Titus Andronicus: Rome's Greatest Soldier, Rome's Greatest Victim
First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
Titus returns from ten years of war to find Rome in political crisis and makes the worst decision in the play immediately: he sacrifices Tamora's eldest son as a religious ritual, making a permanent enemy of the Goth queen. Then he insults the wrong emperor.
What follows is a systematic dismantling of everything he has. His sons are executed, his daughter Lavinia is raped and mutilated, he is tricked into cutting off his own hand.
His response, a play-within-a-play of revenge that ends in a banquet where he serves Tamora's sons baked into a pie, is either the play's logical conclusion or its point of failure. Titus becomes the violence he hates, but the play does not present this as obviously wrong.
Key Scenes
Titus Andronicus's Key Quotes
“I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow! She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:”
Titus Andronicus, Act 3, Scene 1
“If there were reason for these miseries, Then into limits could I bind my woes:”
Titus Andronicus, Act 3, Scene 1
Themes
Other Characters in Titus Andronicus
Test Your Knowledge
Think you know your Shakespeare? Put it to the test with one of our free quizzes.
See all quizzes →