TITUS ANDRONICUS QUOTES & THEMES

Theme 1 GENDER: Evidence for: Tamora as a maternal figure; the rejection of her plea triggers revenge.

(2)

Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed,

A mother’s tears in passion for her son.

THEME GENDER: Evidence for: The virgin/whore opposition; Lavinia appeals to shared womanhood but is rejected.

(2)

No grace, no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature,

The blot and enemy to our general name,

Act 4: Classical Revenge (THEMES AND IDEAS)

The Book: Lavinia uses Ovid's Metamorphoses (the story of Philomela) to reveal her rapists by writing their names (Chiron and Demetrius) in the sand.

Humanism & Violence: The play is patterned on the classics, but the classical text licenses violent action. Titus becomes a Senecan hero.

Aaron's Child: The Nurse brings Tamora's "blackamoor child" (Aaron's son). Aaron kills the Nurse to keep the secret. He fiercely protects his son, contrasting his villainy with paternal love. The black baby signals female deviance and threatens Rome's purity.

Titus's Madness: Titus shoots arrows with petitions for justice into the sky, declaring that Astraea (goddess of justice) has left Rome.

Act 5: The Final Feast (THEMES & IDEAS)

Aaron's Defiance: Captured by Lucius and the Goths, Aaron boasts of his crimes ("I have done a thousand more") and shows no remorse. He is sentenced to be buried breast-deep and starved.

Tamora as Revenge: Tamora disguises herself as "Revenge" to manipulate the apparently mad Titus. She brings Chiron and Demetrius as "Rape" and "Murder." Titus sees through the disguise.

Titus's Banquet: Titus kills Chiron and Demetrius, grinds their bones, and bakes them into a pie. He serves the pie to Tamora.

The Final Killings: Titus kills Lavinia (to end her shame, following the precedent of Virginius), then stabs Tamora. Saturninus kills Titus. Lucius kills Saturninus.

The End: Lucius is hailed as emperor. Tamora is thrown to beasts. Aaron is buried alive. The play refuses a clean moral or untainted perspective, leaving the audience with perplexing doubts about justice and authority.

Act 3: Titus's Descent

Rome as a Wilderness

Titus declares, "Rome is but a wilderness of tigers."

Lavinia's Return: Marcus brings the mutilated Lavinia to Titus. Her body becomes an emblem of Rome's collapse—losing hands and tongue means losing the physical components of civility.

The Hand Trick: Aaron tricks Titus into cutting off his own hand to save his sons, but then sends back the sons' heads with the hand. Titus laughs ("Ha, ha, ha!") as a way to put aside sorrow and commit to revenge.

Theme 5: Classical Sources (Ovid, Philomela, Humanism)

QUOTES

Evidence for: The play's self-conscious use of classical sources; humanist education enabling revenge; Lavinia's writing of "Stuprum. Chiron, Demetrius."

(4)

(Young Lucious)

Grandsire, ’tis Ovid’s Metamorphosis.

“mother gave it “.

(Titus)

This is the tragic tale of Philomel,

And treats of Tereus’ treason and his rape.

Aaron's unrepentant villainy (Race + Revenge)

Evidence for: Aaron's defiance; his refusal to repent; the play's dark fascination with pure evil.

(5)

that I had not done a thousand more

Few come within the compass of my curse

some notorious ill

kill a man, or else devise his death

Ravish a maid or plot the way to do it

Theme 2: Race (Blackness, Aaron, the "Blackamoor Child")

Evidence for: Aaron inverting racial hierarchy; blackness as proud and unchangeable.

(6)

Stay, murderous villains, will you kill your brother?

Shall seize this prey out of his father’s hands.

You white-limed walls, you alehouse painted signs!

Coal black is better than another hue

For all the water in the ocean

Can never turn the swan’s black legs to white,

Evidence for: Alignment of blackness with evil, shame, and monstrosity.

(2)

Quote 5: The Nurse calls the baby a "devil" and "joyless, dismal, black"

O, that which I would hide from heaven’s eye,

Our empress’ shame and stately Rome’s disgrace.

Evidence for: Race as a marker of illegitimacy and exclusion from power.

(4)

Quote 6: The Second Goth describes Aaron's child as "tawny slave"

“Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dame!

But where the bull and cow are both milk white,

They never do beget a coal-black calf.

Peace, villain, peace!”—even thus he rates the babe—

Evidence for: Tamora as a revenge hero; the cycle of revenge begins with Alarbus's sacrifice.

(7)

Quote 2: Aaron declares vengeance in his heart

Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,

Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.

This is the day of doom for Bassianus.

Hark, Tamora, the empress of my soul,

His Philomel must lose her tongue today,

Thy sons make pillage of her chastity

And wash their hands in Bassianus’ blood.

Evidence for: Titus's transformation into a Senecan revenge hero; laughter as a coping mechanism.

(4)

Besides, this sorrow is an enemy

Then which way shall I find Revenge’s cave?

For these two heads do seem to speak to me

And threat me I shall never come to bliss

Evidence for: Tamora as a revenge hero; the cycle of revenge begins with Alarbus's sacrifice.

(6)

Quote 1: Tamora's vow of mass revenge

I’ll find a day to massacre them all

And raze their faction and their family,

The cruel father and his traitorous sons,

To whom I sued for my dear son’s life,

And make them know what ’tis to let a queen

Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.

Evidence for: Tamora as a maternal figure; the rejection of her plea triggers revenge.

(PART 2)

7

And if thy sons were ever dear to thee,

O think my son to be as dear to me.

…

But must my sons be slaughtered in the streets

For valiant doings in their country’s cause?

….

O, if to fight for king and commonweal

Were piety in thine, it is in these!

Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with

Quote 9: The "blood-drinking pit" as Rome's dark heart

Evidence for: The pit as a symbolic counterpart to the Andronici tomb; Rome's consuming, devouring nature.

(Martius says this)

Lord Bassianus lies berayed in blood,

All on a heap, like to a slaughtered lamb,

In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.

Quote 10: Titus's tomb as "sacred receptacle" now violated

Evidence for: The tomb as Rome's honorable center, contrasted with the "abhorred pit."

6

(Titus says this)

There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,

And sleep in peace, slain in your country’s wars.

O sacred receptacle of my joys,

Sweet cell of virtue and nobility,

How many sons hast thou of mine in store

That thou wilt never render to me more?

Act 1: The Cycle of Revenge Begins

Rome: Two brothers (Saturninus and Bassianus) compete for emperor. The people choose Titus Andronicus, but he refuses and chooses Saturninus.

The Sacrifice: Titus returns from war with the captive Goth Queen, Tamora, and her sons. To honor his dead sons, he sacrifices Tamora's eldest son, Alarbus—despite her pleas as a mother.

Tamora's Vow: Tamora vows revenge. She marries Saturninus (who has rejected Lavinia for her). She plans to "massacre them all."

Gender: Lavinia is the silent, chaste object of male honor. Tamora is the lustful, ambitious outsider. Titus kills his own son, Mutius, for blocking his way (male honour vs. disobedient insider).

Act 2: The Goths, Race, and Violence

Aaron the Moor: Tamora's secret lover. He is ambitious, villainous, and uses racial stereotypes ("fleece of woolly hair").

The Plot: Aaron encourages Chiron and Demetrius to rape Lavinia in the woods during a hunt. He calls her a "dainty doe."

Tamora's Race & Gender: Tamora is presented as an alien threat to Rome's civility, associated with lust, miscegenation, and dangerous maternity.

The Pit: A symbolic "abhorred pit" becomes the site of murder (Bassianus is killed) and a trap for two of Titus's sons (Martius and Quintus).

Lavinia's Rape & Mutilation: Chiron and Demetrius rape Lavinia, then cut off her hands and tongue to prevent her from naming them (like Philomela in Ovid's Metamorphoses).

Quote 7: Lucius calls Aaron "incarnate devil" and "fiend-like face"

Evidence for: Racialized language linking blackness to evil, devilry, and illegitimacy.

9

O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil

That robbed Andronicus of his good hand;

This is the pearl that pleased your empress’ eye;

And here’s the base fruit of her burning lust.—

Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey

This growing image of thy fiendlike face?

Why dost not speak? What, deaf? Not a word?—

A halter, soldiers! Hang him on this tree,

And by his side his fruit of bastardy

Quote 8: Titus calls Rome a "wilderness of tigers"

Evidence for: Rome's collapse from civilization into savage predation.

5

Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive

That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?

Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey

But me and mine. How happy art thou then

From these devourers to be banishèd.

Evidence for: Titus's transformation into a Senecan revenge hero; laughter as a coping mechanism.

(PART 2)

4

As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight.

Hie to the Goths and raise an army there.

And if you love me, as I think you do,

Let’s kiss and part, for we have much to do