- What this story says about revenge
- How violence figures into this text
- How these first three acts set up a kind of expected "resolution"--how will this end?
- How Shakespeare's style represent something to you
- Any other kind of reaction barring "this is hard" or "I don't get it"
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus
Please post your responses to Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus here. You're free to respond in any way that makes sense to you, but, if you're stuck, you might consider:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
For starters, this play is very difficult to understand. It is understandable because, lets be real it is Shakespeare. From what I’ve comprehended of these first three acts there is a lot of disturbing images painted in my head. For example, the fact that Titus cut one of his hands off, or from what I could put together he did, this was very disturbing to read. Somehow I feel this is just the beginning of all of this gore. I’m having a hard time reading and understanding the plot because of how some words may mean something to us as our current language but it could mean something different in Shakespearian language. I personally think its a beautiful language to read if it was easier to understand. Although this play is violent in many ways it makes it interesting. I also seem to get really confused with names and the abundance of them. I seem to mix up who is who. It’s definitely an adjustment from common names of today to the character names used for this play. I’m also confused on Lavinia and why her tongue and hand is cut of. Could it be because she was raped? From what I understood from the text that was what happened. I also see that there is a lot of revenge going on which is then centered around the plot. However, when Titus’s enemies are forced to eat their own offspring it threw a “what the heck!?” in my head but yet, it seemed to make the plot a little more intriguing.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, I really couldn’t follow the play, I just picked out as much as I could. I really have a tough time with plays, not even just Shakespeare’s. It’s difficult for me to keep the characters straight without, for example, a high school class where we each had our own part. This play seems like it is going to be an all-around gory text with lots of dying and violence. Power really does affect the way people behave even if they are brothers. I think I am getting the right idea that the brothers are trying to rip each other apart emotionally because of the whole deal of the title with the throne. Titus did state that Saturninus should be throned because he himself is too young and for his support, Satuninus took Titus’ daughter Lavinia to be his empress. The middle brother Bassianus knows that he’s getting the short end of this deal and gets extremely defensive about Lavinia being accepted as empress. This is where revenge starts to come upon Titus. His sons began to be picked off and killed, 2 beheaded. Then his daughter was raped. They also proceeded to cut her tongue and hands off to prevent her from speaking about the incident. Saturninus speaks of finding “some never-heard-of torturing pain” for Bassianus and his accomplices. I think, just like all Shakespeare’s plays, that everyone is going to die in the result because of all this revenge taking place. Everyone trying to get back at one another by hurting a loved one, and eventually there will be no one else to hurt but each other. I think only one character will survive this text.
ReplyDeleteI definitely mixed up the play, but I realize now that Titus is not a brother of Saturninus and Bassianus. I don't understand why Titus is all wrapped up in this and why his children are being killed. I am having a tough time interpreting this play.
DeleteAs most people will probably agree, Shakespeare is pretty hard to understand. In the past when I've read Shakespeare for school it's been nothing more than a chore, something that I would just have to get out of the way before class. This read was no different. I really didn't like Titus Andronicus; it left a really bad taste in my mouth. All of the violence seemed really unnecessary to me. I'm not even completely sure what happened in many scenes, I just know that pretty much every character died save Lucius and Marcus. The character of Lavina particularly disturbed me; the poor girl was raped and left with no means of identifying her attackers. Then, when she finally figured out a way to tell her father who they were, Titus killed her. I don't understand why she had to die. Then there is Aaron, who is arguably the most evil character in the book, and is also black. This was obviously racist on Shakespeare's part. I feel like Shakespeare probably had some great symbolism and deeper meaning behind this work, but for me at least, it was mostly lost to all the violence and bloodshed. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Shakespeare and I understand that he has had a major influence on modern language and literature, but I don't really like his works, especially this one. Titus Andronicus was over-saturated with blood, violence, and unnecessary works of evil that disturbed me and far too many times left me staring at the page wondering what the heck I had just read.
ReplyDeleteThe main idea revolving around Titus Andronicus is revenge. Whether Shakespeare himself needed to vent and get a few things out of his system, or he just thought the audience would understand it, the play is now famous for its horrific scenes. There is something in us humans that crave for the idea that someone will take back what was stolen from them, be able to stand up to attackers, or even have someone fight for there behalf. Either way, audiences respond to the same type of story no matter how many times it has been told. These days no one understands Shakespeare's language, has the patience to read thoroughly through a long play, or delights in reading about a girl being raped; however, though I might not have known what was going on in some scenes or forget who certain people were, the main theme does come through very specifically. Shakespeare created a successful play out of something horrific, because anyone can relate to the theme that comes though and binds all the characters, evil, and grotesque actions together.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare has never been something to spark my interest. I did my best to understand what I was reading, but it was honestly difficult to fully comprehend. There were many scenes that I didn’t comprehend what was happening. All the evil portrayed and revenge was horrible to read. In Act II, when Lavinia had her hands and tongue cut off so she couldn’t communicate with the perpetrators of the crime I was hoping that would be the worst of it all. Then the whole scene of when Titus is asked to cut off his hands to spare his sons. The scenes are so bazar. Keeping all the characters in line was a struggle. The names are all so similar sounding. All the violence and torture this story displayed was not something I would ever choose to read on my own.
ReplyDeleteFor me Shakespeare is always so confusing so I get lost easily during readings. I can tell this play definitely had a different tone to it then Romeo and Juliet. Titus Andronicus was a very violent play which made me feel uncomfortable with all the violence and the rapping. At least in movies you can look away when a bad scene comes on. I also didn’t like how Shakespeare made the character Lavina totally defenseless, this probably reflects on the time Shakespeare wrote this. Also the fact that Shakespeare made the most evil character Aaron black also reflect on the time this poem took place. Shakespeare must love revenge since the whole family killed loved ones in order to feel revenge over the other person. I got confused between the relationships between the characters. To me it sounded like characters were getting revenge over their own family members which really bothers me.
ReplyDeleteTitus Andronicus proves the statement that “two wrongs don’t make a right” true. Titus murders Tamora son and sets off a chain of revenge seeking. In the end there is no true heroes everyone loses someone they love. The play does portray the Moor as evil and granted he is but he is not totally the blame for Titus’ or Tamora’s actions. This play was very gory but I liked it I got to see Shakespeare in a different light. The story does have a somewhat happy ending but I was very sad that Lavina had to die I think that she suffered the most out of everybody, to lose the love of your life, be raped, and have pieces of you chopped off is pretty gruesome. I think that it was good that Titus murdered her because she wouldn’t have to suffer from the trauma she experienced.
ReplyDelete