Titus Andronicus has had a fair share of mixed reviews over the last centuries but has still remained a work of fascinating symbolism as well as a violent, poetic story. The story was meant to entertain the lower classes of England. The reviews of this play from the 1930's show us that most people did not like violent literature. It was around this time that America fell into the Depression.
Titus Andronicus has had a fair share of mixed reviews over the last centuries but has still remained a work of fascinating symbolism as well as a violent, poetic story. The story was meant to entertain the lower classes of England at the time who enjoyed such activities as bear baiting, where a bear would have its claws and teeth pulled out before being tied to a post where savage pitt-bulls would bite it to death (White). The people of sixteenth century England were also very accustomed to public hangings and torturous punishments. Colin Burrow, a researcher of early Tudor literature, noted that, "Cruelty is part of Shakespeare's World and it generates a high proportion of the energy into his drama." (Smith 4). When the play was first published, it received exceptional reviews, but later it was spat on as one of the most disgustingly violent and worse written Shakespeare play. How did the reviews turn so sour so quickly? The culture at the time had the most to do with it. With such violent epics such as The Godfather, Scarface, Natural Born Killers, and Pulp Fiction, it is no wonder that Titus Andronicus has once again revealed itself to the masses as an entertaining piece of work. The idolization of violent entertainment in recent years is the reason for the increase of appeal towards Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus.
The reviews of this play from the 1930's show us that most people did not like violent literature. It was around this time that America fell into the Depression. Reading Titus probably did not amuse them because of the heavy burden of poverty. In 1934 T.S. Eliot dismissed the play as "one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever." If only he had known that stupidest wasn't a word, he probably would've sounded a lot smarter. J. Dover Wilson, another critic from the 1930's remarked that the play was "like some broken-down cart, laden with bleeding corpses from an Elizabethan scaffold and driven by an executioner from bedlam dressed in caps and bells."
It is almost certain that the reason for its popularity in the 1590's was the people's experiences and tolerance of public punishment. Judicial torture reached it's greatest use in the reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603 (White). Sixteenth century English people were very interested in the concept of power, both politically and physically. An author named Foucault made several good points on public punitive measures when he said that "Public punishment did not re-establish justice, it reactivated power." Another author, J.A. Sharpe, also states a good argument on how punishment transcends justice when he commented, "Every public execution was a spectacular reminder of the powers of the state, doubly effective because of its essentially local nature."(Nightingale 80).
For those of you who don't know the story let me just go through the characters quickly. Titus is a Roman general who is very popular, he had many children including Lucius and the beautiful Lavinia, he is also brother to the senator Marcus. Tamora is a Goth prisoner who has three sons, Demetrius, Chiron, and Alarbus; her secret lover is the moor Aaron. Saturninus and Bassianus are brothers who are running for Emperor of Rome, Bassianus and Lavinia are in love with each other. The violence starts with Lucius sacrificing Alarbus to appease the gods and make up for his brothers slain in battle. This single act is the reason for the rest of the violence found therein.
Demetrius and Chiron are very sexual yet vicious at the same time. These two characters are prime examples of sadomasochists. When Lavinia and Bassianus catch Tamora with Aaron they start mocking her substantially. Demetrius and Chiron come out to find their mother disheveled and on her knees, begging that if they do love their mother that they will kill Bassianus on the spot. The love between Tamora's sons and her are strangely more than familial and they seem to almost get off on stabbing Bassianius in the back. With Lavinia still alive and holding her chastity, Tamora and her sons feel that it would be too kind of them to let her "carry this onto her grave."(Shakesphere: Act 2, Scene 3). Tamora states that the worse they do to her the more she will love them. Chiron and Demetrius take Lavinia away and hew off her arms and her tongue so that she couldn't say who did this to her nor write down the names of the perpetrators. After this bloody act, their lusts overcome them and they take her chastity despite a large amount of blood and voiceless screams (Nightingale 18). This act further suggests the sadomasochist tendencies of Chiron and Demetrius.
Tamora's lover Aaron however seems to be pleasured even more by inflicting pain upon innocent people than Tamora's sons. He tricks the Emperor Saturninus into thinking that the murder of Bassianus was performed by two of Titus' sons. When Titus' sons are sent to be executed, Aaron comes to the Andronici home and delivers a fictional message from the emperor that if one of them cut off a single hand, he would spare Titus' sons' lives (White). Titus has Aaron perform the act on him and as Aaron is walking out with Titus' hand he can't help but laugh. The final murder of the nurse who knew of his and Tamora's accursed, black son was necessary if he wished the baby and its mother to remain alive. After these acts, he goes to the Goths where he delivers a power speech when climbing the scaffold. He boasts about his villainies and tells them that his only regret was that he wouldn't be alive to perform thousands of more horrible deeds (Smith 81). He even tells how he wished to dig up dead bodies and place them on the yard of those who loved them just when they felt they were getting over their grief. His eagerness to reveal the horrible things that he did shows his goal for the remainder of the play, to torment his listeners by telling them how he enjoyed watching them suffer.
The most horrific acts performed in this play are the ones to Titus' psyche. From the opening scene, where we learn that so far Titus has lost twenty sons in his battles against the goths until the time that he deems it appropriate to murder his own daughter, Lavinia, we can notice his grasp of sanity slowly drifting away. When Bassianus takes Lavinia back from Saturninus, Titus runs after and his youngest son tried to block his way so Titus stabbed him. Titus' allegiance was to Rome above all else including family at this time (Smith 80). He discovers that his eldest son, Lucius, has also been banished from Rome after learning about his condemned sons. It is at this time that Marcus comes in carrying the cropped body of his beautiful daughter Lavinia. It is at this time that Titus has lost anything remotely human in him. He laughs at the sight of his daughter because he has run out of tears to shed, and believes himself to be in some horrible nightmare. A short time after cutting off his hand to save his sons' lives, a clown comes in to show him his beloved sons' heads and his own hand given back. He does not cry nor speak out when he sees his sons' heads and his own hand lying in front of him (Smith 82). This shows the importance of the beheading of Titus' sons as symbols for the failures of the Roman monarchy. Titus epitomizes Renaissance conceptions of variations as simultaneously horrific and fascinating.
The importance of amputation and dismemberment are important in this play because they symbolize Rome at the time. The emphasis on mutilation, is particularly interesting since it usually came in the form of execution because Rome was "headless and dismembered" at the time. The public made it this way so we when we stumble into the first scene, we see a headless Rome with its citizens split (Nightingale 17).
Public death in this play does not demonstrate monarchical power, but instead shows us its flaws. Saturninus' decisions to kill the clown, the messenger, and Titus' two sons showed how inadequate he was as an Emperor. Rome is further portrayed as headless through the presence of outsiders such as Tamora and the Goths. The Goths, who were once enemies of Rome, now come back with Lucius to overthrow Saturninus. It is ironic that Lucius depended on these people whom he lost twenty brothers to, and fought so bravely against. Furthermore, the amputation of Lavinia's arms and tongue remind everyone how she lost her precious virginity and the loss of Titus' hand conveys his state of emotions (Nightingale 17-20).
The most childish part of this play is definitely the series of revenges carried out by various characters. The war between the Goths and the Romans claimed the lives of many Andronici. For this, Alarbus, Tamora's eldest son, is sacrificed and his organs are burned in front of his mother. To counter this, Tamora instructs her sons to kill Bassianus and rape Lavinia Andronicus because her father and brother killed her son. When Titus' sons are accused wrongly of murder, Saturninus demands vengeance for his slain brother and executed them. To enact revenge on Aaron for setting up the killing of Bassianus, the raping of Lavinia, and the dismemberment of Titus' hand, Lucius sentences Aaron to his death and then decides to let him suffer. For the raping of Lavinia, Titus kills Tamora's sons, bakes them into a pastry, and serves it back unto Tamora's stomach, where they came from. Titus also kills her after letting her know that she ate her two remaining sons, so for this Saturninus, in a fit of rage, murders Titus. To top it off, to avenge his father, Lucius kills the Emperor, Saturninus. "Revenge has the final grim chuckle, having wracked havoc on fractured human psyches and the Roman state." (Smith 32).
Works Cited
Smith, Henry. Shakesphere's Tragedies. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 1984.
Nightingale, Joesph. Symbolism in Shakesphere. Boston: Delmar, 1995.
Shakesphere, William. Titus Andronicus. England, 1596.
White, Janet. "From the Gallows to the Stage." 6/17/99. Ebsco host. Accessed at HCC lib., MA. 12/03/04.
Titus. Julie Taymor, Jody Patton, Shakesphere. VHS. Fox Searchlights, 2000
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