Summary Analysis On Titus Andronicus

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Ingredients For A Monster Shakespeare's play, “Titus Andronicus”, is a grisly tragedy about revenge. While being Shakespeare's first tragedy, it is more of a melodrama than a high tragedy and doesn't hold a candle to his later tragedy, “Hamlet.” The play is about a Roman general, who returns to Rome after winning the Goths in a war and slays the son of Queen of Goths, Tamora. Almost immediately, the fortunes of Tamora and Titus switch and the plot twists as both parties continue to attempt at “one-upping” the other through revenge. It is said that to create a monster in the play, you must first have them kill and wrong an innocent person. Secondly, you must have them kill a child. It is clear that both Tamora and Titus proceed to do both. Thus, revenge makes a monster out of people. Titus first becomes more villain-like when he slays his own son, Mutius. Mutius is protecting his sister and her betrothed when they betray his honor, much to the rage of Titus. Titus then kills his son in the name of his honor and disowns the rest of them without mercy. Ironically, Titus later pleads for mercy on his other two sons and is unheard while they are executed for a crime they did not commit. Titus is very inconsistent in the play. He cries for his sons who are executed but not over the one whom he killed in cold blood. Titus cries to the tribunes, saying “For two-and-twenty sons I never wept / Because they died in honor's lofty bed.” (2.3.10-11) Though Mutius died with dishonor, Titus does not weep for him and had to be persuaded for the boy to be laid in his family tomb. Mutius is not the only child Titus kills. When Lavinia is first introduced to the story, Titus tells her, “Lavinia, live; outlive thy father's days...” (1.1.67). Yet at the end of the play, when he stabs her, he tells her “Die, die, Lavinia / And with thy shame thy father's sorrow die!”(5.2.46-47). Though

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