Titus Andronicus Loyalty Essay

Change of Loyalty from Politics to Family: Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare has many scenes which describe or illustrate feasting. Furthermore, these scenes chart the protagonists change of alliance from political bonds and renewal to familial bonds and renewal. Moreover, for this essay, I will explain how the formal features during the feasting scenes mark the change of loyalty.
The beginning of the play describes how the dead soldiers are begging to be feed a feast. Furthermore, Andronicus feeds the dead which illustrates his loyalty to Rome. Tamora begs Titus not to kill her son; he tells her,
These are their brethren [dead soldiers] whom your Goths beheld
Alive and dead, and for their brethren slain
Religiously they ask a sacrifice.
To this your son is marked and die he must,
T’appease their groaning shadows (Shakespeare 1.1. 122-126).
The passage “their brethren” symbolizes how the dead, some relatives to Andronicus and others were not, were like family. Furthermore, the dead soldiers, who were not part of Andronicus family, represent Rome. Indicating

Furthermore, the formal feature diction used in the feasting scenes charts Andronicus’s shift in loyalty. As he is sitting with his family he tells them “Now sit, and look you eat no more/ Than will preserve just so much strength in us/ As will revenge these bitter woes of ours” (3.2.1-3). The diction used in this sentence utilizes “you, us, and ours” (3.2. 1-3). Moreover, these words align the speaker with the other members at the table: his family members. Meaning the speaker and the other members of the table are both the same, feel the same, and want the same thing: revenge. As a result, the diction found in this feasting scene indicates how the protagonist is forming bonds with his family members which illustrates him retreating from his obligations to