History Theatre / TitusAndronicus

''The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus'' is considered to be Creator/WilliamShakespeare's first tragedy. It is set in UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire, albeit a very fantastic and fictional version that is melange of different periods and settings. Unlike his [[Theatre/{{Coriolanus}} other]] [[Theatre/JuliusCaesar Roman]] [[Theatre/AntonyAndCleopatra plays]], it doesn't use real historical figures as characters. It is noted to have been produced and performed by 1594. It is arguably one of the few Shakespeare plays (alongside ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' and perhaps ''Theatre/TheTempest'') that is entirely original to Shakespeare[[note]]There is in addition to the play, a prose book on Titus Andronicus, and a popular ballad that has survived, and all three are dated to 1594, but nobody knows for sure whether the play, the prose, or the ballad came first, and which came second, and so on[[/note]]. Some scholars believe that the first parts of the play were co-written by George Peele, but this hypothesis is disputed.

At the start of the play, there is a SuccessionCrisis for the Imperial Throne. The brothers Saturninus and Bassianus compete for the crown, seeking the support and backing of the popular general Titus Andronicus, currently on campaign against the Goths. When Titus returns from his campaign, he brings as captives Tamora, the Queen of the Goths, her servant Aaron the Moor, and her sons Chiron, Demetrius and Alarbus. He has lost all but four of his twenty-five sons in the war with the Goths. On arriving in Rome, to honour his dead sons' spirits, Titus sacrifices Tamora's eldest son, Alarbus. Titus declines the Crown and backs Saturninus, consenting to a marriage alliance between the new Emperor and his daughter Lavinia. Lavinia is already betrothed to Bassianus, and the latter elopes with her. Her brothers support Bassianus against their father's wishes, and in a scuffle, Titus kills one of his own sons, Mutius. In the wake of this, Saturninus announces that he will wed the captive Queen Tamora, who counsels pardon and peace. But now having suddenly gone from captive to queen, she seeks to plot her revenge on the House of Andronicus, aided in part by the scheming Aaron the Moor, who has his own agenda and drive. The resulting GambitPileup will bring rot and ruin to Rome itself.

* AffectionateParody: A few critics think that the reason this play was so violent was because Shakespeare was having a go at Marlowe's often gruesome plays. Indeed, there are some scholars who argue that Shakespeare wrote ''Titus'' with such an outrageous amount of {{Gorn}} (even for the time period) that he actually [[RefugeInAudacity intended for it to be a comedy]]. See the bit about the knife and the fly if you're skeptical. Noted Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt reworked it into a comedy. Shakespearean scholar Harold Bloom also backs this point up by challenging readers who believe that the play is a serious drama to read out the scene where Titus tells his daughter to carry his severed hand off stage by picking it up in her mouth, because she has had her own hands cut off, and suggests that the only way the play would work was if it were directed by Creator/MelBrooks. Others dispute this, noting many other tragedies from the period with violence of similar nature, and likewise the presence of BlackComedy mixed with gruesome violence was a pretty common Elizabethan-Jacobean trope.

* AndIMustScream: Lavinia is raped, has her hands cut off, and then her tongue cut out by Tamora's sons. Despite being unable to speak, she communicates her plight to her father Titus, and uncle Marcus, by alluding to books that refer to what happened to her, and then using her mouth and limbs to draw the names of her assailants in the sand.

** Saturninus and Bassianus were brothers who would have fought a CivilWar against each other had it not been for Titus Andronicus pulling a KingmakerScenario. Titus Andronicus is a pious Roman war hero: which means killing and subjugating Goths, performing HumanSacrifice of a captive son of the enemy queen, and killing one of his own sons, Mutius, in the first act. Then he kills his own daughter Lavinia, because she is DefiledForever, but does so only after she helps him commit and aid his revenge. And in the end Titus, as part of his revenge, appoints one of his surviving sons to raise an army among the very Goths he subjugated to march on Rome, which politically marks him out to be just as much a renegade and warlord as the rest of the cast.
** Tamora, Aaron, Chiron, and Demetrius cross the line early on when they rape and mutilate Lavinia. But all of them have some virtues, with Aaron going out of his way to save his son, and Chiron and Demetrius, after some threats and convincing, agree to help save their half-brother.

* BreakTheCutie: Poor Lavinia, about the only innocent character in the play, becomes the victim of rape, dismemberment, being regarded as DefiledForever, and eventually [[HonorRelatedAbuse being murdered by her own father out of "shame"]].
* CardCarryingVillain: Aaron. In a monologue near the end he states that he did "a thousand dreadful things" and the only thing he regrets that he cannot do "ten thousand more". His only virtue is that he loves his child and does what he can to save him in a play where so many other characters treat their own offspring as disposable pawns.
* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: The entire play is a veritable bloodbath featuring not only murder but also rape, torture and cannibalism with more than a 70% kill rate for named characters.

* ChocolateBaby: Tamora and Aaron have one, much to Chiron and Demetrius' displeasure.

* CruelMercy: Lucius spares Aaron from hanging, because after hearing what a monster the guy is, he feels that a quick hanging death would be too kind. After Titus' revenge is complete, Lucius gives him a much more fitting painful end.

* DeusExMachina: Discussed but averted. In Act 4,Scene 3, Titus fires arrows at the sun in order to ask the Gods to send Justice, since "there's no justice in Earth nor hell." However, the gods do not show up, and the play ends with everyone except Lucius dead. This scene might be a reference to an episode in the adventures of Herakles, where he fires an arrow at the sun and ''is'' assisted.

* FatalFlaw: Titus' unyielding insistance on tradition is the source of ''both'' the disastrous choices he makes in the very first scene, which set the play's gruesome bloodbath inexorably in motion. By insisting on the murder of Alarbus to "appease" the fallen Andronici, he makes a vengeful enemy of Tamora; and by overlooking noble Bassianus and insisting on crowning corrupt and weak-willed Saturninus simply on the basis of the latter being elder, he sets up Rome for awful governance and unintentionally puts Tamora in a powerful position to take revenge on his family.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Lavinia would rather die than be raped by Chiron and Demetrius. Unfortunately for her, Tamora knew it. This was also Titus' excuse for OffingTheOffspring.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Titus is blind to all the signs that Saturninus is corrupt, jealous and small-minded, and that Bassianus would definitely have been the better choice for Emperor.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: The question is settled by the ChocolateBaby. Aaron the Moor comes up with a baby-swap and gets Tamora's children to agree to it, and also kills the Nurse and Midwife since ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure.

* MirrorCharacter: Titus and Tamora. Both "love" their kids. Both devoid of mercy for those that plead for it. [[EvilVersusEvil Both sick nut-jobs]]. Both willing to kill other people's children in revenge. Both willing to kill their ''own'' children, with Titus offing Mutius and Lavinia, and Tamora ordering for her own illegitimate dark-skinned baby with Aaron to be killed.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Alarbus appears for a few seconds and is led off to be sacrificed without a line. Yet it is largely this event which triggers Tamora's (and thus Titus') RoaringRampageOFRevenge.

* TraumaCongaLine: Titus and his family is subjected to this. By the end of the play, it's hard to blame the guy for snapping.
* UngratefulBastard: Saturninus shows absolutely no gratitude towards Titus even though it was Titus who acted as kingmaker in Saturninus's disputed claim to the throne with his brother Bassianus, not to mention for Titus' lifelong service and sacrifice as a soldier. The Roman Senate and Tribunes are equally ungrateful towards Titus, as Titus laments and pleas for his two wrongfully accused sons' lives to no effect:

* WhatTheHellHero: Titus's sons and his brother give him this when he handed Lavinia, already engaged to her true love, to the new emperor. They become even frustrated when Titus refuses to bury the son he ended up stabbing.

** The story is also a retelling of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela. When Procne's husband Tereus rapes Procne's sister Philomela and cuts out her tongue (as Chiron and Demetrius did to Lavinia), Procne revenges her sister by killing and cooking Tereus's son (and, incidentally, her own) and serving the meat to him.

* ShoutOut: The infamous climax of the play is almost definitely an intentional reference to the story of the House of Atreus in [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]], in which the CycleOfRevenge between the brothers Atreus and Thyestes involves — among other things — [[IAteWhat Atreus tricking Thyestes into eating his own sons]].

--->Titus: You kill'd her husband, and for that vile fault, two of her brothers were condemn'd to death, my hand cut off and made a merry jest; Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity,

* MirrorCharacter: Titus and Tamora. Both "love" their kids.[[EvilVersusEvil Both sick nut-jobs]]. Both willing to kill other people's children in revenge. Both willing to kill their ''own'' children, with Titus offing Mutius and Lavinia, and Tamora ordering for her own illegitimate dark-skinned baby with Aaron to be killed.

* MirrorCharacter: Titus and Tamora. Both "love" their kids. Both power-hungry. Both willing to kill other people's children in revenge. [[EvilVersusEvil Both sick nut-jobs]]. Titus kills his own children bear in mind, whereas Tamora doesn't.

* FatalFlaw: Titus' unyielding insistance on tradition is the source of ''both'' the disastrous choices he makes in the very first scene, which set the play's gruesome bloodbath inexorably in motion. By insisting on the murder of Alarbus to "appease" the fallen Andronici, he makes a vengeful enemy of Tamora; and by overlooking noble Bassianus and insisting on crowning corrupt and weak-willed Saturninus simply on the basis of the latter being elder, he sets up Rome for distastrous governance and unintentionally puts Tamora in a powerful position to take revenge on his family.

* FatalFlaw: Titus' proud and unyielding insistance on tradition is the source of ''both'' the disastrous choices he makes in the very first scene, which set the play's gruesome bloodbath inexorably in motion. By insisting on the murder of Alarbus to "appease" the fallen Andronici, he makes a vengeful enemy of Tamora; and by overlooking noble Bassianus and insisting on crowning corrupt and weak-willed Saturninus simply on the basis of the latter being elder, he sets up Rome for distastrous governance and unintentionally puts Tamora in a powerful position to take revenge on his family.

* AffectionateParody: A few critics think that the reason this play was so violent was because Shakespeare was having a go at Marlowe's often gruesome plays. Indeed, there are some scholars who argue that Shakespeare wrote ''Titus'' with such an outrageous amount of {{Gorn}} (even for the time period) that he actually [[RefugeInAudacity intended for it to be a comedy]]. See the bit about the knife and the fly if you're skeptical. Noted Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt reworked it into a comedy. Shakespearean scholar Harold Bloom also backs this point up by challenging readers who believe that the play is a serious drama to read out the scene where Titus tells his daughter to carry his severed hand off stage [[CrossesTheLineTwice by picking it up in her mouth, because she has had her own hands cut off]], and suggests that the only way the play would work was if it were directed by Creator/MelBrooks. Others dispute this, noting many other tragedies from the period with violence of similar nature, and likewise the presence of BlackComedy mixed with gruesome violence was a pretty common Elizabethan-Jacobean trope.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: In the final act Tamora and her sons Chiron and Demetrius, think he's completely mad and visit his house with the intent of laughing at his state and tormenting him further. Thinking him harmless, Chiron and Demetrius stay behind after their mother leaves to laugh at him some more. In the next scene, Titus has them bound, cuts their throats, and prepares to make meat pies out of their flesh to feed to their mother at a banquet.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: In the final act Tamora and her sons Chiron and Demetrius, think he's completely mad and visit his house with the intent of laughing at his state and tormenting him some more. Thinking him harmless, Chiron and Demetrius stay behind after their mother leaves to laugh at him some more. In the next scene, Titus has them bound, cuts their throats, and prepares to make meat pies out of their flesh to feed to their mother at a banquet.

* AssholeVictim: The majority of the victims in the play are very unpleasant people to begin with (except Lavinia). Chiron and Demetrius deserve special mention, albeit they do get one redeeming moment where they agree to help hide Aaron's child with Tamora.

This is one of Shakespeare's most controversial and contentious plays, albeit for different reasons than say, ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'', owing less to its subject matter, and more to its style, presentation, and heavy sex and violence. It was rarely performed and revived until the second half of the 20th Century, when Peter Brook in 1955 mounted a famous production starring Creator/LaurenceOlivier. More recently, it was adapted by Julie Taymor under the title ''Film/{{Titus}}'', with Creator/AnthonyHopkins in the title role.

* AnachronismStew: There was no Roman emperor who fought a war against the Goths (who invaded during the declining years of the Empire)[[labelnote:*]]strictly speaking, no emperor fought them and ''survived'' — both Claudius II and Valens led armies against the Goths, but both died on the battlefield. At any rate, the idea of a victorious emperor dragging a captive Gothic princess back to Rome is complete fiction[[/labelnote]], and a Tribune (a political office from the era of the Roman Republic) wouldn't have served alongside the emperor.

-->--'''The Reduced Shakespeare Company'''

* RapeIsASpecialEvil: Titus is even more disgusted by the fact that Chiron and Demetrius raped Lavinia than by the fact that they left her hideously mutilated:

* ImAHumanitarian: Titus's Chiron and Demetrius pies.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The chronology of the tragedies puts this play "during the reign of a fictional (late?) Roman emperor" with the plays between it being Cymbeline, early first century AD, and Hamlet, c. ninth-tenth century AD.

[[caption-width-right:285:Featuring wanton sex, violence, cannibalism and an "IBangedYourMom" joke. Truly a masterpiece of English literature.]]

* ObfuscatingInsanity: Titus really ''is'' insane... just not ''as'' insane as he convinced Tamora and her sons he was.

* CardCarryingVillain: Aaron. In a monologue near the end he states that he did "a thousand dreadful things" and the only thing he regrets that he cannot do "ten thousand more". His only virtue is that he loves his child and does what he can to save him.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In taking her revenge against Titus, Tamora decides to not only destroy his family but also drive him insane. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Titus]] [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies goes]] [[FamilialCannibalismSurprise insane]] all [[KillEmAll right]].

* KillEmAll: Six named characters are left alive by the end, and one of them gets killed soon after. That's actually a bigger survival rate than other Shakespeare tragedies (compared to say, ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' and ''Theatre/KingLear''), and much milder than John Webster and Cyril Tourneur's works.