Marked by malicious deceit, gruesome violence, and macabre humour William Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus illustrates the fall of a war hero through a cycle of brutal revenge. Shakespeare introduces the Roman General, Titus, as both a diplomatic and loyal defender of his state, unwilling to compromise the rightful succession of the Roman throne; Titus rejects the opportunity to rule the country. Nevertheless, Titus finds himself embittered towards Rome with each act of treacherous revenge committed by Tamara, Titus ebbs closer towards insanity. Developed for two fundamental reasons, Shakespeare firstly employs Lavinia, Titus' cherished daughter, as a device to perpetuate the plot. However, underpinning the surface value of the character is her secondary function, which is to act as a symbolic device. As the embodiment of chaste and beauty, Lavinia materializes Titus' perception of Rome, both the physical body and the state. Therefore, the violation and bodily mutilation Lavinia endures functions as a symbolic manifestation paralleling Titus' experiences with respect to the turmoil in Rome. Thus, the telling incident in Act 5 Scene 2 where Titus captures Demetrius and Chiron in his home depicts his loss of his control. At first, lines 165-205 appear as though Titus is allowing Lavinia the opportunity to have revenge on her attackers, yet a closer reading reveals the scene as a pinnacle moment of revenge for Titus. Through satirical puns, black comedy, and subtle manipulations of the verse Shakespeare exposes the dissemination of Titus' psychological constitution. Shakespeare opens the passage with Titus calling Lavinia to join with him in the pleasure of restraining and inevitably killing her attackers, brothers... ... middle of paper ... ...on that trusts him." However, the brothers do not specifically "betray" Titus ("Traitor, n. def.1). Although Chiron and Demetrius contribute to the destruction of his life and family, the antagonism revolves around a cyclical consequence of revenge as Titus captured the two brothers with their mother and returned to Rome with them as prisoners of war. Titus' use of the word "traitor" suggests a betrayal of trust, yet the line begs the question; did the brothers actually betray Titus or is the treachery an act of revenge? Shakespeare's specific word selection emphasizes Titus' loss of context with respect to his own personal motives for revenge, which are likely rooted in the fact that he spent his life defending a country that ultimately fails him. Nonetheless, despite the heinous physical attack on Lavinia, Chiron and Demetrius are not "traitors" to Titus.
This is a comparative analysis that seeks to examine Shakespeare's play, Titus Andronicus, and compare it to several scenes from Julie Taymors’ film, Titus. The main focus is to see whether the film stays true to the play when it comes to violence and dialogue. Both are filled with grotesque scenes that have to do with rape, mutilation, murders and even cannibalism. The most important topics are revenge and violence, for that reason violence is going to be the center of focus in this analysis.
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus demonstrates how aggressive challenges and divisions are born out of conflicting belief systems. For example, because the Roman citizens, the Goths, and Aaron the Moor all differ in matters of consciousness, tension ensues. Nicholas Moschovakis comments extensively about these clashes in his essay ““Irreligious Piety” and Christian History: Persecution as Pagan Anachronism in Titus Andronicus,” and Moschovakis not only magnifies persecution, but he remarks extensively about the major elements in Titus Andronicus that can be understood as anachronistic. While Moschovakis carefully and thoroughly observes the Shakespearean realms of violent “human sacrifice,” the “relevance of Judeo-Christian sacrificial discourses,” the anti-papist Elizabethan attitudes, and other religious and pagan traditions, Moschovakis plainly admits that “Titus evades all attempts to be read as partisan invective” (Moschovakis 462). Because Shakespeare included a wide range of conflict and overlapping belief systems, assertions tend to become, as Moschovakis puts it, “curiously inconsistent” and “overshadowed” (Moschovakis 462). What can be claimed as transparent in Titus Andronicus, and what I think is appealing to the masses, is that Shakespeare drew upon the major controversial motifs in human history and religion, and he included the evils of hypocrisy which allow for realistic interest regardless of what your religious or political stance is. Moreover, I would argue that Shakespeare exposes a more obvious anachronistic element that can serve in expanding Moschovakis’ arguments. Titus Andronicus demonstrates the time honored obsession over first born sons, and because the play includes a first born son in each family t...
One of the distinguishing factors in portraying Titus centers in its origin: "Titus Andronicus [...] must be considered as an experimental play" (Bowers 118). Being Shakespeare's first attempt at tragedy, it obviously has room for error. Yet, as some critics and scholars would say, I believe there is a similar element found in all of Shakespeare's works, no matter when they were written: "Shakespeare constantly reminds us that the character's predicament and humanity is very like our own" (Barton 184). No matter what the plot is, or where he chose to set the story, Shakespeare captures a fundamental element of humanity. Within Titus Andronicus, it is undoubtedly humanity's search for revenge: "Titus Andronicus is a play of social piety, outrage, suffering, and revenge" (Barber 133). The first three elements that Barber attributes to the work are consequential to the fourth; it is the revenge and spite of Titus, Tamora, and Aaron that fuel the other three elements.
The play, Titus Andronicus, is almost bursting with disfigured and distorted bodies. The most obvious and apparent of these is Lavinia, who is raped and has her tongue and hands cut off. In addition, one of Titus’ hands hand’s is chopped off, and the remaining dead body parts of Demetrius and Chiron are cut up and made into a pie that Titus serves Tamora in the final act. All this bodily disfigurement can be related to a common metaphor that personifies the empire of Rome as a body. For example, when Marcus wants Titus to become emperor of Rome, he tells him to “set a head on headless Rome.” Similarly, at the end of the play, Marcus promises to restore Rome, saying that he will “knit...these broken limbs again into one body.”
The premise of the play Titus Andronicus can be easily summed up in one word. That word is simply ‘honor’. Honor means a different thing today than it did during the Roman Empire or Shakespeare’s life, but it is important to know honor’s definition in order to understand Titus Andronicus. Honor was used to justify murdering multiple times throughout the play. Titus killed two of his own children to protect his honor. Titus’s honor was also destroyed by Lavinia being raped and mutilated and Aaron tricking Titus into cutting off his hand, an important symbol of his honor. The word ‘honor’ has a huge impact on the play Titus Andronicus.
Shakespeare, William. "Titus Andronicus" The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stanley Wells & |Gary Taylor. New York/London, W.W. Norton Company,1997. 371-434
...haracters to compliment Shakespeare’s work. With the opening she captures the aspect of war without using the original opening. Instead she uses a child and modernizes it. In ACT III SCENE I. Rome. A Street, she examines every word and portrays the art of revenge, loss and justice. She digs into the bible and relates them to Titus and his morals and actions. Taymor made many interesting choices when directing Titus, many staying true to the book, and character analysis bringing Titus Andronicus to a visual art.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the theme of revenge is very palpable as the reader examines the characters of Hamlet himself, as well as Laertes, son of Polonius, and Fortinbras, prince of Norway and son of the late King Fortinbras. Each of these young characters felt the need to avenge the deaths of their fathers who they felt were untimely killed at the bloody hands of their murderers. However, the way each chose to go about this varies greatly and gives insight into their characters and how they progress throughout the play. Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras are similar in the fact that each had love, or at least respect, their fathers. Enough to make an attempt to wreak revenge upon their fathers murderers at the risk of their own reputation, freedom, and souls.
In his essay, Titus Andronicus and the Mythos of Shakespeare's Rome, Robert Miola uncovers and explores the myths Shakespeare uses as bedrock for the background and plot of his first Roman tragedy, Titus Andronicus. Most notably, Miola discusses two Ovidian myths, The Rape of Philomela and The World's Four Ages. The Rape provides Shakespeare with his basic characters and the events involving Lavinia, his Philomela, while Ovid's fourth age of iron describes Shakespeare's physical Rome, "a quintessentially iron city," writes Miola, "a military establishment protected by walls and filled with sword-carrying soldiers" (Mythos 91). The ancient Roman myth of the God Saturn, who devoured his children to remain in power himself, must have been another story Shakespeare used to develop his Roman characters in Titus, Miola says. For obvious proof, he points to the name of the emperor, Saturninus, and the final gruesome banquet during which this emperor literally eats his stepsons. Miola also cites Virgil's Aeneid as one of Shakespeare's primary influences. "Shakespeare's Rome, like Virgil's," Miola parallels, "was constructed over time by the play of the poetic imagination on diverse materials" (Mythos 95). Miola's discussion of the various sources Shakespeare brought together to create the Rome he illustrates in Titus is convincing.
There are many drastic changes that happen throughout the course of civilizations’ histories. This can be proven through the civilization of Rome. Although Rome was one of the longest civilizations that had lasted, it had its many ups and downs. Beginning as a republic, it moved around a great amount, figuring out who Rome was in the long run. Rome has a vast history that dealt with a republic, an empire, and many, many conflicts.
Right from the beginning, parallels are drawn between Lavinia and Rome. The play opens up with two brother, Bassianus and Saturninus, fighting for Rome, just as the rape begins with two brothers, Demetrius and Chiron, fighting for Lavinia. There's a contrast between how Rome is described and how Lavinia is described in each respective scene. Bassianus personifies Rome, talking about Rome as if it were a woman with honor; "And suffer not dishonor to approach / The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate," (1.1.13-14). Whereas, while Aaron is laying out the plan for Demetrius and Chiron to rape Lavinia, he dehumanizes her, describing her as if she were a city to be pillaged; "And revel in Lavinia's treasury," (2.3.131). The connection between Lavinia and Rome strengthens, as Saturninus and Bassianus go from arguing about who should get Rome, to who should get Lavinia. Just as Rome is given to Saturninus, Titus tries to give Lavinia to Saturninus as well.
The following lines from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus from Act five Scene one, starting with the line “Lucius, save the child,/And bear it from me to the empress...” and ending with the line “O barbarous beastly villains like thyself!”, the passage is significant in the reading of the play as a whole as this is a part of Aaron’s final words before he is no longer prominent for the remainder of the play. It is also crucial in that is shows an aspect of Aaron not seen previously as what appears to be a father concerned over the life of his son.
Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on the villains who killed his beloved Caesar. After Antony turns a rioting Rome on him and wages war against him and the conspirators, Brutus falls by his own hand, turning the very sword he slaughtered Caesar with against himself. Brutus is unquestionably the tragic hero in this play because he has an innumerable amount of character flaws, he falls because of these flaws, and then comes to grips with them as he bleeds on the planes of Philippi.
Revenge is best served with a side of ‘boys’enberry pie to your sworn enemy. And who better to dish it up then Julie Taymor. Under her brilliant direction, Taymor’s film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, Titus Andronicus, would put a wicked smile on the Bard’s if he were still alive today. “Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, blood and revenge are hammering in my head” (II, iii, 38-39). Taymor’s recipe for success includes three cups of Shakespeare’s original text, a dash of seasoned actors. Throw in plenty of vengeance, sexuality, and political power (don’t be stingy now), and a handful of lady fingers. Bring it all to a nice simmer in the 20th century, and serve it up to your hungry meat-loving dinner guests. “Why, there they
Lavinia loses her limited power not completely by the hands of a men – Demetrius and Chiron- but also by Tamora, a fellow woman. Lavinia pleads to Tamora to kill her instead of allowing her to be raped. But, she has her power and dignity taken away when Tamora not only allowed but also encouraged her sons to do what they will with Lavinia. She is not only raped but also mutilated by Demetrius and Chiron. She is left with absolutely no power even despite her royal familial line. As a result of the incident Lavinia is tainted and no longer pure. The importance of women and their purity is held so high that she would rather die than live with having been raped. Lavinia pleads to Tamora to have mercy on her, “O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen,