The play can be seen as a study in violence, and as such it can also be seen as being highly relevant to our own time.

Transcription

1 The play can be seen as a study in violence, and as such it can also be seen as being highly relevant to our own time. As a very early Shakespeare play, it still contains a lot of bookish references to the classical authors Shakespeare would have learned about in school. Morality is defined in terms of classical literary models. The play is full of rhetorical effects and classical allusions. It can be seen in part as the work of a clever, naughty schoolboy. Shakespeare turns convention upside down. The Romans are as barbarous as the Goths. Classical literature becomes a pattern for criminality rather than for virtue. The violence is symmetrical between Romans and Goths; whatever one does, the other does. Shakespeare seems to acknowledge the fine line between tragedy and farce. People love the ride from violence to humour. He pushes barriers of taste. Even Lavinia and the boy endorse murder and vengeance. The first three scenes and act 4 scene 1 were probably written by George Peele. The play stays close to its models in the revenge plays of contemporary playwrights such as Kyd and Marlowe, but its story line is original. It is a sensational revenge play, not a tragedy along the lines of his later tragedies; there s no complexity or deeper vision or insight. It does anticipate themes in his later tragedies, though. Revenge tragedies started in Greece, flourished in Rome, and were revived in the 1580s by Kyd.

2 In Kyd-style revenge plays, private interests wreak havoc with public ones. When a revenger kills his social betters in a play, social frustrations are expressed. But it s unacceptable, so the revenger must die; everyone knows this has to happen. Revenge plays can deal with themes like civilization vs barbarism, rule of law vs satisfying one s conscience, and justice vs mercy. They can deal with questions of emotional trauma and ethical dilemma. Shakespeare takes the thematic potential of the revenge play to its highest level in Hamlet. Shakespeare s revenge play is similar to those of his contemporaries, except that he takes it to a much greater extreme. Also, his play expresses his interest in classical culture, which also sets it apart. The violence can be seen as having deeper significance, about the conflict between order and disorder. It could be a commentary on the self-defeating nature of a revenge code. Shakespeare seems to be interested in the ethical dimension. The juxtaposition of violence and rhetoric evokes pathos and generalizes suffering. The play sealed Shakespeare s reputation as Marlowe s successor. The Romans actions do not justify the moral superiority they tend to attribute to themselves. Their action is vengeful and pagan. It is the Goths who speak on behalf of god-like mercy at the beginning of the play; and it is Titus who sets everything in motion when he kills Alarbus. His murder of Mutius is just as brutal. There are elements of both democracy and imperialism in Rome as it is depicted in the play. Late Roman decadence is overlaid on early Roman political structures.

3 Because the Andronici are as bad as their enemies, the mood is more ironic than tragic. There is no strong sense of moral order being restored at the end, as there usually is in Shakespeare. The perception of women is archaic. Titus kills Mutius for questioning his right to give his daughter to whomever he chooses. He kills Lavinia because his honour is more important than her life. Titus s misjudgement about not taking the throne has consequences. He chooses emperor over family, and law over affection, a quintessential Shakespearean error. Aaron is essentially a Vice, pure, exultant evil. He descends from the conflation of the devil with black men in mediaeval morality plays. He is Shakespeare s first great villain. He is also the first major black role in English drama. He starts off as the devil and ends with a note of black pride. Blacks are equated with barbarism, diabolism, and pagan atheism. But Shakespeare makes Aaron s point of view understandable. Why should he participate in his own oppression by Rome? Shakespeare s poetry is at its best in Aaron s soliloquies. Aaron reflects the idea that ethics and institutions are based on fictions. The normal and proper are just constructs. Aaron and Tamora are symbolic of the inner darkness and carnality of many people. The violence makes the play seem modern. It was very popular in Shakespeare s day.

4 People were familiar with Roman history from school. Seneca s long speeches and broad hand-and-arm gestures were familiar too. Hands are used for rhetorical gesturing. Cutting off hands is a form of silencing. Lavinia turns into an object. Speechlessness in Shakespeare often seems to signify a loss of full human capacity, a living death. Reading and writing are the keys to recovering humanity. Lavinia is turned into a dog when she carries the hand in her teeth. The obsession with dismemberment and severed body parts may refer to the idea of the headless body politic. Titus turns down the throne (i.e. being the head); chaos and the dismemberment of his family follow. Marcus s imagery around Lavinia inverts love poetry in a horrific way. It becomes more grotesque as he becomes more horrified. In Shakespeare s day, people made no distinction between high art and low; it would have been meaningless to them. Shakespeare juxtaposes the Roman brothers quarrel over who will marry Lavinia with the Gothic brothers discussion of her rape, suggesting that Roman (and perhaps Elizabethan) marriage is like rape. The distinction between legitimate and illegitimate behaviour is necessary but, in practice, they are indistinct; and this reflects on the justice vs revenge theme. Tamora and Aaron are scandalous to both sides, but they recognize the artificiality of Rome s precepts.

5 There are some complex Shakespearean juxtapositions. The child is a symbol of disgust to everyone, but he is a child, and he evokes the appropriate emotions. Aaron is fiercely loyal to him, creating a very different impression of Aaron. And his attitude toward the child contrasts with Titus s attitude toward his own children. Shakespeare also juxtaposes genres, often in one scene or even one line. One feels sympathy for the brothers falsely accused of Basianus s murder, but the scene of them trying to get out of the pit is played as farce. When Titus first sees Lavinia after her mutilation, he says, Mark, Marcus, mark!. The ending reasserts the difference between human society and a wilderness of tigers.