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English 333 Brin Murray 9/23/15 First Paper Titus Andronicus Titus Andronicus is a play rich with metaphor and parallels. No doubt, this revenge tragedy is about the play's namesake, Titus. However, the argument can be made that Titus's daughter, Lavinia, The final scene opens up with Lucius and Marcus, along with the Goths arriving at Titus's home for the banquet. With them, they bring Aaron and his child to expose Aaron's relationship with Tamora. Then Saturninus and Tamora arrive, having agreed to a peaceful meeting with Lucius. Titus, in a show of dark humor, steps out to serve the meal dressed a chef. As they begin to eat the meal, Titus brings up the topic of Virginius, a reference to Chaucer's "The Physician's Tale." In which, Virginius …show more content…
Right from the beginning, parallels are drawn between Lavinia and Rome. The play opens up with two brother, Bassianus and Saturninus, fighting for Rome, just as the rape begins with two brothers, Demetrius and Chiron, fighting for Lavinia. There's a contrast between how Rome is described and how Lavinia is described in each respective scene. Bassianus personifies Rome, talking about Rome as if it were a woman with honor; "And suffer not dishonor to approach / The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate," (1.1.13-14). Whereas, while Aaron is laying out the plan for Demetrius and Chiron to rape Lavinia, he dehumanizes her, describing her as if she were a city to be pillaged; "And revel in Lavinia's treasury," (2.3.131). The connection between Lavinia and Rome strengthens, as Saturninus and Bassianus go from arguing about who should get Rome, to who should get Lavinia. Just as Rome is given to Saturninus, Titus tries to give Lavinia to Saturninus as well. After all of quick succession of deaths in Act 5 Scene 3, Marcus remarks, "O, let me teach you how to knit again / This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf / These broken limbs again into one body," (5.3.70-72). Very often in this play, Rome is referred to as if it were a human missing limbs. A big, reoccurring theme throughout the story. Titus' s sons are beheaded, Titus himself loses a hand, and, of course, Lavinia's tongue and hands. Titus's decision to make Saturninus king leaves Rome with an ill-fitting head, disfigured as Lavinia will soon
Shakespeare's first tragedy has been a topic of discussion since the day it was written. Titus Andronicus "was staged on 24 January 1594 by the Earl of Sussex's Men at the Rose Theatre" (Welsh 1). Though this tidbit of information seems somewhat irrelevant to Titus, we must note that there are certain standards and practices established by a play from its first performance. It is also important to establish the general attributes that audiences attribute to Shakespearean performance.
The play, Titus Andronicus, is almost bursting with disfigured and distorted bodies. The most obvious and apparent of these is Lavinia, who is raped and has her tongue and hands cut off. In addition, one of Titus’ hands hand’s is chopped off, and the remaining dead body parts of Demetrius and Chiron are cut up and made into a pie that Titus serves Tamora in the final act. All this bodily disfigurement can be related to a common metaphor that personifies the empire of Rome as a body. For example, when Marcus wants Titus to become emperor of Rome, he tells him to “set a head on headless Rome.” Similarly, at the end of the play, Marcus promises to restore Rome, saying that he will “knit...these broken limbs again into one body.”
The movie is based on the play Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, which is also the original source. There are a few differences between the play and movie adaptation and one of the most obvious is the added character of the young boy. Taymor also adds some newer technology as she incorporates cars, guns, and modern costuming into the movie. These did not exist during the time it was written by Shakespeare around 1593, with the first performance being in early 1594. (Shakespeare in quarto)
Lavinia actually means to Titus, also compared to his sons, which he hasn’t described in
Shakespeare's sources for the play are quite clear. He makes it no secret that the rape of Lavinia is analogous to the rape of Philomela in Ovid's Metamorphosis. In this tale, The daughter of the King of Athens, Procne, marries the King of Thrace, Tereus, and the two of them have a son, Itys. After a number of years, Procne desperately wishes to see her sister, Philomela, and sends Tereus back to Athens to bring her to Thrace. When Tereus sees Philomela, he becomes obsessed with her and carries her into the forest, rapes her and cuts out her tongue to prevent her from telling anyone. Upon returning to Thrace, he informs his wife that Philomela is dead. In the meantime, Philomela weaves her story into a cloth and sends it to Procne. Procne becomes so enraged by this knowledge that she and Philomela plot and kill Itys, cook his flesh and serve it to Tereus. He discovers their ploy and tries to kill them, but Philomela is changed into a nightingale, Procne a swallow and Tereus a hoopoe (Bullough, vi. 48-58).
...r the raping of Lavinia, Titus kills Tamora's sons, bakes them into a pastry, and serves it back unto Tamora's stomach, where they came from. Titus also kills her after letting her know that she ate her two remaining sons, so for this Saturninus, in a fit of rage, murders Titus. To top it off, to avenge his father, Lucius kills the Emperor, Saturninus. "Revenge has the final grim chuckle, having wracked havoc on fractured human psyches and the Roman state." (Smith 32).
Oedipus Rex”, by Socrates, is a play that shows the fault of men and the ultimate power of the gods. Throughout the play, the main character, Oedipus, continually failed to recognize the fault in human condition, and these failures let to his ultimate demise. Oedipus failed to realize that he, himself was the true answer to the riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus ignored the truth told to him by the oracles and the drunk at the party, also. These attempts to get around his fate which was determined by the gods was his biggest mistake. Oedipus was filled with hubris and this angered the gods. He believed he was more that a man. These beliefs cause him to ignore the limits he had in being a man. Oedipus needed to look at Teiresias as his window to his future.
It led to her being raped, her tongue and hand being cut by the sons of Tamora while Aaron influence them to be more evil than they can be, making them think of worse than death. Likewise, he even manipulate Titus Andronicus to do actions for his own amusement than let him know the truth after all his action. The two sons of Marcus were captured by the emperor Saturnitus, Aaron came as a messenger for the emperor saying “Titus Andronicus… Let Marcus Lucius or Thyself chop off your hand…Will send thee hither both thy sons alive” (51). However, Titus did not know that Aaron naturally was a villain person so as a result he let Aaron cut his hand. On the other hand, Titus thought that villain were so as the Moor considering this “Look by and by to have thy sons with thee…Their heads I mean...”
In the play, Oedipus the King, blindness is used metaphorically and physically to characterize several personas , and the images of clarity and vision are used as symbols for knowledge and insight. Enlightenment and darkness are used in much the same manner, to demonstrate the darkness of ignorance, and the irony of vision without sight.
When Lavinia involuntarily had her hands cut away from her, she lost a lot of her feminine features. She eventually had her hands replaced with tree branches. This is symbolic because her hands were replaced with something that is organic yet artificial. It was something that was alive but is now dead since the branches are no longer attached to the tree just as her hands are no longer attached to her arms. Because she was raped and had her tongue cut out, Lavinia’s power to communicate is taken away. She does not have her tongue to speak nor does she have her hands for motion essentially ruining here. Dehumanized from the rape and rendered voiceless, Lavinia is further dehumanized as she has no way to vocally express and protect herself. This makes it easy to take advantage of her now and others act on her more after this situation. This whole scene shows us how Lavinia has become disempowered but Chiron and Demetrius, the two men who had raped her, have gained
Laertes is greatly influenced by revenge for his actions especially when he is seeking revenge for his sister. He shows his brotherly love for Ophelia when he says “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,/Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,/A violet in the youth of primy nature,/Forward, not permanent, sweet, not
...f his honor. When Titus allows Aaron to cut off his hand, he is letting Aaron take away his honor. By the end of the play, Titus has nothing to show of the honor he once killed for.
Act two of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar begins the detailed planning of Caesar’s assassination, which follows soon after in the third act. One particular passage of interest during this act is found in scene one. This particular passage deals with the conspirator’s justification of their motives for wanting to kill Caesar, as well as the fine-tuning of their machination. As is consistent throughout Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s verse here differs much from his usual, flowery, beautifully poetic, and complicated verse that can be found in plays as Macbeth. The verse in Caesar is simple. This change in Shakespeare’s style has been attributed to his desire to imitate Roman society in this work, as to give the audience or the reader some context through which to receive the play, and to accurately portray his Roman characters.
The second part of the play consists mainly on “the increasing political and military unrest […] the growing isolation of Brutus, the swift ascent and yet almost programmed decline of Antony against […] Octavius, the climatic battles […] and the final submission of Brutus”.
Oedipus and Tiresias, characters of Sophocles' play "Oedipus Tyrannus," are propelled to their individual destinies by their peculiar relationships with truth. Paranoid and quick to anger Oedipus, is markedly different from the confident and self-assured Tiresias. In the dialogue between the two men, Oedipus rapidly progresses from praise of Tiresias as a champion and protector of Thebes in line 304, to blatantly accusing the blind prophet of betraying the city in line 331, to angrily insulting him in line 334. Rather than be intimidated by the protagonist's title and temperament, Tiresias draws strength from what he knows is true and is able to stand his ground.