U5 English Coursework Ben Lovett
24.02.2003
To what extent do you consider Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus to be a moral play?
Titus Andronicus is perhaps one of the most graphic, brutal, and sensational tragedies of the last millennium. However the question of whether this play presents itself as a moral play is far more disputed. I think for the twenty-first century reader it is far too blunt as an out of context piece of literature; too graphic and absurd to allow the reader to appreciate any moral issues being questioned. However I think as a sixteenth century stage production Titus Andronicus somehow manages to justify the carnage through the timing and the emotional change of the actors. This is how Shakespeare connected with his viewers, because he has the audience questioning whether they should feel death can be justified, especially with the swift killing of Lavinia by her father. These questions lead the members of the audience to begin questioning their own morality and even humanity.
What is most definitely apparent is the overuse of violence in the play. It seems that some of the more ‘innocent’ characters of the play are killed first, leaving the audience angry and complicit in the revenge cycle that follows the deaths (in which one a death would lead onto another, and it is never clear when it is that a death has been entirely avenged or the revenge has been to harsh leaving the victim, the new unjust murderer. The deceased characters appear to be merely instruments of revenge played by Tamora and Titus in their personal vendetta beginning in the first scene of the play with the sacrifice of Tamora’s son. The portrayal of Titus in the opening scene is far from one usually given to a hero. Perhaps Shakespeare has tried to stray away from a traditional ancient tragedy in this play, yet the notion of the fatally flawed hero is in fact very traditional. It is known as his first ‘Roman’ Tragedy not simply because it was set in Rome but because of the examination of the corruption of power which lies at the core of it. Titus allowed no mercy to Tamora when she begged for him to spare her son’s life. It is unclear whether he did this to follow the tradition he claimed to be following, ‘die he must’ (1.1.line 125) or whether he already disliked Tamora and simply carried out the execution to spite her, thus beginning their vendetta. He then makes a questionable choice of Emperor in Saturninus, and agrees to Saturninus’s demand to marry his daughter. When his son, Mutius gets in the way of his plans he kills him without hesitation. All of these actions contrast so strongly with the great man portrayed by Titus’ brother, Marcus, in the opening lines,
