Titus Andronicus

“The one with all the murder”

Notable Characters

• Titus Andronicus, a Roman general
• Tamora, the queen of the Goths
• Aaron, lover of Tamora
• Saturninus & Bassianus, brothers and sons of the previous Roman emperor
• Lavinia, daughter of Titus
• Mutius, Martius, Quintus & Lucius, sons of Titus
• Tamora’s 3 sons

Plot

• Saturninus & Bassianus, brothers and heirs to the Roman throne, both want to be Emperor
• Marcus Andronicus, the Tribune of the people, instead offers the throne to his brother Titus, who refuses because he’s old. Saturninus becomes emperor.
• Titus returns from war with the Goths, alongside prisoners, including queen Tamora and her three sons. Titus executes her eldest.
• Saturninus decides to wed Titus’ daughter, Lavinia. HOWEVER, Lavinia is already engaged to Bassianus. Titus then murders his son Mutius.
• Saturninus changes his mind and instead marries Tamora, Queen of the Goths.
• Saturninus is now really mad at Titus but Tamora convinces him to leave the Andronicus family alone

Plot (again)

• The Royalty and the Andronicus family decide to go on a royal hunt
• Tamora’s two living sons, Demetrius and Chiron, are fighting over who of the two of them should wed Lavinia
• Aaron, the actual beloved of Tamora, calms down the two by telling them they can both have Lavinia!
• As long as they kill Bassianus and rape and mutilate her. Jesus Christ.
• Demetrius and Chiron then frame two of Titus’ sons, Martius and Quintus, for the murder of Bassianus.
• Saturninus sentences Martius and Quintus to death immediately.
• Marcus later brings Lavinia to Titus, who is now missing both her hands as well as her tongue.

Still P.L.O.T.

• Then, Aaron comes to Titus and tells him that Saturninus will spare his sons if Titus lets Aaron cut off his hand. Then he sends it off to Saturninus.
• Titus later gets a package containing his old hand as well as his two sons’ heads. Saturninus killed his sons anyway.
• Titus sends his one remaining son, Lucius, to raise an army as vengeance.
• Later, after a dinner, Marcus, the son of Lucius, takes Lavinia out to the garden, where she tries to communicate what happened to her. First she points to relevant passages in the poem Metamorphoses by Ovid, and then uses her arm stumps to grab a stick and write out the names of Demetrius and Chiron.
• Meanwhile, Tamora’s baby is born! And Aaron turns out to be the father.
• Aaron then decides to murder the nurse and midwife and flees with his infant son.

Plot IV: The Plottening

• Titus is rightfully angry at all the stuff that’s happened around him, and so he has Marcus shoot a bow and arrow into the sky with letters for the gods asking for assistance
• Lucius has successfully raised his army, and captures Aaron & his baby.
• Lucius threatens Aaron’s son, so Aaron finally tells the truth about Tamora’s plan, alongside who really committed the crimes against lavinia.
• Tamora and her sons then decide to further de-balance the already near-insane Titus by pulling a scooby-doo dressing up as ghosts.
• Tamora, Demetrius and Chiron appear to Titus as the spirits of Vengeance, Rape and Murder respectively.

Domo Arigato Mr. Ro-plot-o

• Tamora, as the spirit of Vengeance, tells titus that he will receive vengeance as long as he tells Lucius and his army to stand down.
• Titus agrees on the condition that “The Spirit of Vengeance” leaves “The Spirits of Rape & Murder” with him.
• She does so, and Titus immediately captures both sons, slits their throats and drains their blood.
• Titus holds a banquet, and invites the royalty.
• At the banquet, he kills Lavinia, and reveals that the meat pies they were eating were made out of Demetrius and Chiron. He then kills Tamora.
• Saturninus, after this, kills Titus. Then, Lucius kills Saturninus.
• Lucius is the new emperor now, and Aaron is executed. THE END.

Setting

Ancient Rome, at war with the Goths

The three most well-known lines

• “Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”

(Aaron, Act 2 Scene 3)

• “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 ‘tis to let a queen kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.”

(Tamora, Act 1 Scene 1)

• “Thou hast undone our mother!” “Villain, I have done thy mother.”

(Aaron, Act 4 Scene 2)

“The Big Scene”

What’s special about the play?

This is oft considered Shakespeare’s bloodiest play, and one of the revengiest of his revenge plays. Some people dispute if it was even written by Shakespeare.

The big ol’ central themes

• LOTS OF MURDER.
• LOTS OF REVENGE.
• LOTS OF BLOOD.
• LOTS OF REVENGE.
• LOTS OF MURDER.
• LOTS OF REVENGE.
• LETS OF REVENGE.

Famous Versions?

NEIL BREEN as TITUS ANDRONICUS

HUGH GRANT as SATURNINUS

ULYSSES S. GRANT as BASSIANUS

WALKER PEARCEY (Frontman for world famous raw black metal band Plastic City) as LUCIUS

DANIEL DEVITO as TAMORA

AMERICAN PSYCHO GUY as MARCUS ANDRONICUS

TROY MCCLURE as LAVINIA

JIM HENSON as ALL FOUR OF TITUS’ SONS

JIM HENSON as ALL THREE OF TAMORA’S SONS

CHUCK MANSON as PUBLIUS, SON OF MARCUS

caleb as YOUNG LUCIUS, SON OF LUCIUS

DRAKE as AARON, a Moor beloved by Tamora

A song I associate with the play

A song I associate with the play