56 pages • 1 hour read
William ShakespeareTitus Andronicus
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1594A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Animals
Shakespeare uses the symbolic imagery of animals throughout the play. In line with The Paradigm of “Civilized” Rome against “Barbarian” Other, the Roman characters frequently compare the outsider characters to animals. The Romans dehumanize the non-Roman characters whose actions they view as inhumane, creating an entrenchment of opposing groups who are increasingly alienated from each other’s humanity.
The raven is mentioned multiple times in the play, building tone through its literary association with death and status as a bad omen. Lavinia compares Tamora to a raven during her fruitless appeals for compassion, suggesting she embodies doom and terror. The raven’s dark wings connect to its characterization as a symbol of evil, with both Lavinia and Titus describing Aaron as a raven, referencing his skin color and suggesting it is a signifier of his wickedness. Tamora also uses the image of a raven in her speech about the pit in 2.2, alongside other animals like snakes and toads, turning the pit into a portal of death and destruction with her words before prompting her sons to turn it into one physically by dumping Bassianus’s body there.
The Roman characters also compare Tamora and Aaron to lions, bears, and tigers, again characterizing them as vicious and animalistic. Chiron and Demetrius are compared to young animals: Titus calls them “bear-whelps” and Lavinia describes them as the “tiger’s young,” using imagery of hatching, breeding, and suckling (2.2.142-156). In the final scene, Lucius uses the phrase “ravenous tiger” twice, once for Tamora and once for Aaron, recalling the raven imagery alongside the tiger. He dehumanizes them, presenting them as having an all-consuming hunger for destruction which justifies his inhumane treatment of them: Aaron is buried up to his chest and left to die, while Tamora’s body is thrown to the beasts, with Aaron declaring, “[T]hrow her forth to beasts and birds to prey: / Her life was beastly and devoid of pity / And being dead, let birds on her take pity” (5.3.197-199).
The Gallery
Throughout the play, some staging elements are written in to indicate dynamics and support the plot. The symbolic importance of the gallery, where characters appear “aloft,” is invoked repeatedly. In the first scene, this space represents the senate house, using a raised platform to mirror the status held by politicians. More broadly, the physical elevation and separation of characters signifies that they have the upper hand. For example, as Titus and his sons fall to in-fighting, Saturninus goes aloft, reflecting his new power as emperor. He takes his new bride Tamora, indicating the raised status that this marriage gives her in Roman society. In 5.2, Titus appears “aloft” when Tamora and her sons visit his house in disguise. He is physically impervious to them, reflecting that he is aware of their trickery; he can control their entrance into his space and manage the interaction on his own terms.
In the final scene, after the series of deaths, the surviving Andronici escape into the gallery protected by their new Goth allies. However, Marcus assures the gathered spectators that they will throw themselves off if they are judged to be morally in the wrong. Their elevation is thus also a source of vulnerability, exposing them to the judgment of the crowd. Following the crowd’s acceptance of their story, Lucius becomes emperor, returning to the main stage to reunite with the Roman people and begin his attempt to unify the city in peace. This staging ties into the theme of Order Versus Chaos: In the elevated stage area, characters are literally on top of things, overlooking the chaos of the main stage.
The Written Word
The written word is a recurring motif in the play. The play uses letters, notes, and books to explore the relationship between text and reality. The texts Shakespeare uses onstage are of two types: practical and literary. The practical texts are messages in the form of letters. These are all accompanied by an object that enhances or grounds their meaning: Aaron’s letter incriminating Bassianus is accompanied by a bag of gold seemingly corroborating its truth; Titus’s letter to Saturninus is wrapped around a knife, physicalizing his message of hostility; his letters to the gods are tied to arrows to transport them and communicate aggressive urgency. Literary texts appear in the frequent allusions to classical myths, with the story of Philomel becoming a significant plot point when Lavinia uses a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses to communicate what has happened to her.
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By William Shakespeare
