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First FolioTeacher Curriculum Guide
Titus Andronicusby William Shakespearedirected by Gale EdwardsApril 3—May 20, 2007
Table of Contents Page Number
A Brief History of the Audience…………………….1
About the PlaywrightOn William Shakespeare…………………………………3Elizabethan England……………………………………….4Shakespeare’s Works……………………………………….5Shakespeare’s Verse and Prose……………………..7A Timeline of Western World Events…….……..9
About the PlaySynopsis of Titus Andronicus……………….…..….10Romans, Goths and Moors: Who’s Who inTitus Andronicus. ………………………..….….……...…11Vengeance Is Mine: Revenge Tragedies inShakespeare’s Time…………….…...………………..…13Blood and Gore: Staging Violence Then andNow…………………………………………………………..……14Code of Honor in Titus Andronicus….…….…16Shakespeare’s Symbolism……………………………17
Classroom ConnectionsBefore the Performance…………………….………..18• Create a Vice Character• Costume Design• Is Revenge Ever Justified• Soldiers Coming Home• Staging Violence
After the Performance………………………….………19• Recipe for Revenge: Titus’ Cookbook• Write Your Own Revenge Tragedy• Good Humors• Review the Production• Do Military Men Make Good Leaders?
Suggested ReadingTitus Andronicus Resource List…..………..…...20
Cover: Laurence Olivier as Titus, Vivien Leigh as Lavinia and AlanWebb as Marcus in Peter Brook’s production of Titus Andronicus,Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1955.
Welcome to the Shakespeare TheatreCompany’s production of Titus Andronicusby William Shakespeare!
Each season, the Shakespeare Theatre Companypresents five plays by William Shakespeare andother classic playwrights. The mission of allEducation Department programs is to deepenunderstanding, appreciation and connection toclassic theatre in learners of all ages. Oneapproach is the publication of First Folio: TeacherCurriculum Guides.
For the 200607 season, the EducationDepartment will publish First Folio: TeacherCurriculum Guides for our productions of AnEnemy of the People, The Beaux’ Stratagem,Richard III and Titus Andronicus. First FolioGuides provide information and activities to helpstudents form a personal connection to the playbefore attending the production at theShakespeare Theatre Company. First Folio Guidescontain material about the playwrights, theirworld and the plays they penned. Also includedare approaches to explore the plays andproductions in the classroom before and afterthe performance. First Folio Guides are designedas a resource both for teachers and students.
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s EducationDepartment provides an array of School,Community, Training and Audience Enrichmentprograms. A full listing of our programsi s avai l ab le on our webs i te atShakespeareTheatre.org or in our EducationPrograms brochure. If you would like moreinformation on how you can participate in otherShakespeare Theatre Company programs,please call the Education Hotline at202.547.5688.
Enjoy the show!
First Folio:Teacher Curriculum Guide
A Brief History of the AudienceI can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across thisempty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that isneeded for an act of theatre to be engaged. — Peter Brook, The Empty Space
In the BeginningTheatre began as ritual, with tribal dances and festivalscelebrating the harvest, marriages, gods, war and basicallyany other event that warranted a party. People all over theworld congregated in villages. It was a participatory kind oftheatre; the performers would be joined by the villagers,resting on the belief that villagers’ lives depended on asuccessful celebration— the harvest had to be plentiful orthe battle victorious, or simply to be in good graces withtheir god or gods. Sometimes these festivals would last fordays, and the village proved tireless in their ability tocelebrate. Many of these types of festivals survive today inthe folk history of areas such as Scandinavia, Asia, Greeceand other countries throughout Europe.
It’s Greek to MeThe first recorded plays come from the Greeks (fourth andfifth centuries B.C.E.). Their form of theatre began in muchthe same way as previous forms did. It stemmed from thecelebration of the wine harvest and the gods who broughtcitizens a fruitful harvest— specifically Dionysus, the god ofwine. Spectators had a great deal of respect for their gods,and thousands would flock to the theatre to experience afull day of celebration. The day of drama and song madefor a lively crowd. Staffbearers patrolled the aisles to keepthe rowdies under control. While theatre was free, yourseat was determined by your station in life. The rich hadcushioned seats at the front, while the peasants, artisansand women were forced to take seats at the back. In thelater years, after a full day of drink, Greek audiences werenot above showing disapproval at a lessthanspectacularperformance. Stones were thrown, as well as other sloppyobjects, hissing was popular, and loud groanings ofdiscontent could usher any actor into early retirement.
The Romans, or the inspiration for GladiatorThe Romans took the idea of “spectator” an inch or sofurther. Their theatre (first through third centuries B.C.E.)developed in much the same way as the Greeks— withcomedy, tragedy and festivals— but unfortunately ended
with what the Christians called “morally inappropriate”dancing mimes, violent spectator sports such as gladiatorfights, and the public executions for which the Romanswere famous. The Romans loved violence, and theaudience was a lively crowd. Because theatre was free, itwas enjoyed by people of every social class. They werevocal, enjoyed hissing bad actors off the stage, and lovedto watch criminals meet large ferocious animals, and, soonafter, enjoyed watching those same criminals meet theirdeaths.
The Far EastIn Asia, theatre developed in much the same way it haselsewhere, through agricultural festivals and religiousworship. The Chinese and Japanese audiences havealways been tireless, mainly because their theatre forms,such as the Japanese “Kabuki” and “Noh” plays andChinese operas, could last anywhere between a full day, ifnot three days, beginning between six to nine in themorning! In China, the audience was separated; the higherclasses sat closer to the action of the play, and the lowerclasses, generally a louder, more talkative bunch, would beplaced in stalls at the back. The audience expected asuperior performance, and if it lacked in any way, theaudience could stop the production and insist on a differentpresentation. In Japan, theatre began with allday ricefestivals and temple plays sponsored by priests. Theseevolved into “street performances” where the performersled the audience on a trip through the village. In theatrehouses, the upper classes sat in constructed boxes, andwomen in disguise (it was not considered proper for arespectable woman to be seen at the theatre) and lowerclasses would stand below with the “inspector” standing ona high platform in the middle, keeping a strict eye oneveryone.
A Couple of Hundred Years without ArtTolerance takes a holiday during the period of Europeanhistory known as the Dark Ages. During this time periodculture of all kind goes on hiatus— most especially thatfrivolous, godless display of lewd and licentious behavior
The nature of the audience has changed throughout history, evolving from a participatory crowd to a group of people sittingbehind an imaginary line, silently observing the performers. The audience is continually growing and changing. There hasalways been a need for human beings to communicate their wants, needs, perceptions and disagreements to others. Thisneed to communicate is the foundation of art and the foundation of theatre’s relationship to its audience.
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known as theatre. Fortunately it reemerges with somesevere restrictions during the Middle Ages.
Pageant WagonsWestern theatre further develops from the Greek andRoman traditions through the Middle Ages with “MysteryPlays” sponsored by the church. Organized theatre wasfrowned upon, as it was a place for congregation of thelower classes, encouraging disease and immoral behavior.Church leaders would allow performances of bible scenes,however, for the people who could not read. Theseproductions moved to different locations much like travelingthe “stations of the cross.” To spread the good word to thebroadest section of the population, these plays left theconfines of the church building and began to travel on whatwere known as “pageant wagons.” These wagons held oneentire location and a series of wagons hooked togetherpermitted a company to tell an entire story just aboutanywhere. Troupes of actors would roam the countrysidesetting up makeshift theatres in inns, pubs, public squares,pretty much anywhere they could park.
Within This Wooden ODuring Shakespeare’s era— the Elizabethan period—theatre companies were awarded status and privilegebased on patronage from wealthy landholders or the royalfamily. With patronage came money, so the companiesbegan building theatres. The theatre of Shakespeare’s daywas attended by all, was inexpensive, and was known tobe an incredibly good time. Surrounding the stage was thelower “pit” where the lower classes congregated— calledthe “groundlings”— and above, octagonally surrounding thepit, were the stalls reserved for the upper classes. If youwere stationed in the pit, it was not uncommon to have agoblet of wine dumped on your head, to be drooled upon,or spat upon by the “more civilized” people above you.Elizabethan audiences did not know what it meant to bequiet for a performance and would talk back to the actors.Thought to be involved in spreading the “black plague,” thetheatres were closed in 1592.
Look at me, look at me...During the Restoration, theatre became a luxury. For thealmost entirely upperclass audience, the purpose of goingto the theatre was “to see, and to be seen.” The stage wasa rectangular area between a long hallway of boxes. Thebest seats in the house were often right on stage! Thehouse lights were up full so the audience could see eachother better, not the action on stage. The theatre of theRestoration consisted mainly of light, fluffy comediesperformed in an oratory style— actors posing, wearing BIGcostumes and practically screaming over the din of theaudience. Theatre companies still existed on the patronage
of the very wealthy and often performed plays exclusivelyin the salons of the rich, famous and powerful. A fewhundred years later, opera composer Richard Wagnerfigured out that to focus the audience’s attention away fromthemselves and onto the stage, the lights needed to beoff— forcing the audience to watch the performance. Sincethat time, the audience has taken its cue that theperformance is about to begin when the lights overheadbegin to dim. This small adjustment in lighting effectivelyerected a permanent barrier between the action onstageand the audience.
Freud … Tell Me about Your MotherWhile dimming the house lights has drastically changed theoverall aesthetic of theatre, another modern movement hashad even greater impact on theatre in the 20th century.Psychoanalysis— Id, ego, superego and subconsciousdesires— made theatre more introspective in its search fortruth. As theatre became more psychological, more arepresentation of real life, the audience felt as if they wereeavesdropping. Twentyfirstcentury theatregoers spend agreat deal of time and thought pondering the psychologicalmotivations of characters. There is now an imaginary wall,called the “fourth wall,” separating the performers and theaudience. It affects how we view the performance and howactors’ portray characters— we can observe the peopleonstage as they relate their problems, fears and desireswithout them noticing us at all.
Now the Options Are EndlessToday, for the audience, just about anything goes. Historyhas shared with us many types of theatre, and we, thespectators, bring our own experiences and histories to theevent causing us to react differently to differentproductions. Unlike movies or television, the actoraudience relationship is a “live” relationship: each is in theother’s presence, in the same place at the same time. It isthe exchange between the two which gives theatre itsunique quality. As audience members we have anobligation to be attentive, allowing the performers to fulfilltheir obligation— to entertain and enlighten us. There isalways a dialogue between audience and performer,whether visual or vocal. All individuals participating in thetheatrical event, whether as audience or performer, bring toit a personal background and experience which becomesvital to their response, to the interaction. In the same way,every participant leaves the performance enriched both bytheir own individual experience and that of the largercommunity to which they belong for a brief moment withinthe confines of the theatre walls. We must listen to captureand understand what the performers are trying tocommunicate, and, at the same time, they must listen tous.
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No man’s life has been the subject of more speculationthan William Shakespeare’s. For all his fame andcelebration, Shakespeare’s personal history remains amystery. There are two primary sources forinformation on the Bard—his works and various legaland church documents that have survived fromElizabethan times. Unfortunately, there are many gapsin this information and much room for conjecture.
We know a man named William Shakespeare wasbaptized at StratforduponAvon on April 26, 1564,and was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford onApril 25, 1616. Tradition holds that he was born threedays earlier, and that he died on his birthday—April23—but this is perhaps more romantic myth than fact.Young William was born of John Shakespeare, aglover and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, alanded heiress. William, according to the churchregister, was the third of eight children in theShakespeare household, three of whom died inchildhood. We assume that Shakespeare went togrammar school, since his father was first a member ofthe Stratford Council and later high bailiff (theequivalent of town mayor). A grammar schooleducation would have meant that Shakespeare wasexposed to the rudiments of Latin rhetoric, logic andliterature.
In 1575, John Shakespeare suddenly disappears fromStratford’s political records. Some believe that hisremoval from office necessitated his son’s quittingschool and taking a position as a butcher’s apprentice.Church records tell us that banns (announcements)were published for the marriage of a WilliamShakespeare to an Ann Whatley in 1582 (there are norecords indicating that this arrangement wassolemnized, however). On November 27 of the sameyear a marriage license was granted to 18yearoldWilliam and 26yearold Anne Hathaway. A daughter,Susanna, was born to the couple six months later. We
know that twins,Hamnet and Judith,were born soon afterand that the twinswere baptized. We alsoknow that Hamnetdied in childhood atthe age of 11, onAugust 11, 1596. Wedon’t know how theyoung Shakespearecame to travel toLondon or how he firstcame to the stage. Onetheory holds thatyoung Wil l wasarrested as a poacher(one who huntsillegally on someone
On William Shakespeareelse’s property) andescaped to London toavoid prosecution inStratford. Another holdsthat he left home towork in the city as aschool teacher. Neitheris corroborated bycontemporary testimonyor public record.Whatever the truth maybe, it is clear that in theyears between 1582and 1592, WilliamS h a k e s p e a r e d i dbecome involved in theLondon theatre scene asa principal actor andplaywright with one of several repertory companies.
By 1594, Shakespeare was listed as a shareholder inthe Lord Chamberlain’s Men, one of the most popularacting companies in London. He was a member of thiscompany for the rest of his career, which lasted untilapproximately 1611. When James I came to thethrone in 1603, he issued a royal license toShakespeare and his fellow players, inviting them tocall themselves the King’s Men. In 1608, the King’sMen leased the Blackfriar’s Theatre in London. Thistheatre, which had artificial lighting and was probablyheated, served as their winter playhouse. The famousGlobe Theatre was their summer performance space.
In 1616 Shakespeare’s daughter Judith marriedThomas Quiney, the son of a neighbor in Stratford.Her father revised his will six weeks later; within amonth he had died. The revised version of WilliamShakespeare’s will bequeathed his house and all thegoods therein to his daughter Susanna and herhusband, Dr. John Hall, leaving Judith and Thomasonly a small sum of money; his wife, who survived him,received the couple’s second best bed.
In the years since Shakespeare’s death, he has risen tothe position of patron saint of English literature anddrama. In the 1800s especially, his plays were sopopular that many refused to believe that an actorfrom Stratford had written them. To this day somebelieve that Sir Francis Bacon was the real author ofthe plays; others choose to believe Edward DeVere,the Earl of Oxford, was the author. Still others wouldprefer to believe Walter Raleigh or ChristopherMarlowe penned the lines attributed to Shakespeare.While most people are content to believe that geniuscan spring up in any social class or rural setting, thegap between the known facts and the myths thatsurround Shakespeare’s life leaves ample room forspeculation.
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Portrait of Shakespeare engraved byMartin Droeshout, found on the titlepage of the First Folio edition ofShakespeare’s works, 1623.
The Chandos portrait of Shakespeare,which is the only one known to beproduced during his lifetime.
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“Black Death” claimed so many lives that English societystood on the verge of collapse. Many businesses,including theatres, closed, in part to keep people fromspreading the disease and in part because of the laborshortage that resulted from such widespread illness anddeath. Once the epidemic subsided, the theatresreopened and quickly regained their former popularity.
This explosion of commerce and culture lastedthroughout Elizabeth’s reign and into that of hersuccessor, James I. James’ rule brought many changes toEnglish life; the two most pivotal were a bankrupteconomy and an intense dissatisfaction from a minorityreligious group—the Puritans. In September 1642, thePuritan Parliament issued an edict that forbade all stageplays and closed the theatres, an act that effectivelybrought to a close the Elizabethan Renaissance.Theatres rapidly fell into disrepair and neglect until theRestoration in 1660.
In writing his plays and sonnets, William Shakespearedrew ideas from many different sources. His keen eye fordetail and his sharp understanding of human natureenabled him to create some of the most enduring worksof drama and poetry ever produced. But his work alsoprovides an insightful commentary on 16thcenturyEnglish values, life, history and thought.
ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
The age of Shakespeare was a great time in Englishhistory. During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558—1603),England emerged as the leading naval and commercialpower of the Western world, consolidating this positionwith the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.Elizabeth I firmly established the Church of England(begun by her father Henry VIII after a dispute with thePope) during this time. London in the 16th centuryunderwent a dramatic transformation; the populationgrew 400% between 1500 and 1600, swelling to nearly200,000 people in the city proper and outlying regionby the time an emerging artist from Stratford came totown. A rising merchant middle class was carving out aproductive livelihood, and the economy was booming.
During Shakespeare's lifetime, England also experienceda tremendous cultural revival. This socalled EnglishRenaissance found expression in architecture, music,literature and drama. Shakespeare both drew inspirationfrom and enhanced high and popular culture of theEnglish Renaissance. Popular entertainment during the16th century tended to be boisterous and often violent.Many men, women and children attended publicexecutions of criminals that took place on a regularbasis, and persons of all social classes and gendersattended theatre performances. The trade of bookmaking flourished during the period as public educationfueled the appetite for great works in print.
During the years 15901593, England suffered from anoutbreak of terrible proportions; the bubonic plague or
Illustration of London,Wenceslaus Hollar, 1647.
The “Dewitt” sketch of the Swan Theatre is thought to be the onlycontemporary visual account of an Elizabethan playhouse.
Plays are also categorized in the First Folio as Histories,done so because these works chronicled the lives ofEnglish Kings. These plays tended toward tragedy(Richard II or Richard III, for instance) or comedy (theFalstaff subplots of both parts of Henry IV and thePistolFluellen encounters of Henry V.) Through theeffort to categorize Shakespeare’s plays in publication,we can see that his writing style mingled theantagonistic visions of comedy and tragedy in waysthat still seem novel and startling. The recognition ofthis has led scholars since the publication of the FirstFolio to add additional genres—problem plays,romances, tragicomedies—to help classify the works ofShakespeare. Still other scholars have augmentedthese genres by grouping the plays chronologically,separating by time periods.
The first period, pre1594 including Richard III and TheComedy of Errors, has its roots in Roman and medievaldrama—the construction of the plays, while good, isobvious and shows the author's hand more so thanhis later works. The second period, 15941600including Henry V and A Midsummer Night’s Dream,shows more growth in style and a lesslaboredconstruction. The histories of this period areconsidered Shakespeare's best, portraying the lives ofroyalty in human terms. He also begins theinterweaving of genres that would become one of hisstylistic signatures. His comedies mature in this period,developing deeper characterization and subjects thanpreviously seen in his work.
Shakespeare’s WorksWilliam Shakespeare, in terms of both his life and bodyof work, is the most writtenabout author in thehistory of Western civilization. His canon includes 38plays, 154 sonnets and two epic narrative poems.During his lifetime, many of his plays were publishedin what are known as Quarto editions, frequentlywithout receiving the playwright’s permission. TheQuartos are mostly flawed versions containing addedmaterial or missing entire passages from the originalworks. The first collected edition of Shakespeare’sworks is called the First Folio and was published afterthe playwright’s death in 1623 by two members of hisacting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell.Since then the works of Shakespeare have beenstudied, analyzed, translated and enjoyed the worldover as some of the finest masterpieces of the Englishlanguage.
Establishing the chronology of Shakespeare's plays is afrustrating and difficult task. It is impossible to know inwhat order the plays were written because there is norecord of the first production date of any of his works.However, scholars have decided upon a specific playchronology based on the following sources ofinformation: 1) several historical events and allusionsto those events in the plays; 2) the records ofperformances of the plays, taken from such places asthe diaries of other Shakespeare contemporaries; 3)the publication dates of sources; and 4) the dates thatthe plays appear in print (remembering that a playwas produced immediately after it was written in theElizabethan age, but may not have been published foryears following the first production). Despite the factthat we have an accepted play chronology, we mustkeep in mind that the dating is conjectural, and thereare many who disagree with the order of plays listedon the next page.
Drawing distinctions between Shakespeare’s plays andcategorizing his works has been a focus of scholars forhundreds of years, and the criteria used todifferentiate the plays into types or genres haschanged over time.
The distinction between tragedy and comedy becameparticularly important during Shakespeare's life.During that time writers of tragedy conformed toAristotle’s definition, relating the tale of a great man orwoman brought down through hubris or fate.Comedy in this time, much like in our own, descendedfrom the Roman "New Comedy" of Plautus andTerence, which kept away from politics and focusedon love, domestic troubles and family affairs.
In the First Folio, some of Shakespeare’s plays aredivided by their theatrical genre—either Tragedies orComedies—however, some of the tragedies’protagonists or heroes, like Romeo, Timon or Macbeth,do not easily accommodate Aristotle's definition.
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The third period, 16001608 including Macbeth andKing Lear, includes the great tragedies—the principalworks that would earn Shakespeare his fame in latercenturies. The comedies of this period showShakespeare at a literary crossroads—they are oftendarker and without the clear comic resolution ofprevious comedies—hence the term "problem plays" todescribe them. The fourth period, post1608 includingThe Winter’s Tale and The Tempest, encompasseswhat have been referred to as the romances ortragicomedies. Shakespeare at the end of his careerseemed preoccupied with themes of redemption. Thewriting is more serious yet more lyrical, and the playsshow Shakespeare at his most symbolic. Scholarsargue whether this period owes more toShakespeare's maturity as a playwright or merelysignifies a changing trend in Elizabethan theatre.
It is important for scholars, teachers and students tokeep in mind that these “genre” classifications werenot determined by Shakespeare during the writing ofeach play but imposed after his death to help readersbetter understand his work.
Shakespeare’s PlaysFirstPerformed Title159091 Henry VI, Part II159091 Henry VI, Part III159192 Henry VI, Part I159293 Richard III159293 The Comedy of Errors159394 Titus Andronicus159394 The Taming of the Shrew159495 The Two Gentlemen of Verona159495 Love's Labour's Lost159495 Romeo and Juliet159596 Richard II159596 A Midsummer Night's Dream159697 King John159697 The Merchant of Venice159798 Henry IV, Part I159798 Henry IV, Part II159899 Much Ado about Nothing159899 Henry V15991600 Julius Caesar15991600 As You Like It15991600 Twelfth Night160001 Hamlet160001 The Merry Wives of Windsor160102 Troilus and Cressida160203 All's Well That Ends Well160405 Measure for Measure160405 Othello160506 King Lear160506 Macbeth160607 Antony and Cleopatra160708 Coriolanus160708 Timon of Athens160809 Pericles160910 Cymbeline161011 The Winter's Tale161112 The Tempest161213 Henry VIII161213 The Two Noble Kinsmen*
*The Two Noble Kinsmen is listed although afew scholars do not believe it is an originalShakespeare work. The majority of the playwas probably written by John Fletcher,Shakespeare's close friend who succeeded himas foremost dramatist for the King's Men.
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First Folio title page of Hamlet.
Shakespeare’s
When we scan a piece of text (marking it with a “ ”for the unstressed and “/“ for stressed), we simply tapout the rhythm of the line, based on dee DUM deeDUM dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM, to see if the line isstructured in iambic pentameter:
/ / / / /
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?(II.ii.2)
Embracing the rules of this new verse, Shakespeare’searly writing operated almost entirely within strictiambic pentameter.
Prose in Shakespeare’s work is not in iambicpentameter and relies more heavily on other literarydevices for its speed and rhythm. These devicesinclude: antithesis (setting opposite words againsteach other), lists (series of actions or descriptive wordsthat build to a climax) and puns (the use or misuse of aword to mean another word). Shakespeare used proseto express conversation between the lower classes,like the Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,or familiar or intimate scenes, as with Henry andKatherine at the end of Henry V. He also utilizedprose to express madness or vulgarity, as in thenunnery scene of Hamlet. The exact meaning of a shiftfrom verse to prose is not constant, but it alwayssignals a change in the situation, characters or tone ofa scene. Only Much Ado about Nothing and TheMerry Wives of Windsor rely almost entirely on prose.
In the following passage from The Merry Wives ofWindsor, note antithesis in Ford’s comparison ofhimself with Page and of other men’s possessions withMistress Ford, see the list of things Ford would rathertrust others with than his “wife with herself” andobserve the pun on “effect”:
FordPage is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust his wife, he will notbe jealous. I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter,Parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishmanwith my aquavitae bottle, or a thief to walk my amblinggelding, than my wife with herself. Then she plots, then sheruminates, then she devises; and what they think in theirhearts they may effect, they will break their hearts but theywill effect. God be praised for my jealousy!
(II.ii.300314)
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Verse & ProseDuring the Elizabethan period, “English” was arelatively young language (only about 160 years old)combining Latin, French and AngloSaxon. There wasno dictionary or standardized literacy education.People in Shakespeare’s London spoke much morethan they read, causing the rules of grammar andspelling to be quite fluid. Writers created new wordsdaily and poets expressed themselves in a new formof writing known as blank verse, first appearing in1557 in Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aenis by the Earl ofSurrey:
They whistled all, with fixed face attentWhen Prince Aeneas from the royal seatThus gan to speak, O Queene, it is thy will,I should renew a woe can not be told:
(Book II, 14)
That the verse was “blank” simply meant that thepoetry did not rhyme, allowing rhymeless poets suchas Virgil and Ovid to be translated and Elizabethanplaywrights to emulate the natural rhythms ofEnglish speech within iambic pentameter.
A typical line of verse from this time contains fiveunits of meter or feet. Each foot contains twosyllables. When the first syllable is unstressed and thesecond syllable is stressed (dee DUM), it is an iamb(iambic meaning push, persistency or determination).The prefix penta means five, as in the fivesidedshape—a pentagon. Iambic pentameter is thereforeone line of poetry consisting of five forwardmovingfeet.
It was this new tradition of blank verse in iambicpentameter that Shakespeare inherited as heembarked on his career as playwright and poet.Similar to the human heartbeat, a horse gallop or thebeat of a piece of music, iambic pentameter drivesand supports Shakespeare’s verse, moving thelanguage along in a forward flow that emulates thenatural speech and rhythms of life. Here is a standardline of verse in iambic pentameter from Romeo andJuliet.
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?(II.ii.2)
If we were to say the rhythm and not the words, itwould sound like this:
dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM dee DUM
Eventually, in Othello, King Lear and Macbeth,Shakespeare became a master of building, breakingand reinventing rhythms and language to create anentire tone or world for a play. Continuouslyexperimenting and exploring the combination of form,meaning and language, he used short and sharedlines between characters more and more, as inMacbeth, allowing the speed and rhythm ofcharacters’ thoughts to meet and collide.
Lady Macbeth I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
Macbeth When?Lady Macbeth Now.Macbeth As I descended?
(II.ii.1519)
By the time Shakespeare gives his final farewell in TheTempest, believed by many to be his last play, his verseis so varied and specific to character and situation thatit is extremely difficult to scan. Shakespeare broke,rebuilt and reinvented the verse form so many timesthat he plays the equivalent of jazz in the rhythms ofCymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. At theend of The Tempest, in Prospero’s powerfully simpleepilogue, Shakespeare brings his work full circle byreturning to the simplicity of regular verse. Havingcreated almost 1,700 words, timeless characters andthe greatest poetry in the history of the Englishlanguage, Shakespeare “buries his art” and returns tothe form with which he began.
As his writing skill level increased, Shakespearegradually employed alliteration (the repetition of avowel or consonant in two or more words in aphrase), assonance (resembling vowel sounds in aline) and onomatopoeia (words with soundsimitating their meaning) to create deeply poetic,vibrant images on stage for the characters and hisaudience. Examples of these three literary devices arefound in the following four lines:
ChorusFrom camp to camp through the foul womb of nightThe hum of either army stilly sounds,That the fixed sentinels almost receiveThe secret whispers of each other's watch.
(Henry V, IV.47)
The hard “C” is repeated in the first line (alliteration),the “O” is heard in “through”, “foul” and“womb” (assonance) and the word “whispers” in thelast line imitates the sound whispers produce(onomatopoeia).
By the time Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, he sometimesallowed a character’s thoughts to overflow theirusual pentameter lines with an extra beat, oftenending with a soft or feminine ending. He alsoutilized more and more enjambed or runon lines,allowing thoughts to continue from line to line,rather than finishing a thought per line. He grew toexpress the inner life of his characters and the size oftheir thoughts within the structure and the scansionof the text. In this famous passage from Hamlet,notice the overflow in the first line of Hamlet’s hugethought beyond the regular pentameter, forming afeminine ending:
/ / / / /
To be, or not to be: that is the question:(III.i.55)
With this overflow, Shakespeare expresses theenormity of Hamlet’s thought, his situation and theuneasy exploration of this argument. (It is importantto remember, however, scanning is subjective andmust be decided by the individual actor or reader.)This line might also be scanned:
/ / / / /
To be, or not to be: that is the question:(III.i.55)
This creates a trochee, or an iamb of reversed stress—DEE dum.
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An artist’s rendition of the inside of an Elizabethantheatre.
1564 William Shakespeare born to John andMary Shakespeare in StratfordUponAvon.
1570 John Shakespeare first applies for afamily coat of arms. His application isdenied.
1582 William Shakespeare marries AnneHathaway.
1583 Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna born.1585 Shakespeare’s twins Judith and Hamnet
born.1587 Shakespeare goes to London to pursue
life in the theatre.
1593 Shakespeare writes Venus and Adonis.Also begins writing the Sonnets.
1594 Shakespeare becomes a foundingmember of the Lord Chamberlain’sMen.
1596 Hamnet Shakespeare dies at age 11.1597 Shakespeare purchases New Place in
Stratford.1599 Shakespeare’s family is granted a coat
of arms.1601 Shakespeare’s father dies.
1603 The Lord Chamberlain’s Men arerenamed the King’s Men. They performat the Court of King James I more thanany other company.
1605 Shakespeare purchases more land inStratford.
1608 The King’s Men begin playing at theBlackfriars Theatre, a prominent indoortheatre.
1609 Shakespeare’s Sonnets published.
1616 In March, Shakespeare, apparently ill,revises his will. On April 23rd he diesand is buried at Holy Trinity Church,Stratford.
1623 Shakespeare’s First Folio published.
1558 Queen Elizabeth I takes the throne.
1562 A series of civil wars between Catholicsand Protestants, known as the Wars ofReligion, begin in France.
1564 John Calvin, an influential Protestantleader during the Reformation, dies.An outbreak of the plague devastatesLondon.
1568 A revolt of the SpanishruledNetherlands against Philip II, King ofSpain, begins the Eighty Years War.
1580 Sir Frances Drake circumnavigates theEarth.
1586 Mary Queen of Scots is tried for treasonand executed by beheading.
1588 The British Navy defeats the SpanishArmada, avoiding a long war betweenEngland and Spain.
1589 The Wars of Religion end when Henryof Navarre ascends to the throne tobecome King Henry IV of France.
1598 Philip II of Spain dies.The French Protestants are permittedto freely practice their religion by theEdict of Nantes.
1601 The Earl of Essex attempts to rebelagainst Queen Elizabeth, fails and isexecuted.
1603 Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested, tried andimprisoned for disobeying the Queenby secretly marrying one of her maids ofhonor.Queen Elizabeth dies. King James VI ofScotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots,becomes King James I of England. Theplague once again ravages London.
1604 England establishes a peace treaty withSpain.
1607 Jamestown, one of the first Englishcolonies in the Americas, is founded.
1610 King Henry IV of France is murdered.He is succeeded by his son, Louis XIII.
1618 The Protestant German princes and theirforeign supporters begin their struggleagainst the Holy Roman Empire. Thismarks the start of the Thirty Years War.
1540 Michelangelo finishes painting The LastJudgment.
1543 Copernicus’ heliocentric theory, claimingthe sun is the center of the universe, isfirst published.
1564 Christopher “Kit” Marlowe born.1565 Arthur Golding translates Ovid’s
Metamorphoses. The text later influencedShakespeare’s work.
1567 Richard Burbage, a tragedian whoportrayed many of Shakespeare’scharacters, born.
1572 Poet John Donne born.Playwright Ben Jonson born.
1576 The first permanent theatre in England,The Theatre, is built.
1577 Raphael Holinshed publishes TheChronicles of England, Scotland andIreland, which becomes Shakespeare’sprimary source for the history plays.
1580 Thomas Middleton, a playwright whocollaboratively wrote many plays, born.
1588 Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus first produced.1590 Marlowe’s play The Jew of Malta first
produced; it influenced Shakespeare’sThe Merchant of Venice.
1592 Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy firstproduced. It influenced Shakespeare’sHamlet.
1597 The Theatre permanently closes due tothe expiration of its lease.
1599 The Globe Theatre is built on Banksidefrom the timbers of The Theatre.
1603 The “Scientific Revolution” begins withJohann Kepler’s recordings of planetarymovements and Galileo Galilei’sperfection of the telescope.
1606 Ben Jonson’s play Volpone is written.
1607 Burbage leases the Blackfriars Theatrefor indoor performances.
1611 The King James Bible first published.
1616 Ben Jonson’s Workes published in folio.
of Western World Events
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Timeline
Shakespeare’s Life and Works Western History Events in Western Art, Science& Culture
A fter the death of the emperor of Rome, theemperor’s two sons Saturninus andBassianus vie to replace him. Titus returnsfrom 10 years of war with the Goths,
having lost 21 of his 25 sons in battle. He also hascaptured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her threesons. Titus buries his dead sons and, despite herpleas, sacrifices Tamora’s eldest to settle the score.Tamora vows revenge on Titus for this deed. TheRoman tribune Marcus Andronicus announces thatthe throne has been offered to his brother Titus. Titusrefuses the title of emperor, instead supporting thecandidacy of Saturninus.
Saturninus becomes emperor and immediatelychooses Titus’ daughter Lavinia as his empress.Lavinia loves Bassianus, so the two run off together,leaving her brothers to defend them from pursuit.Titus rashly kills his son Mutius for disobeying thenew emperor’s command. When Saturninus seesTamora, however, he gives up Lavinia and marriesthe Goth Queen instead.
Tamora’s sons, Chiron and Demetrius, lust afterLavinia. Tamora’s Moorish lover Aaron convincesthem to take her by force. During a hunting party,Lavinia and Bassianus find Aaron and Tamora in thewoods together and threaten to tell Saturninus of herinfidelity. Chiron and Demetrius stab Bassianus andthrow him into a pit and drag Lavinia off to rape her.Aaron lures Titus’ sons Martius and Quintus to the pit,in order to frame them for the murder of Bassianus.Saturninus blames Titus’ sons for Bassianus’ deathand takes them prisoner.
Marcus finds Lavinia in the woods, her hands andtongue cut off, and brings her to Titus. Aaron bringsword that if Marcus, Titus or his remaining son,Lucius, will send Saturninus a severed hand, theemperor will send back Titus’ two imprisoned sons inexchange. Titus sacrifices his hand, but a messengerreturns, bringing Titus’ hand back with the severedheads of Martius and Quintus. With all his other sonsdead, Titus sends Lucius into exile for protection.
Lavinia chases after Lucius’ young son when he isreading the story of Philomel, a mythical woman whowas raped in the woods. She then writes the names“Chiron” and “Demetrius” in the dirt with a staff. Titussends magnificent weapons to Chiron andDemetrius, and Aaron realizes that Titus hasdiscovered their guilt. Suddenly, a nurse rushes in totell the three men that Tamora has given birth to a
black child, and that they must kill it so that Saturninusdoes not find out. Aaron murders the nurse to keepher from talking and takes his newborn baby to theGoth camp to save its life.
Titus, pretending to be mad, orders his followers toshoot arrows into the sky with letters attachedbegging the gods to assist his revenge. Word arrivesthat Lucius has joined with the Goths and is marchingan army to conquer Rome. Aaron finds his way to theGoth camp, where he reveals his crimes to Lucius inexchange for sparing the life of the child he carrieswith him. A Roman messenger offers Lucius a meetingto negotiate with Saturninus at Titus’ house, andLucius accepts.
Believing that Titus is mad, Tamora and her sonsappear at his house, disguised as the gods of Revenge,Rape and Murder to answer his letters. Titus begsTamora to leave Rape and Murder with him for awhile. The instant she leaves, Titus orders Chiron andDemetrius bound and gagged. He slits their throats,and Lavinia collects their spilled blood. Titus prepares apastry with their blood and powdered bones andbakes their heads into two pies.
Titus welcomes Lucius, Marcus, Saturninus andTamora to his home, serving Tamora her own sons’flesh for dinner. After killing Lavinia to put her out ofher misery, he reveals what is in the pie and stabsTamora. Saturninus immediately kills Titus, and Luciusin turn kills Saturninus. Lucius becomes the newemperor, and his first act is to bury Aaron chestdeepin the ground to starve to death. He orders all thebodies buried except for Tamora’s, which is to bethrown to wild animals.
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Synopsis of Titus Andronicus
Cristofer Jean, JudithMarie Bergan, Derrick Lee Weeden, B.W.Gonzalez and Gregory Linington as Goths in the OregonShakespeare Festival’s 2002 production of Titus Andronicus.
For Elizabethans, Rome was the ultimate modelof civilization. They looked to the ancient
Roman Empire, which had ruled Europe and parts of Africa andAsia for more than a thousand years, for examples of excellence inevery aspect of life—from politics to architecture and poetry. Inaddition, the island nation aspired to one day become the nextRome. Under Elizabeth I the Brit ish had built a powerful navy,defeated the Spanish Armada, and explored new, faraway lands.Their education system was based on classical texts both Latinand Greek. Shakespeare and other playwrights wrote dramas thattook place in an idealized Roman world.
Unlike his other Roman plays, which depict the emerging, orcollapsing, political system in conflict with the masses or the egos ofthe main characters, Titus Andronicus portrays a very differentimage of the Roman Empire. This bloody, gory tale takes place in asociety that is corrupt, in which formal justice gives way to personalrevenge. The ideal of Roman Stoicism (remaining emotionless andfree from passion) and the intricate codes of honor lead to thedestruction of Titus’ own family, as he stubbornly sacrifices his Gothenemy Alarbus, and then kills his own son Mutius for standing in hisway. Through Shakespeare’s pen Shakespeare creates a bloodycautionary tale where Rome becomes a “wilderness of tigers.”
If the Romans symbolized civilization to theElizabethans, then the Goths represented all
things barbaric. Historically, the Goths were a group of Germanictribes from northern Europe and Scandinavia. During thethird century, tribes of Goths began to invade the WesternRoman Empire, later leading to its collapse. The Goths inShakespeare’s play are portrayed as barbaric villians, capable ofcommitting the worst k ind o f atro c it ies . When Tamora’spleas to Titus go unheeded and he sacrifices her eldest son, herthirst for revenge drives her for the rest of the play. Chiron andDemetrius rape and mutilate Lavinia without remorse but meettheir own terrible fate at Titus’ hands.
The term Moor, in Elizabethan times, had severalmeanings and not one clear definition. It could
refer to someone who was Arab, Muslim or of black Africandescent. In general, it referred to a person who was different—ineither race, religion or both—from white Europeans. This foreignappearance would have immediately signaled villainy to anElizabethan audience. In Renaissance drama, Moors were almostexclusively villainous characters, often based on the Vice character(a onedimensional personification of evil) from Medieval Mysteryplays. Indeed, Aaron the Moor is the Vice character of the play,orchestrating much of the violence and delighting in his villainy.While Aaron never states a motive for his deceit, he exhibitsmoments of humanity when he must protect his illegitimate infantfrom murder. Here we can see Shakespeare incorporating and alsowrestling with conventions of his time—creating the Moorish Vicecharacter but not allowing him to be merely onedimensional.(Shakespeare will later go on to write the first English play with aMoor as the tragic hero, further turning the convention on its headby creating a white Vice character, Iago, in Othello.)
The Romans
The Goths
The Moor
Romans, Goths and Moors
Laurence Olivier as Titus Andronicus inPeter Brook’s production, ShakespeareMemorial Theatre, 1955.
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Jessica Lange as Tamora and AlanCumming as Saturninus in JulieTaymor’s 1999 film, Titus.
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Keith Mitchell as Aaron and BarbaraJefford as Tamora at the Old Vic, 1957.
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T itus Andronicus is a bloodbath, even comparedto modern standards. Critics throughout the
18th and 19th centuries found the work crudeand disgusting; it was both dismissed as anearly, unfinished work and had its authorshipchallenged. During Shakespeare’s lifetime, TitusAndronicus was his most popular and mostperformed play. Its success is also marked bythe fact that it was Shakespeare’s first play toappear in print in 1594. The play’s early success canbe better understood in the context in which it waswritten. The young Shakespeare had just arrived inLondon, and a popular form of tragedy, calledrevenge tragedy or “tragedy of blood,” had justemerged on the Elizabethan stage. Shakespearedecided to make his mark by contributing a play tothe genre of revenge tragedy. Highly influenced byThe Spanish Tragedy, which in turn was influencedby Senecan tragedy, Shakespeare tried his hand atthis form and created a sensationally violent,revengesoaked drama in Titus Andronicus.
The Elizabethans had just discovered the plays of theancient Roman poet, Seneca. These plays werewritten to be recited, not performed. The typicalSenecan tragedy involved a long plot of someoneseeking revenge with graphic descriptions ofviolence, and usually a ghost or witch or two. Atypical revenge tragedy takes place in a court setting,and contains any or all of the following elements:• an unjust murder, often a good ruler killed by a
bad one overtaking the throne;• ghosts or the personification of revenge who call
on the living to avenge murder;
• a playwithinaplay, or the use of disguise andtrickery to discover guilt;
• severed limbs and heads, extreme violence andmutilation
• an eruption of general violence at the end, inwhich nearly all the characters die, including theavenger.
Thomas Kyd adapted this form and wrote TheSpanish Tragedy (c.15871590). In The SpanishTragedy, Hieronomo’s son, Horatio, is killed,Hieronomo spends the entire play tracking down hismurderers. His frustration drives him mad; hisrevenge is to stage a play in which he uses actualknives instead of fake ones to kill the wrongdoers. Inthe end, Hieronomo is captured, bites out his owntongue to prevent himself from talking, and thenstabs his captor and himself with a penknife. TheElizabethan audience had acquired a taste for thebloody in its drama.
This bloody tragedy was followed by a slew ofimitators, including The Atheist's Revenge, TheRevenge of Bussy d'Ambois, Antonio's Revenge andThe Revenger's Tragedy. Thomas Kyd’s friend androommate, Christopher Marlowe, also contributed tothe genre with Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta.Today, Titus Andronicus is back on the critics’ goodside, mainly due to a few excellent 20thcenturystagings of the play. Recent critics are looking at TitusAndronicus and seeing the master playwright hard atwork, using a genre that was popular at the time andexpanding it by including deeper, richer charactersand more complex moralities. They also see germs ofhis future work, including the greatest revengetragedy of them all, Hamlet.
Vengeance Is Mine
Brian Cox as Titus in Titus Andronicus, directed by Deborah Warner, RSC at the Swan Theatre,StratforduponAvon, 1987.
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Blood and Gore
T itus Andronicus was said to be one of[Shakespeare’s] most popular plays.Elizabethan audiences were bloodthirsty.They took pleasure in bear baiting and
were accustomed to public executions and headsrolling at the Tower of London. They lived and diedwith the plague: an epidemic closed the theatersduring the two years Shakespeare supposedly wroteTitus and The Rape of Lucrece. The survivors relishedmayhem and murder on the stage and Shakespearegave them what they wanted.” – Alan S. Stone,“Shakespeare’s Tarantino Play,”Boston Review, 2000.
Thirteen murders, two decapitations, four mutilations(three hands, one tongue), one rape, ritual sacrificeand cannibalism—inShakespeare’s works,there is not another playthat is so gruesome.Partially due to its violentcontent (and partially dueto critical opinion that thelanguage in the play wassubpar), Titus Andronicuswas not performed in anymajor, unadaptedproductions betweenShakespeare’s death in1616 and 1923. Despitethe play’s popularity inShakespeare’s time, andits current revival in the20th and 21st centuries,for most of the play’shistory it has been reviledas a critical disaster.Perhaps elements ofElizabethan and modernculture, and our attitudestoward violence, have helped to make a place for thisplay in both Shakespeare’s time and ours.
Titus Andronicus was the most popular play, the mostoften performed, in Shakespeare’s lifetime. One hasto wonder if Shakespeare’s intent was to give hisaudience the bloody violence they craved. In additionto being performed the most frequently, the play wasalso published in four different quartos, indicating ahigh demand for this script. We know that violentplays were very popular at the time—for example, inThe Battle of Alcazar by George Peele, another playprinted in 1594 (the same year as Titus Andronicus),
the list of the properties needed for a “bloodybanquet” in the play include dead men’s heads indishes, dead men’s bones and blood. In The SpanishTragedy by Thomas Kyd, murder abounds throughoutthe plot, and the main character even bites out hisown tongue. The sheer magnitude of the violence inTitus Andronicus, however, and the comparison withShakespeare’s other plays (which are not like Titus atall), make critics question whether Shakespeare wasattempting to mock or parody the violence of theother plays of his time. By the end of the play, theviolence borders on the ridiculous, as a stage directionreads, “enter Titus, like a cook, placing thedishes” (V.iii.25) when he serves Tamora the piescontaining the flesh of her own sons. Directors who
have tackled this playhave struggled withthis balance betweenviolence and humor.Bill Alexander (directorof Henry IV, parts 1and 2 at theShakespeare TheatreCompany in the 0304season) directed arecent production ofTitus for the RSC, andspeaks about hisexperience with theplay:
“The main problem fora modern productionis getting the toneright; finding a delicatebalance between thehorror and darkhumor of the play.
Shakespeare's audience must have had a profoundlydifferent relationship to physical violence from us.They had a judicial system that made violenceacceptable and public as part of its code. People wereused to seeing their fellow humans hanging fromgallows, thieves with amputated hands, headsdisplayed on bridges, traitors disembowelled onscaffolds, and to hearing the roar and laughter of thebear pit. They must have developed a sense of humorabout it in a way we find difficult. This is going to beone of the main challenges in the rehearsal room.”– Bill Alexander, Director’s Diary for Titus Andronicus,RSC, 2003.
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Brian Cox and Sonia Ritter as Titus and Lavinia, directed byDeborah Warner, RSC at the Swan Theatre, StratforduponAvon, 1987.Photo by Sarah Ainslie.
This challenge is one of the elements that makesTitus Andronicus a difficult play to produce.Theatres with a strong sense of decorum, modestyand strict morality gained popularity afterShakespeare’s death and into the 20th century. Theviolence in Titus caused the play to be not onlyavoided but also wholly reviled by critics forcenturies. The first production to break this cyclewas Robert Atkins’ RSC production in 1923—performed merely because the RSC was producingevery play in the canon—which drew unintentionallaughter from the audience in the final scene.(Apparently the balance between horror andhumor in that production was not carefullynavigated). The first critically acclaimed productionof modern times was Peter Brook’s 1955production at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.Laurence Olivier played Titus and Vivien Leighplayed Lavinia. The violence in the play wasstylized. Lavinia’s wounds were represented bybloodstained streamers from her wrists and mouth.Another famous production of the play wasDeborah Warner’s 1987 RSC production, whichhandled the violence in a very different way. Thegruesome details were shown realistically andunflinchingly—and the production was famous forcausing audience members to faint.
Laurence Olivier as Titus, Vivien Leigh as Lavinia and Alan Webb as Marcus in Peter Brook’s production of TitusAndronicus, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1955.
In 1999, American director Julie Taymor produced anadaptation of the play on film, called Titus. Thisproduction combined gruesome realism with anumber of fantastical elements. For example, the filmbegins with a framing device in which a young boystages a brutal battle in his kitchen with food and toysoldiers, only to be kidnapped and taken to ancientRome. Also, when Titus’ severed hand is returned tohim with the heads of his two sons, the delivery ismade by circus performers. The result of thesedevices is a dark, gruesome humor. Now, for the firsttime in its history, the Shakespeare Theatre Companywill be producing Titus Andronicus in 2007, directedby Gale Edwards.
These recent productions show that the play hasgained popularity in the 20th and 21st centuries—perhaps because audiences today are as bloodthirstyas their Elizabethan counterparts. News of violenceacross the globe, two world wars, and a culture ofsaturation of violence in media and entertainmenthas made violence a part of everyday modern life.This, in addition to a broadening of what is“acceptable” in the theatre, has led to a culture inwhich we can stage the entirety of Shakespeare’scanon without censorship and learn from it.
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F rom the beginning of Titus Andronicus,characters devise more and more horrible revengesfor each other in retribution for wrongs committedagainst them. The violence ends only when nearly allof the characters have met their gruesome ends.However, the characters in the play believe that theirrevenge is justified. Each character maintains a codeof “honor” that allows him or her to perpetrategrievous wrongs against others without guilt orremorse, believing that his or her actions are just.
When Titus returns from battle with the Gothprisoners of war at the beginning of the play, hebelieves he is acting rightly when he sacrificesAlarbus, Tamora’s oldest son, to appease the souls ofhis 21 sons killed in battle. Tamora pleads for mercy,but Titus proceeds; his code of honor, dedication toRome and strict religious belief do not permit him torelent. Based on the code of the battlefield, and thetraditions of Rome, Titus believes this act of murder isnot only appropriate but right. Tamora calls Titus’code of honor “cruel, irreligious piety!” (I.i.133)—afitting accusation since Titus’ religious devotion is partof the motivation to murder. Titus’ act sets in motionthe events of the play—Tamora vows revenge onTitus and his family in retaliation for the pain she hassuffered. Tamora believes that any crueltyperpetrated on the Andronicuses is justified by theact of cruelty done to her son.
Soon after, Titus again acts rashly and stubbornlybased on his code of honor. When Saturninus, thenew Roman Emperor, requests Titus’ daughterLavinia’s hand in marriage, Titus immediately offersher to him, despite the fact that she is engaged toBassianus. Lavinia, of course, rejects the match,but Titus’ code of honor will not allow him to acceptdissent and disobedience of an order from theemperor. Lavinia flees, and her brother Mutius drawshis sword on Titus to prevent him from chasing her.Titus then kills Mutius, his own son—one of four remaining sons who returned from battle with him.Lucius questions Titus’ act, but Titus remains firm:
Lucius My lord, you are unjust, and more than so,In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son.
Titus Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine;My sons would never so dishonor me.(I.i.29598)
Titus shows no remorse for Mutius’ death because hebelieves that Mutius has “dishonored” himself and thefamily. Although he lost 21 of his 25 sons in battle,
and slayed Tamora’s eldest to appease their souls, hedoes not mourn for Mutius and initially refuses to lethim receive a proper burial or lie in the Andronicustomb.
Mutius’ death turns out to be in vain, for as soon asSaturninus views Tamora, he chooses her as hisqueen instead of Lavinia. This raises Tamora to aposition of power in which she is able to manipulateev ent s to enact her revenge against T itus .Throughout the play characters act on their desire forrevenge disregarding any moral compass, this causesRome to become a “wilderness of tigers” (III.i.53).Rome is no longer civilized; men and women are nobetter than beasts. By the end of the play; actsof dismemberment, rape and cannibalism have beencommitted, and the play ends with a mass murder.
The leadership of Rome then falls to Lucius, Titus’eldest son, who has joined with the Goth army toinvade Rome and remove Saturninus from power. Inthe absence of any code of honor besides revenge,the Romans have joined with the very enemy theyspent years defeating to maintain control of theirsociety. Shakespeare’s most violent play demonstrateshow a society devoid of honor or justice brings aboutits own fall.
Code of Honor in Titus Andronicus
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Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus in JulieTaymor’s 1999 film, Titus.
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Dismemberment is a common act of violence in the play. Rome continues its downward spiral, withmore and more characters subjected to this violence. Lavinia’s hands and tongue are severed. Titus cutsoff his own hand in an attempt to save his sons. This offering is then returned to him with thedecapitated heads of the sons he was hoping to save.
Hands, in general, are often perceived as instruments of communication. Because Lavinia has beenrelieved of her hands and tongue, she is unable to accuse the perpetrators of the violence againsther. Hands are necessary parts of the body, used to hold items, manipulate tools, exchange greetingsand offer affection. Lavinia is rendered completely helpless by the loss of her hands. Titus’ act ofremoving his own hand shows how he is implicated in his own downfall—his loss of power over Romeand over his own mind—as he voluntarily becomes “lame.”
More symbolically, the political state was thought of as “The Body Politic” in Elizabethantimes. Literally, the human body was a metaphor for society, with the head representing the king, andthe other echelons of society representing the lower parts of the body. When the state was suffering,it was thought of as a disease affecting the body. Shakespeare shows hands and heads removed overthe course of the play, mirroring the dismemberment of the Body Politic of Roman society.
Shakespeare continually references animals in Titus Andronicus. Titus calls Rome a “wilderness oftigers” (III.i.53). The Clown delivers a basket containing two pigeons to the emperor before he is hanged(IV.iv). When Aaron slays the nurse who brings him his baby, he compares her to a pig: “Weeke!Weeke! / So cries a pig prepared to the spit” (IV.ii.14647). At the end of the play, Lucius orders thatTamora’s body be thrown “forth to beasts and birds to prey” (V.iii.198). Shakespeare weaves frequentreferences to animals into his text in order to underscore the bestial nature of the violence in the playand the disintegration of civilization.
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Sketch of Titus Andronicus by Henry Peacham, c.1595.Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Warminster, Wiltshire, Great Britain.
In his earliest tragedy, Shakespeare employs much more overt and heavyhanded symbolism than inhis later plays. What follows is a discussion of some of the major symbols in Titus Andronicus.
Hands and Dismemberment
Animal Imagery
Shakespeare’s Symbolism
Create a Vice CharacterWhen Shakespeare was a young writer learninghis craft, he based many of his characters and thestructure of his plays on earlier forms of drama,
including Medieval Mystery plays. The character ofAaron, in particular, can trace his history back to theVice characters of early medieval plays. Vice characterswere onedimensional representations of evil. WhileAaron orchestrates the death of many other charactersin the play without remorse, Shakespeare also fleshedout Aaron by making him dynamic, charismatic andcaring about his small child. Ask students to brainstormideas for a play that would include a modernizedversion of a Vice character. Ask students to develop acharacter sketch of their own Vice character—includingtheir age, background and costume. What would bethe motivation for wrongdoing? Ask students to movearound the room and create a voice and physicality forthis character, then present their choices to the class.
Soldiers Coming HomeTitus Andronicus begins with the Romansmarching home from a long, exhausting war. Askstudents to discuss how the soldiers and generals
in Titus adjust to returning home to a peaceful society.Do they make a smooth transition? Are there elementsof a warring culture that contribute to some of themisfortunes in the rest of the plot of the play? Askstudents to interview a veteran or conduct an internetsearch about the transition from war to peace time andany challenges faced returning to civilian life.
Is Revenge Ever Justified?Titus Andronicus forces audiences to ask thequestion: is revenge ever justified? Ask studentsto make a list of acts of revenge in the play. Then
ask them to journal their response to the abovequestion. Is there ever a time when revenge is justifiedor necessary? Ask the class to discuss their answers inrelation to the characters’ actions in the play. Did thecharacters have any other way of redressing thewrongs done to them? If an act of revenge is justified,where do we draw the line? What is the differencebetween revenge and justice?
Staging ViolenceEvery production of Titus Andronicus must dealwith violence in its own way. Some productionsmake the violence stylized, or unrealistic, while
others portray it as realistically as possible. Ask studentsto divide up into groups and choose one of thefollowing scenes:• Aaron severing Titus’ hand (Act 3, Scene 1)• The deaths of Chiron and Demetrius (Act 4, Scene 2)• Titus dressed as a cook and Tamora eating her sons’
flesh in a pie (Act 5, Scene 3)• The deaths of Lavinia, Tamora, Titus and Saturninus
(Act 5, Scene 3)Ask each group to act as directors for that scene andprepare for rehearsal. Ask them to create a list ofpotential staging difficulties with possible solutions.Then ask them to decide what approach theirproduction will take to stage the violence. Havestudents write up their ideas of how the scene will bestaged and present the concept to the class. Discusswhat is effective about each group’s staging choicesand why.
Classroom Connections Before the performance...
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Costume DesignOne of the first steps in producing a play isdesigning the “look” of each character.Shakespeare includes characters from three very
different worlds in this play. Ask students to rereadRomans, Goths and Moors and think about thedifferences between the worlds of each of thesecharacters. How would students design the costumesfor the Goths and Romans to show the difference intheir societies? What about Aaron, who is an outsiderin both worlds? Ask students to create costumesketches for Aaron, Tamora and Titus. They can usewatercolor, colored pencil or collage to show color, lineand form. Students can also include scraps of fabric assamples if available. Ask students to justify their choiceswith evidence from the text, and create a narrativeexplaining what they hope the audience willunderstand from their choices.
Harry Lennix as Aaron and Angus Macfadyen asLucius in Julie Taymor’s 1999 film, Titus.
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Recipe for Revenge—Titus’ CookbookOne of the challenges of performing TitusAndronicus is the creation of realistic props—including the flesh pie at the end. Ask students
what they thought of the pie in the Shakespeare TheatreCompany production. Was it theatrically effective? Howdo students think the pie was made? Ask students tobrainstorm ideas as the propsmaster of the show. Howcould a realistic pie be created? What would they want itto look like? Ask students to remember that the actorsonstage must actually consume the pie. What if one oftheir actors was a vegetarian? Ask students to brainstormtheir solutions and then present them to the class as ifpresenting them to the director of the play.
Good HumorsIn Shakespeare’s day many believed that the bodywas ruled by four elemental fluids that dominated aperson’s temperament: blood, phlegm, yellow bile
and black bile. These liquids, or humors, were used as ameans of classifying people and their behavior. A healthy,“normal” person would have a perfect balance of all fourhumors, but an overabundance of any one of them couldcause changes in one’s personality. As a class, researchthe qualities of each humor and how they affect humanbehavior. Ask each student to select a character fromTitus Andronicus and determine which humor dominateshis/her personality, citing evidence from the text thatsupports the diagnosis.
Review the ProductionMany writers and theatre enthusiasts make theircareers by reviewing theatrical productions. Often,a good or bad review can make or break a
production’s ticket revenue. Ask students to imagine thatthey are writing a review of Titus Andronicus at theShakespeare Theatre Company for the Washington Post.Or, ask students to read the Post review and write anoped letter responding to the review, either agreeing ordisagreeing with the reviewers comments. Send students’letters to the Shakespeare Theatre Company EducationDepartment!
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Do Military Men Make Good Leaders?As soon as Titus returns from the war, he is offeredthe crown and asked to be emperor of Rome. Herefuses and defers to Saturninus. Why do you think
Titus refuses the crown? Do you think that he wouldhave been a better leader than Saturninus? Make a list ofcurrent presidents and leaders of the United States, andlist whether they have served in the military or not. Askstudents to discuss if they think military service isimportant to good leadership. Would students vote for acandidate with military experience over one without?What are the different skills necessary to manage troopsin wartime and lead a country? Ask students what theythink the outcome of the play would have been, hadTitus accepted the crown.
Write Your Own Revenge TragedyTitus Andronicus is a prime example of theElizabethan revenge tragedy. Ask students toreread Vengeance Is Mine to review the elements
of a revenge tragedy. Then ask them to write their own—if they completed “Create a Vice Character” before theplay, they can use that character in their revenge tragedy,or revise their ideas after seeing the play. After studentshave completed their plays, ask the class to do stagedreadings of each others’ work. What are the elements ofa modern revenge tragedy? Does this form still haverelevance today?
Classroom Connections …After the performance
Anthony Quayle as Aaron in Peter Brook’sproduction, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1955.
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Titus AndronicusBooks and Articles on Titus Andronicus
•Kolin, Philip C., ed. Titus Andronicus: Critical Essays. Garland, 1995.
•Metz. G. Harold. Shakespeare’s Earliest Tragedy: Studies in Titus Andronicus. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.
•Metz, G. Harold. “Stage History of Titus Andronicus,”Shakespeare Quarterly, Folger Shakespeare Library, 1977.
•Stone, Alan A. “Shakespeare’s Tarantino Play,”Boston Review, April/May 2000.
•Simkin, Steve, ed. Revenge Tragedy. Palgrave, 2001.
Books on Shakespeare and Teaching Shakespeare
•Asimov, Isaac. Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare. Doubleday, 1978.
•Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. Penguin Books, 1993.
•Gibson, Janet and Rex Gibson. Discovering Shakespeare’s Language. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
•Gibson, Rex. Teaching Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
•Kermode, Frank. Shakespeare’s Language. Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 2000.
•Linklater, Kristin. Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice. Theatre Communications Group, 1992.
•Pritchard, R. E. Shakespeare’s England. Sutton Publishing Limited, 1999.
•Papp, Joseph and Elizabeth Kirkland. Shakespeare Alive. Bantam Books, 1988.
•Reynolds, P. Teaching Shakespeare. Oxford University Press, 1992.
Websites
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet—shakespeare.palomar.edu
• The Shakespeare Resource Center—www.bardweb.net
• Shakespeare: A Virtual Field Trip—hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/Svtour.html
• Shakespeare Birthplace Trust—www.shakespeare.org.uk
• Life in Elizabethan England—www.elizabethan.org
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare—wwwtech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
• Royal Shakespeare Company—www.rsc.org.uk
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Resource List