Titus Andronicus Journal- Parenting

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Angela Clark Shakespeare 2120-10 10/14/14 Journal 2 If you’re a parent of yours cooked a neighbor’s child in a pie or perhaps killed one of your siblings, you would at the very least consider this to be unacceptable, morally and legally wrong, abnormal, and concede that perhaps your family may be slightly dysfunctional. (Hook) In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Titus Andronicus, Titus Andronicus went off of his rocker and did both of those things, and more. Titus Andronicus, who recently refused the throne, becomes caught up in a never-ending tale of violent revenge that centers on parents and their children. Eventually, the violence committed against another’s child in retaliation for the violence committed against your own leads to your act of violence against your own children. (Discussion) While possibly more understandable by the standards in place in the age of Titus Andronicus, there are many acts of parenting in this play that are questionable by today’s standards. (Thesis) These acts are committed by Titus Andronicus, Tamora, and Aaron and the parenting and possible redeeming qualities of all three will be examined closely. (Journal Map) Titus starts off the play by murdering the child of Tamora, despite her desperate plea to him as a father to spare him “TAMORA: … And if sons were ever dear to thee, O think my son to be as dear to me.” (1, i, 107-108.) Titus kill her son anyway, an act that could show that he would not spare his son so he will not spare hers. Not much time passed before he slew his son Marcius without hesitation for stealing Lavinia away from the emperor and standing in Titus’s way when he tried to go after her. Towards the end of the play, Titus kills his daughter Lavinia for the shame of being raped. Both murders show that Titus values dignity, honor, and the emperor over his own children, as well as the obvious and now deplorable ability

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