Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

 Titus Andronicus: the war of revenge 

 

William Shakespeare was a prolific playwright who produced over 30 plays and sonnets, leaving a lasting impression on English literature and the world. His works continue to influence modern day culture and inspire generations of artists, actors, and writers. Philip Henslowe mentioned a new play that would stage on January 23, 1594. William Shakespeare inspired a few sources such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and The History of Titus Andronicus, The Renowned Roman General, Newly Translated from the Italian Copy Printed in Rome to write the play. Although Shakespeare inspired these sources, he alternated plot and characteristic properties. Thanks to his unique ability of fiction, Titus Andronicus became a masterpiece which still read today. 

 

Characters  

1. Titus Andronicus 

2. Tamora 

3. Saturninus 

4. Aaron 

5. Marcus Andronicus 

6. Lavinia 

7. Lucius 

8. Bassianus 

9. Chiron 

10. Demetrius 

11. Publius 

12. Quintus 

13. Martius 

 

1. Historical Background 

Titus Andronicus is a tale of revenge set in ancient Rome, inspired by the works of Seneca. It follows the tragic story of Roman general Titus who seeks revenge on his enemies after a brutal war 

 

2. Overview 

The play deals with themes of violence, power, and revenge, and features some of Shakespeare's most gruesome scenes. It has been praised for its intricate plot and criticized for its heavy-handed approach. He sacrifices the eldest son of Tamora, Queen of the Goths, as part of the Roman victory rituals, leading to a vengeful rage in Tamora. 

 

3. Theatrical Elements  

The play deals with themes of violence, power, and revenge, and features some of Shakespeare's most gruesome scenes. It has been praised for its intricate plot and criticized for its heavy-handed approach. 

 

 

Revenge, loyalty, gender, power, and violence are the main theme of the play. The writers of the Elizabethan time were interested in "Revenge" and it was preferred by audiences. Then, Shakespeare utilized this theme in Titus Andronicus deftly. We can observe the characterization and vengeance between Titus and Aaron. The characterization of Titus influenced me most, for Titus was grave, brave, pitiless and a soldier. He is a Roman general completely. All of the characters in this play were portrayed flawlessly yet Titus and Aaron were more detailed. Aaron is the most important figure of evil and it also is highlighted because Aaron is black, as in "Othello". While Titus represents a Roman general, Aaron represents barbarism. Titus is an aristocratic father who sacrifices his sons for his country, by the same token, barber Aaron is a slave father who strives to protect his son vehemently. Shakespeare created Lear-Coriolanus inspired by Titus, then, Aaron is the heir of Richard III and Edmund. 

  

Although Titus Andronicus is not among Shakespeare's greatest works, it is seen as a play that reflects our age with its dramatic effect and chilling scenes. The play showcases Shakespeare's early experimentation with dramatic techniques and themes that he would later explore more fully in his later tragedies. 

A Frame of William Shakespeare's Life: Style of his works and Sonnets #2

 William Shakespeare 

 

In the late 16th century, William Shakespeare began his career as a playwright by writing such as tragedies, comedies, and historical plays. He was inspired by Holinshed's Chronicles, his plays based on Holinshed. These chronicles are vital for a theatre of this time.  

  

Most of the plays by Shakespeare are historical characters written by Shakespeare which represent real persons. There are many examples such as Henry IV, Henry V, and King Lear, but at the same time, he published romantic comedies such as As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare is famous for tragedies. Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Othello can be good examples. These works had themes, such as honour, revenge, death, betrayal etc. His comedies are quite different, they are related to romanticism, happiness and love. However, we can say that his comedies as "problem plays" or "dark comedies." 

 

Shakespeare developed a poetic style which was a remarkably fluid, dreamlike sense of plot and a poetic style. Now it is commonly known as "romances." These plays depict interest in moral and emotional life. Thanks to his contributions, English developed noticeably, so his works and endeavours are vital in terms of the history of the English language. He was a master of vocab and he derived many new words. Even today, he has quite an importance and contribution to modern English. 

Shakespeare himself apparently had no interest in preserving for posterity the sum of his writings, let alone in clarifying the chronology of his works or in specifying which plays he wrote alone and which with collaborators. He wrote plays for performance by his company, and his scripts existed in his own handwritten manuscripts or in scribal copies, in playhouse prompt books, and probably in pirated texts based on shorthand reports of performance or on reconstructions from memory by an actor or spectator. None of these manuscript versions has survived. Eighteen of his plays were published during his lifetime in the small-format, inexpensive books called quartos; to these were added eighteen other plays, never before printed, in the large, expensive folio volume of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, Tragedies (1623) 

  

Sonnets 

In Elizabethan England aristocratic patronage, with the money, protection, and prestige it alone could provide, was probably a professional writer's most important asset. This patronage, or at least Shakespeare's quest for it, is most visible in his dedication in 1593 and 1594 of his narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, to the wealthy young nobleman Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton. What return the poet got for his exquisite offerings is unknown. We do know that among wits and gallants the narrative poems won Shakespeare a fine reputation as an immensely stylish and accomplished poet. This reputation was enhanced as well by manuscript circulation of his sonnets, which were mentioned admiringly in print more than ten years before they were published in 1609 (apparently without his personal supervision and perhaps without his consent). 

 

Shakespeare's sonnets are quite unlike the other sonnet sequences of his day, notably in his almost unprecedented choice of a beautiful young man (rather than a lady) as the principal object of praise, love, and idealizing devotion and in his portrait of a dark, sensuous, and sexually promiscuous mistress (rather than the usual chaste and aloof blond beauty). Nor are the moods confined to what the Renaissance thought were those of the despairing Petrarchan lover: they include delight, pride, melancholy, shame, disgust, and fear. Shakespeare's sequence suggests a story, although the details are vague, and there is even doubt whether the sonnets as published are in an order established by the poet himself. Though there are many variations, Shakespeare's most frequent rhyme scheme in the sonnets is abab cdcd efef gg. This so-called Shakespearean pattern often (though not always) calls attention to three distinct quatrains (each of which may develop a separate metaphor), followed by a closing couplet that may either confirm or pull sharply against what has gone before. They are also remarkably dense, written with a daunting energy, concentration, and compression. Often the main idea of the poem may be grasped quickly, but the precise movement of thought and feeling, the links among the shifting images, the syntax, tone, and rhetorical structure prove immensely challenging. These are poems that famously reward rereading.