FREE ESSAY ON WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S TITUS ANDRONICUS

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S TITUS ANDRONICUS

William Shakespeare's earliest tragedy entitled Titus Andronicus is one of much action and
spectacle. The majority of the characters' actions are motivated by revenge which is an
essential theme throughout the work. Titus Andronicus, unlike all of Shakespeare's later
plays, falls in line with Aristotle's six elements of tragedy putting plot before
character. Characters are developed through the use of action in this work rather than
the character determining the plot. Through close examination of the text in Act 4, Scene
1, lines 30-62, the ever-present theme of revenge and constant action can be observed.
Sexuality, power and death although honour, and revenge are three essential themes, which
are present throughout the entire play. Titus Andronicus invites us to contemplate
multiple murders, human sacrifice, severed heads and hands, the rape, murder, and
dismemberment of Lavinia, and a cannibal feast featuring Titus' crazed cookery of
Tamora's sons. In the particular lines previously mentioned, Lavinia has just been raped
and had her tongue and hands cut off by the sons of the Goth Queen, Tamora. Motivated by
the need to avenge her son's death, Tamora urges her two sons to take out their lust on
the young bride. Each character seems to have their own agenda and pursues revenge until
the bitter end. 
In Shakespeare's later tragedies, such as Hamlet, characters are revealed through the use
of soliloquy or speech rather than spectacle. However, in Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare
uncharacteristically uses action in order to reveal the characters. An example of this
can be found in Act 4, Scene 1. It begins with young Lucius fleeing from his aunt
Lavinia, fearing that she is crazed. However, she merely wants to get to the book he is
carrying, Ovid's Metamorphoses. She turns through its pages until she reaches the story
of Philomela and Tereus (Tereus rapes his sister-in-law Philomela and then cuts off her
tongue so that she cannot reveal the crime), which she shows to her father and uncle to
indicate what has been done to her. Marcus urges her to carve the name of the culprits in
the sand. Holding the staff with her mouth and guiding it with her stumps, she writes,
Stuprum [Latin for rape] -- Chiron -- Demetrius. They all kneel and take a vow to not
rest until the treacherous Goths have been made to pay with their blood. Here it can be
seen that like Aristotle's poetics, plot is of first importance. The events, which take
place and the actions committed by all of the characters, are the determining factors as
to how each of them acts individually. As Lavinia is physically pared down, her narrative
and thematic importance escalates, drawing our attention to the importance of spectacle
on the stage.