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Why does Tamora swear vengeance on Titus and his family?
Tamora swears vengeance on the Andronici because of their merciless execution of her eldest son. Upon returning to Rome with several Goths as captives, Titus orders the sacrificial killing of Tamora’s eldest as ritual compensation for his own sons, most of whom died in the war with Scythia. Despite her heartrending pleas for mercy, Titus proceeds with cold formality. Tamora also sees Titus’s sons as complicit in their father’s cruelty, which is why she wishes to see them punished as well. In addition to her grief, she wants vengeance for the humiliation she suffered. Hence, she vows to “make them know what ’tis to let a queen / Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain” (1.1.463–64).
What is the source of Aaron’s villainy?
Aaron’s most obvious characteristic is his penchant for villainy. Again and again in the play he remarks directly on the joy he takes in causing pain, suffering, and death. He therefore seems like an embodiment of evil. The only evidence that contradicts such a reading is the paternal sense of protection he demonstrates when his son is born. Otherwise, he’s a pure, unadulterated villain. Shakespeare doesn’t offer any concrete indications about the source of his unchanging villainy. The most convincing explanation for this is that he’s based on “Vice,” a figure from Elizabethan morality plays that exhibits a similarly pure evil. In the world of Shakespeare’s own time, Aaron’s dark skin would also likely be seen as a symbolic source of his villainy, since dark skin was symbolically associated with sin.
Does Titus lose his mind?
Although Titus seems to lose his mind, his apparent madness turns out to be part of his counterplot against Tamora and Saturninus. By act 4, the intensity of Titus’s grief has made it seem like he’s on the brink of madness. His madness seems most apparent in act 4, scene 3, when he directs his supporters to affix messages addressed to the gods and shoot them into the sky. Yet this request is arguably less a product of unreason and more a tactic aimed at feigning madness. Perhaps most significantly, it emboldens Tamora into believing that she can take advantage of Titus. But when she dresses up as Revenge in act 5, scene 2, Titus sees right through the ruse and uses his advantage to capture and kill her sons.
Why does Titus kill Lavinia?
The first person to die in the play’s final scene is, perhaps surprisingly, Lavinia. The explanation for her death is implicit in the dialogue leading up to her murder. Titus asks Saturninus if a certain Roman centurion named Virginius acted appropriately when he murdered his own daughter, who had been a victim of rape. Saturninus answers that he did act appropriately, since “the girl should not survive her shame” (5.3.41). Expressing his agreement, Titus kills Lavinia. In this way, her death is framed as a mercy killing. Yet from a theatrical perspective, the act also serves as a shocking instigation for the play’s final bloodbath.
How does Lucius become the new emperor?
When he’s exiled from Rome for attempting to intervene in the execution of his brothers Martius and Quintius, Lucius finds refuge among the Goths. Although Shakespeare doesn’t give us all the details, it seems that Lucius, who had previously fought against the Goths, turns them into allies by informing them that their former queen has become empress of Rome. This fact, paired with stories of her villainous acts, seems to have turned the Goths against Tamora. They unite behind Lucius and march on Rome. At the end of the play, when almost everyone else is dead, Lucius is the only survivor whose hands aren’t stained with blood. He’s conducted himself with honor, demonstrated loyalty to Rome, and has a taste for justice rather than revenge. These characteristics lead Marcus, with the people’s assent, to pronounce him emperor.
