Journal One: Act I

Today was the worst day of my entire life. My child, my baby, my first born was brutally violated by the evilest of all humans, Chiron and Demetrius. They thought they could cover up the deed by cutting out her tongue so she wouldn’t be able to speak. Then they feared she’d write about this despicable act, so they also cut off her hands. I do not understand how such beasts can be among us – they surely must work for Lucifer himself! I have never hated two humans more and they underestimated my anger and ability to reap vengeance upon the two of them. I will get them someway, somehow. They will suffer greatly – as will their parents. Watch your step Chiron and Demetrius – because I am about to attack!

Sincerely,

Titus Andronicus

Literary Terminology

Literary Term #1: Alliteration

Romans, friends, followers, favourers of my right
spleenful sons
In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.

The "f" is being repeated.
The "s" is being repeated.
The "d" is being repeated.

Literary Term #2: Oxymoron
charitable murderer

Literary Term #3: Onomatopoeia
Poor harmless fly,
That, with his pretty buzzing melody,
Came here to make us merry! and thou hast kill’d him.

Literary Term #4: Metaphor
Thou map of woe

Comparison of Lavinia to a map

Quotations

QUOTE #1
In Act II, Marcus greets Lavinia

Speak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands
Have lopp’d and hew’d and made thy body bare
Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments,
Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in.

Translation:
Please speak with me - with your injured hands
Those hands that have been carved and injured and left your body
Your hands were strong like branches and once were the most beautiful parts of your body
Now, those hands are gone, those beautiful hands that once held kings as they slept.

Explanation:
These lines are important to the play because it is the first time Lavinia is seen without her hands. She has had a major transition within her life; she does not know how to go on without her hands. Marcus tries to encourage her by stating the beauty that has always been within her, and he also expresses his sorrow for the loss of her hands. She cannot express (literally and figuratively) how wonderful it is to hear such kind words in such a tumultuous time of her life.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Titus Andronicus: Noble Roman general who has won a long war against the Goths but lost many of his sons in battle. Although he is at first a reasonable man, events of the play transform him into a bedlamite bent on revenge.
Saturninus: Conniving son of the late Emperor of Rome who succeeds his father after Titus Andronicus, citing his advancing age, declines to accept the throne.
Bassianus: Brother of Saturninus; in love with Lavinia.
Tamora: Queen of the Goths who is unrelenting in her desire to avenge the execution of her son Alarbus at the hands of her Roman captors. Near the end of the play, she unwittingly eats a meat pie made of the flesh of her dead sons.
Aaron: A diabolical Moor, beloved of Tamora. Aaron is evil personified, but he has a redeeming quality: love for his child.
Lavinia: Innocent daughter of Titus Andronicus. She is the victim of horrible crimes, including rape, the amputation of her hands, and the excision of her tongue.
Marcus Andronicus: Tribune of the people and brother of Titus.
Lucius, Quintus, Martius, Mutius: Sons of Titus Andronicus.
Young Lucius: A boy, son of Lucius.
Publius: Son of Marcus the tribune.
Sempronius, Caius, Valentine: Kinsmen of Titus.
Aemilius: A noble Roman
Alarbus, Larbus, Demetrius, Chiron: Sons of Tamora
A Captain, Tribune, Messenger, Clown
Goths and Romans
Minor Characters: Nurse, Senators, Tribunes, Officers, Soldiers, Attendants.

THEMES

REVENGE:
In Titus Andronicus, revenge becomes a rolling juggernaut that destroys all in its path. Once revenge is set in motion by the execution of Alarbus in the first act, the play becomes a bloodbath of revenge, with each side in the conflict taking turns murdering, maiming, immolating, and mutilating. The word revenge and its forms, such as revenged, occurs 34 times in the play, vengeance 7 times, vengeful twice, and avenge once. Words associated with revenge are spoken hundreds of times. They include blood (and its forms, such as bloody), 38; murder, 26; kill, 19; slaughter 3; slay, 2. Aaron tells Tamora that he is preoccupied with vengeance: "Blood and revenge are hammering in my head."

BETRAYAL:
Betrayal is the handmaiden of power. In good faith, Titus yields the throne to Saturninus. Saturninus then turns against Titus. Other characters betray one another for their own selfish ends. Tamora even betrays her own child (fathered by Aaron). Believing that Saturninus will find out about it, she recommends that it be put to death. Aaron, however, wants the child and takes it to the Goths to have them raise it. Before he leaves, he murders the baby's nurse and midwife to prevent them from telling others about the existence of the child.

What's this Titus Andronicus all about???

By S. Clarke Hulse's count, Titus Andronicus is a play with "14 killings, 9 of them on stage, 6 severed members, 1 rape (or 2 or 3, depending on how you count), 1 live burial, 1 case of insanity and 1 of cannibalism--an average of 5.2 atrocities per act, or one for every 97 lines." Reviewer Mike Gene Wallace adds, "This is a great play. We're talking fourteen dead bodies, kung-fu, sword-fu, spear-fu, dagger-fu, arrow-fu, pie-fu, animal screams on the soundtrack, heads roll, hands roll, tongues roll, nine and a half quarts of blood, and a record-breaking 94 on the vomit meter." Really, there's not much more to say; that is the essence of the play. Titus Andronicus is a non-stop potboiler catalog of abominations (with the poetry itself counted as a crime by many critics).

Titus Andronicus, Roman general, returns from ten years of war with only four out of twenty-five sons left. He has captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moor. In obedience to Roman rituals, he sacrifices her eldest son to his own dead sons, which earns him Tamora's unending hatred and her promise of revenge.

Tamora is made empress by the new emperor Saturninus. To get back at Titus, she schemes with her lover Aaron to have Titus's two sons framed for the murder of Bassianus, the emperor's brother. Titus's sons are beheaded. Unappeased, she urges her sons Chiron and Demetrius to rape Titus's daughter Lavinia, after which they cut off her hands and tongue so she cannot give their crime away. Finally, even Titus's last surviving son Lucius is banished from Rome; he subsequently seeks alliance with the enemy Goths in order to attack Rome. Each new misfortune hits the aged, tired Titus with heavier impact. Eventually, he begins to act oddly and everyone assumes that he is crazy.

Tamora tries to capitalize on his seeming madness by pretending to be the figure of Revenge, come to offer him justice if Titus will only convince Lucius to cease attacking Rome. Titus, having feigned his madness all along, tricks her, captures her sons, kills them, and makes pie out of them. He feeds this pie to their mother in the final scene, after which he kills both Tamora and Lavinia, his own daughter. A rash of killings ensue; the only people left alive are Marcus, Lucius, Young Lucius, and Aaron. Lucius has the unrepentant Aaron buried alive, and Tamora's corpse thrown to the beasts. He becomes the new emperor of Rome.

Reduced Shakespeare Company: Titus Andronicus Retelling