Titus Andronicus – A. J. Drake's Shakespeare Site

Questions on
Shakespeare’s Tragedies

Shakespeare, William. The Most Lamentable Roman Tragedy of Titus Andronicus. Quarto. In The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies, 3rd ed. 145-98.

ACT 1

1. In Act 1, Scene 1, discuss the play’s presentation of Roman religious ritual: why does Titus believe that his sacrifice of Tamora’s eldest son Alarbus is honorable and necessary? In what does the sacrifice consist, and how does Shakespeare appear to have represented it onstage? If this is our first look at Titus, what image of himself is he giving us?

2. In Act 1, Scene 1, how does the captured Tamora, Queen of Goths, react to the prospect — and then the fact — of the slaughter of her eldest son, Alarbus? How does her response affect the way an audience might perceive the conduct and attitude of Titus with regard to the sacrifice?

3. In Act 1, Scene 1, how does Titus present to the Roman public his view of the death of several sons in his latest military campaign? How does he appear to feel about it privately, to himself, and how much priority do his private sentiments have for him?

4. In Act 1, Scene 1, what is the political situation in Rome? What claims do Saturninus and Bassianus respectively make to succeed their departed father the emperor? What clues does the text offer about the character of these two young men? Which one would make the better ruler, and why?

5. In Act 1, Scene 1, how does Titus handle the authority given to him by the people and leading politicians, including his brother, the Tribune Marcus Andronicus? In particular, what is Titus’ rationale for lending his voice to Saturninus and ignoring Bassianus? Why won’t Titus do what Marcus wants him to do, which is to take the imperial title for himself?

6. In Act 1, Scene 1, the newly elevated Saturninus chooses Titus’ daughter Lavinia as empress, but is promptly smitten by the alluring Goth Queen Tamora. How does Titus treat the new emperor’s decision to make his daughter Rome’s empress, and how does he handle the rebellion of Bassianus (who is already betrothed to Lavinia) against this deal? Who is in the right here, and why?

7. In Act 1, Scene 1, what does the new empress Tamora understand about Roman ethics and politics that Titus doesn’t, at least at present? Explain the means by which she asserts her authority over Saturninus and begins to take control of the situation in Rome. In what ways is she quite different from a “barbarian” or “primitive” character, just in case the term “Goth” suggested any such thing to us before we met her?

ACT 2

8. In Act 2, Scene 1, how does Tamora’s long-time lover, Aaron the Moor, see his own situation now that Tamora has become Empress of Rome? What does he plan to do to take advantage of these wondrously improved circumstances? How does Aaron’s perspective differ from that of Tamora and, separately, the Romans? Moreover, how much does he seem to know about Roman culture, and how can you tell?

9. In Act 2, Scene 1, how does Aaron the Moor deal with the argument between Tamora’s immature sons Chiron and Demetrius over their desire for Lavinia—what advice does he offer them? What seems to be his own attitude towards the crime he would have them commit? What is his purpose in advising them as he does?

*Note: If you think you would find reading the following several questions regarding the rape of Lavinia disturbing, there’s no need to read them.

10. In Act 2, Scene 3, the dreadful “rape scene” involving Chiron, Demetrius, Aaron, Tamora, and Lavinia, how does Aaron’s wicked stratagem begin to unfold? How, that is, does he set up the trap that will catch Lavinia and Bassianus, and then Titus’s two hapless sons, who are to be accused as the murderers? How does Tamora cooperate with Aaron and her sons to make the crimes happen?

11. In Act 2, Scene 3, how does Shakespeare’s text represent the lead-up to the rape of Lavinia? Firstly, might Lavinia and Bassianus’s rude treatment of Tamora when they encounter her in the woods risk desensitizing the audience to what happens to these two victims? Why do you suppose Shakespeare chose to lead into the main part of the scene this way?

12. In Act 2, Scene 3, what arguments does Lavinia offer to Chiron and Demetrius and more particularly to their mother, Tamora, to get them to relent? How are those arguments answered? Why doesn’t Tamora feel any pity for Lavinia—why is she so determined that things should proceed to the worst possible extreme?

13. In Act 2, Scenes 3 and the beginning of Scene 4, how and to what extent is Chiron and Demetrius’s terrible crime of rape represented onstage? It was customary in some theater traditions—those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, in particular, to report extreme violence rather than to show it. How does Shakespeare’s treatment of the rape of Lavinia compare to that standard? What does he choose to show, and what does he choose not to show? How do you account for those choices?

14. In Act 2, Scene 4, concentrate on how Marcus Andronicus characterizes the awful scene he lights upon: the ravished and mutilated Lavinia. Shakespeare lends Marcus a number of classical allusions to picture the distressing scene that he beholds, with the Ovidian story of Procne’s sister Philomela and King Tereus being the main allusion. (See Ovid’s Metamorphoses). What does Marcus draw from this story and relate to Lavinia’s suffering and condition? Does his way of responding/describing Lavinia seem insensitive? Why, or why not?

ACT 3

15. In Act 3, Scene 1, Titus is confronted with two shocks: the impending execution of two sons, and the sight of his mutilated daughter Lavinia, brought to him by his brother Marcus. How does he understand Rome now? To what extent is the representation of Titus’ suffering at this point designed to elicit pity? What in the representation (in terms of style or content, or both) might be said to work against pity, and possibly in favor of emotional distance?

16. In Act 3, Scene 1, what deception does Aaron practice against Titus, and on what basis is he able to get away with it—that is, why, with respect to Titus’ outlook and sensibilities, is Aaron’s stratagem so successful? In addition, what does Aaron reveal about his motivation for behaving as he has so far in the play—what are his allegiances and desires?

17. In Act 3, Scene 1, how might we take stock of the play’s relative balance between a serious tragic mood and a more comic or parodic mood? What in this act seems genuinely “weighty,” and what does not? Why? If the aim had been to present the third act in fully tragic mode, how might that objective have been accomplished? In responding to this question, you may consider previous events in the play as well, though that is entirely optional.

18. In Act 3, Scene 2 (not in the Norton Tragedies 3rd ed., which leaves out the Folio’s “fly-killing” scene), the remaining Andronici in Rome gather for a banquet. What do Titus’ reactions and words reveal about his mindset at this point? Is he distracted, as Marcus thinks, or would his mental state be best described otherwise? What is discussed at the banquet, and what elements of the scene inject comedy into an unbearable situation?

ACT 4

19. In Act 4, Scene 1, by what means does Lavinia reveal what has been done to her? How does a particular tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses figure in her successful implication of Chiron and Demetrius? When Titus responds to this new information, to which other famous Roman legend does he shift, and why? Look up the details of this myth, which is briefly referenced in a Norton Shakespeare note, and explain why Titus finds this myth so relevant to his and Lavinia’s present circumstances.

20. In Act 4, Scene 2, the boy Lucius delivers Titus’s message to Chiron and Demetrius. What exactly is the substance of that message (see the Latin translation in the Norton Shakespeare notes), and how does it implicate the two Goths in the rape of Lavinia? How does Chiron respond to this Latin indirect accusation, and what does Aaron understand about the message that neither Goth understands?

21. In Act 4, Scene 2, the nurse arrives with news that Tamora has given birth to a child by Aaron, and indeed the nurse has brought the child himself. How does Aaron react to this news, as well as to the others’ determination to kill the child due to his being dark-skinned? What new dimension of himself do his defiant words and actions pertaining to this dangerous child reveal?

22. In Act 4, Scene 3, how does Titus advance his designs against the Emperor’s peace of mind and safety? To what extent does Titus appear to be mentally unbalanced at this point, as Marcus apparently believes he is? Why is he making his supporters shoot message-bearing arrows into Saturninus’s palace? Consider the main message, which is Ovid’s Latin from Metamorphoses: “Terras Astraea reliquit.” Look up the section early in Book 1 in which Ovid thus mentions Astraea, goddess of justice. In what context does he mention her, and why is that context relevant to Titus’s grievances against the Emperor?

23. In Act 4, Scene 4, how does Saturninus react to the Clown’s delivery of Titus’ threatening note and to his hostile gesture from the previous scene, in which he ordered message-laden arrows shot in the Emperor’s direction? What errors beset Saturninus’s thinking with regard to Titus’ mental state and motives? Why does he order that the Clown be hanged? How does Tamora claim she will neutralize this dangerous situation and, with regard to Titus, “smooth and fill his agèd ears / With golden promises …”?

ACT 5

24. In Act 5, Scene 1, Aaron is captured by Lucius’s Goth army while trying to escape from Roman territory. After extracting from Lucius a promise to protect his infant son from harm and confessing his actual crimes against the Andronici, he utters what may be the most fanciful self-declaration of villainy in English drama (see 5.1.124-144). It’s hard to imagine where even Aaron would find time to perpetrate all the depraved crimes he itemizes for Lucius. What, then, might he intend to accomplish by this strange “villain” performance? How might Aaron be trying to strike a blow against Roman ethics and culture?

25. In Act 5, Scene 2, Tamora and sons show up at Titus’s place dressed as Revenge, Murder, and Rapine. What does Tamora apparently think she is accomplishing by this performance? What misperception about Titus’s present condition has made her think this bizarre act will work? How does Titus trick them all in turn, and how does Shakespeare present to us the gruesome death that he visits upon Chiron and Demetrius? Why does he apparently feel the need to explain his course of action to them as he is slaughtering them?

26. In Act 5, Scene 3, Titus ends Lavinia’s suffering by killing her, and feeds Tamora and Saturninus a generous helping of “Chiron and Demetrius pie.” First, what use does Titus make of the Roman historian Livy’s account about the soldier Virginius and his daughter? (The account is related in Titus Livius’s History of Rome, Book 3, Ch. 44ff.) How does Titus in part use this legend to justify his killing of Lavinia?

27. In Act 5, Scene 3, we come to the famously gruesome “banquet scene,” which has as its main precursor Ovid’s sad tale of “Procne, Philomel, and Tereus” in Book 6 of Metamorphoses. Describe the sequence of events that lead to the bloody culmination of this scene, that ends with Lavinia, Tamora, Titus, and Saturninus dead. Why, after all that has happened thus far and based on the Ovidian source from which Shakespeare has drawn, is this cannibalistic, knife-happy catastrophe the most appropriate one? Can it be said now that Titus has successfully accomplished his mission as a revenger?

28. In Act 5, Scene 3, after the banquet scene’s finale, what punishment does Lucius (newly proclaimed emperor) decree for Aaron? Why is that punishment a suitable revenge for what Aaron has done? Also, to what, if at all, extent does Lucius’ heaping of blame on Aaron for what has happened seem adequate as an explanation for the tragic events that have occurred? Explain.

29. General question: why are there so many references to body parts in this play that they begin calling attention to themselves as such? What theme is Shakespeare exploring—or what dramatic goal is he achieving — when he makes his characters refer so brazenly, and so frequently, to the body parts they or others have lost: specifically, tongues, hands, and heads? How do some of these many references contribute to the parodic dimension of Titus Andronicus? Choose a few such references and discuss them.

30. General question: is Titus Andronicus a straightforward revenge tragedy, a parody or send-up of revenge tragedy, or something in between? In other words, do you think the play is meant to be taken seriously as tragedy? Or do you find its chief value in the realm of jest, spectacle, and mockery? Explain. Moreover, it’s common knowledge that after Shakespeare’s time, “neoclassical” moralist (“didactic”) critics expressed animosity or even contempt towards Titus Andronicus. What features of this play would have triggered such dislike? How would you respond to a disapproving moral critic of the play?

31. General question: it is assumed that Titus Andronicus is set in the 4th century CE, but Shakespeare’s treatment doesn’t necessarily confine itself to representing one precise, clear period in Roman history. Such temporal looseness is not unusual in Shakespeare, and Titus Andronicus is not a history play. All the same, is there something other than straight-up history that seems “spot on” about the way Shakespeare represents the Roman Empire? Discuss this question with reference to at least a few moments or scenes in the play that bring out the compelling, sophisticated way Shakespeare represents Rome.

32. General question: if you have seen Julie Taymor’s film Titus (2000), starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and other fine actors, how does it explore the play’s conflicts between Romans, Goths, and Aaron the Moor? How might the film be said to enhance our understanding of the play? What does the “neo-fascist” setting, in which the Eternal City appears to conflate the 1920s-40s Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s regime with ancient Rome add to the text?

Edition. Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors. The Norton Shakespeare: Comedies + Digital Edition. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93861-6.