Celebrating the Shakespeare month

Titus Andronicus - the ruthless action hero

GWEN Herat

DRAMA: Titus Andronicus was one of Shakespeare's most famous plays when it was new. As the decades wore on, however, it fell into disfavour for its extreme violence. Titus Andronicus was an action hero who was brave, cunning and loyal. He was also ruthless and cruel.

Titus Andronicus has the longest part in the play. The dialogues running into 715 lines in the play lead to a gory end. Slow moving at the beginning, unlike most of Shakespeare's stories, it catches up in crescendo, giving a macabre twist and in the process, Titus dies.

Saturninus and Bassianus, the two sons of the late Roman Emperor, attempt to succeed him but they fail as the veteran general Titus Andronicus is chosen because he has just returned with his prisnors, the evil Queen of the Goths and her two sons.

Titus also captures her lover, the Moorish Aaron. The valiant Titus who is not interested in becoming the Emperor, urges Saturninus to take over but not before he orders Tamora, the Queen of Goths's son, Alarbus to be sacrificed to appease the spirits of his two sons whom she destroyed before she was captured.

Having done thus, Titus gives his surviving daughter to Saturninus in marriage. Not only does he give Lavinia to the new Emperor but yields his Gothic prisnors as well. A dramatic turn takes place when Lavinia who had been secretly pledged to Bassianus, runs off with her.

Knowing the rage of his general and to curb his wrath, Saturninus offers to marry Tamora who requests him to remain silent and calm so that she could plan revenge upon Andronicus.

Meanwhile by a turn of events, Bassianus is killed by Tamora's sons, Demetrius and Chiron who stab him to death in the presence of their mother.

Tamora:..........And them they called me foul adulteress
Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms
That ever ear did hear in such effect
And, had you not by wondrous fortune come;
This vengeance on me had they executed.
Revengest; as you love your mother's life
Or be not henceforth called my children
Demetrius: this is a witness then That I am thy son (stabs Bassianus)
Chiron: Ay, this for me, struck home to show my strength (Chiron too stabs)
Lavinia: Ay, come Semiramis, nay harbarous Tamora
For no name, its thy nature but they own
Tamora: Give my thy poniard; you shall know my boys
Your mother's hand shall right you mother's wrong'

Act. 11 Scene 111

With Tamora rousing the passions of her two sons, lead them the way to ravage Lavinia. They rape her, cut out her tongue and chop off her hands.

Demetrius: 'So, now go tell, and if thy tongue can speak
Who it was that cut tongue and ravish'd thee
Chiron: Write down thy mind, bewray the meaning so;
And if thy stumps will let thee, play the scribe
Dem: See, how with signs and tokens she can scrawl
Chi: Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands
Dem: She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash
And so, let's leave her to her silent walk
Chi: An't were my case, I should go hang myself
Dem: If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord'

Act. 11 Scene V.

Tamora's paramour, Aaron cleverly manages to implicate the sons of Titus for the murder of Bassianus and they are sentenced to death and another son, Lucius is banished. Titus, overcome with grief and anguish as to what happened to his sons and daughter, Lavinia, behaves like a man possessed and confides to Marcus his desire to ask the gods to redress his wrongs and despatch him to do so.

Tamora who had had a black child by Aaron, smuggles him out for safety but is captured by the Gothic army led by Lucius who are marching to attack Rome. Sensing her downfall, Tamora seeks to persuade to recall Lucius as well as her two sons who have come to him dressed as Revenge, Murder and Rape.

Titus accepts her invitation, promising to invite the Empress and her sons as well as Saturninus with Lucius to a feast. Titus who has seen through the whole foul charade, later kills Chiron and Demetrius and at the banquet serve their flesh in a pie which the Empress enjoys with other guests.

The end is a frenzy like something released from hell where Tamora, Lavinia, Titus and Saturninus die. Lucius becomes the Emperor of Rome. His first task is to sentence Aaron to die. He was buried breast-deep in sand and starved to death.

Titus: 'A reason mighty, strong and effectual
A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant
For me, most wretched, to perform the like,
...Die, die Lavinia, and thy shame with thee
And with thy shame, thy father's sorrow dies.' (Kills Lavinia)

Act. V Scene 111

In performance

Edward Ravenscroft revived this tragedy for the London's Royal Court Theatre. He was a barrister-dramatist competent in periods of uninhibited theatre and this 1979 version was anything but a success though Shakespeare's melodrama was much admired in his days.

Ben Jonson who was a great admirer of Shakespeare's plays, said in 1614 that anyone who could endure the discrepancies in the The Spanish Tragedy and Titus Andronicus would be the best actors to portray the main characters in these two plays.

The Roman Seneca and Ovid started a theory that the play was not an original of Shakespeare and many theorists down the line, followed suit. Even today, Titus Andronicus is the basis for many critics to debate on this theory but no one so far has arrived at a firm conclusion.

So, the play continues to be acted rather than read. Shakespeare's text director, Rober Atkins of the Old Vic helped stage the play from the Bard's First Folio with eminent actors, especially George Hayers in the role of the tyrant Aaron.

The gruesome scene in which the Moor is racked, the heads and hands of Tamora's sons hang on the wall, displayed in bloody linen, and Tamora stabbing her own black child with Aaron crying out loud, 'Give me the child, I'll eat it, was pure terror on stage. Saturninus dies in horror and Aaron is put to death on stage by racking and burning.

Marlowe revived this tragedy at Cambridge in 1953. They repeated it in summer to show how humanity and retribution balance sadism and terror. The 1955 Stratford version that took a very professional upbeat was held in repertory for future staging.

Many other versions were seen around the world, given different twists and one that was outstanding was the play directed by Brian Cox with Deborah Warner as Tamora for the Royal Shakespeare centre at Stratford. Meanwhile New York Shakespeare Festival mounted it in 1967. Very lately, The Riverside Shakespeare Company performed it in 1988.

I cannot recall Titus Andronicus in ballet in any form but the BBC did a fine film on this play without any cuts.

Epilogue

Lucius: 'Some loving friends convey the emperor hence
And give him burial in his father's grave;
My father and Lavinia shall forthwith
Be closed in our household's monument
As for the heinous Tamora,
No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds
No mournful bell shall ring her burial;
But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey
Her life was beast-like and devoid of pity.......

Act. V Scene 111

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