is now considered to be an evil genius and Titus is left handless and

When Lavinia involuntarily had her hands cut away from her, she lost a lot of her feminine features. She eventually had her hands replaced with tree branches. This is symbolic because her hands were replaced with something that is organic yet artificial. It was something that was alive but is now dead since the branches are no longer attached to the tree just as her hands are no longer attached to her arms. Because she was raped and had her tongue cut out, Lavinia’s power to communicate is taken away. She does not have her tongue to speak nor does she have her hands for motion essentially ruining here. Dehumanized from the rape and rendered voiceless, Lavinia is further dehumanized as she has no way to vocally express and protect herself. This makes it easy to take advantage of her now and others act on her more after this situation. This whole scene shows us how Lavinia has become disempowered but Chiron and Demetrius, the two men who had raped her, have gained