Boyd, Brian, Mutius: An obstacle removed in Titus Andronicus [617022]

Peter Clara Greta
EN-SP 1st year
Titus Andronicus – great revengers but not-so-great parents

“Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed!(Saturnius)/ Can the son’s eye behold his
father bleed?/ There’s meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!(Lucius)”1 – like all well -known
revenge tragedies, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus ends in a bloodbath. The Elizabethan stage
was popular for revenge tragedies which include violence, murder, rape, armed combats and
even mutilation. But why was it so popular?
The Elizabethan era was ruled by two major world religions – the Catholic and Protestant
religions, and all crime s, especially revenge killing were punishable – a special case was
manslaughter, meaning that the revenge had been a quick response out of affect, which was
actually forgiven ; yet plays portraying these kind of actions were allowed and enjoyed by the
public. The reason for this was that the public, watching revenge comedies , made them question
and reflect upon their own situations and attitudes. In addition, the public symphatised w ith the
revenger from the play because he fulfilled his duty towards his murder ed family member.
However, there was another idea, which was strongly sustained, that only God was allowed to
take revenge.2
Popular for its horrendous remorselessness and over-the-top viciousness (including
rape, body mutilation, murder, torture and cannibalism), Titus Andronicus is often compar ed
to modern -day horror movies. For instance, the scene where Lavinia’s arms are chopped down,
made the public unable to continue w atching the performance.
Titus Andronicus has the most deaths in all of Shakespeare’s plays: it counts 14 deaths
in total. The first death in the play was Alarbus’ death. Alarbus was Tamora’s son , Queen of
Goths . Titus has Alarbus killed in return for the deaths of his own children killed in the war
against the Goths, but also his death is marked as a religious ritual. Titus justifies his death
with the following lines: These are their brethren, whom you Goths beheld/Alive and dead,
and for their brethren s lain/Religiously they ask a sacrifice:/To this your son is mark'd, and
die he must,/To appease their groaning shadows that are gone. (Titus Andronicus)3 Alarbus is
cut into pieces and burned: Let's hew his limbs till they be clean consumed (Lucius, 1.1.125) .

1 William, Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus , Act 5, Scene 3, lines 68 -71
2 Paul N. Siegel, Shakesperean Tragedy and the Elizabethan Compromise, pp.101 -102
3 Act 1, Scene 1, lines 118 -122

Peter Clara Greta
EN-SP 1st year
As Brian Gibbons says „ this killing unlocks the brutality prevailing for the rest of the play” ,
with Alarbus’ death, the endless cycle of bloodshed and revenge starts.
Generally speaking, parents’ fundamental concern is their children’s well -being, but
in Titus Andronicus it is not the case: they always put themselves first. Both Tamora and
Titus sometimes seem concerned about their children, but in the end it turns up that it was
only a facade. Not only they use their own offsprings to get what they want, but they also
have each other’s kin killed or abused as a sign of revenge.
Titus is a great Roman general but, opposite to this, he’s not so great being a father .
Even though he lost 21 sons in wars, he still kills his remaining children. He kills his son,
Mutius, right after he (Mutius) comes back from war, because he tried to help Bassianus elope
with Lavinia. Angry at this betrayal, Titus kills him. Mut ius was only a side character in the
play, but his death showed that parent s can’t always be trusted to care for their children.
Moreover, Mutius’ death is a charact erization of Titus, which shows how cruel he is, killing
his own son without hesitation. Mutius’ death is showed and mentioned only in scene one,
within a single line, to demonstrate that Titus has no regret doing so.4
Tamora, who seems to be a loving and desperate mother (the scene where Alarbus is
killed), proves to be as cruel as Titus. She f ools her sons, Demetrius and Chiron, that Lavinia
and her father are tormenting her, and she orders them to revenge her: Revenge it, as you love
your mother's life,/Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.5 The sons, to prove their
loyalty to Tamora, kill Bassianus and lead Lavinia into the woods to mutilate and rape her.
When Marcus brings Lavinia in front of Titus, he seems very upset , concerned and
swears that he will chop off his arms too: Give me a swor d, I'll chop off my hands too; / For
they have fought for Rome, and all in vain (Titus Andronicus)6. He does as promised, but later
he realeses his sons, out of compassion. Later on, Titus does something selfish. Despite of
showing compassion to Lavinia and what happened to her, he kills her. By killing her, Titus
believes that she will no longer be an embarassement to the family (with thy shame thy
father’s sorrow die )7 – she lost her chastity, lost her feminity and also lost her chance to
return to her life as a Roman woman; losing all of these important elements from a woman’s
life, she is no longer good for marriage.

4 Article in The review of English Studies , vol. 55, No. 219 ( April 2004), Oxford University Press, pp. 196 -209:
Article title : Boyd, Brian, Mutius: An obstacle removed in Titus Andronicus
5 Act 2, Scene 3, lines 116 -117
6 Act 3, Scene 1, lines 74 -75
7 Act 5, Scene 3, line 46

Peter Clara Greta
EN-SP 1st year
If Titus and Tamora had been parents in the 21st century, they wouldn’t have been
exemplary parent. They let the revenge -madness take over and consecuently their own needs
became more important than their children. Their own reason became clouded by their need
of revenge. The only good parent in the play was Aaron the Moor. Even though he died in the
end, like Tamora and Titus, his son lives because his unselfish love, contrary to Tamora and
Titus’s children who all died because of their parents’ selfishnes s.