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Stay, Roman brethren!—Gracious conqueror,
Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed,
A mother’s tears in passion for her son.
And if thy sons were ever dear to thee,
O think my son to be as dear to me.
Sufficeth not that we are brought to Rome
To beautify thy triumphs and return
Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke,
But must my sons be slaughtered in the streets
For valiant doings in their country’s cause?
O, if to fight for king and commonweal
Were piety in thine, it is in these! (1.1.104–114)
Tamora’s first words in the play are a cry for mercy on behalf of her eldest son, Alarbus. Calling on Titus and his sons to mark her tears, she attempts to induce his pity by asking him to put himself in her place. Surely, she reasons, his sons are as “dear to thee” as her son is “dear to me.” Continuing the comparison, she tries to convince him that her sons have acted valiantly in the cause of their own country, and that their capture should be punishment enough. But Titus does not heed her words, and he coldly orders the ritual sacrifice of Alarbus. In doing so, he instigates the beginning of his own downfall, which is already encoded in Tamora’s comparisons. If he will deign to slaughter her son in the streets, she will do the same to his.
So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee.
No, let them satisfy their lust on thee. (2.3.179–80)
Tamora addresses these words to Lavinia, who is about to be abducted, raped, and mutilated by Chiron and Demetrius. Although Lavinia has very recently made despicable remarks about Tamora and her lover, Aaron the Moor, once she realizes the violent fate in store for her, she pleas for Tamora to kill her right then and there. Tamora, meanwhile, relishes Lavinia’s fear and refuses to intervene. Instead, and with evident delight, she utters this rhyming couplet that seals Lavinia’s horrific fate. This moment reveals that Tamora’s idea of revenge far exceeds the demands of justice. If Titus and his sons were the ones complicit with her son’s execution, then why is her first victim the blameless daughter, Lavinia? There are many possible answers, but the most likely one is that she knows Lavinia is dearest to Titus. Lavinia must therefore be sacrificed to inflict the greatest amount of pain on her father.
Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora.
She is thy enemy, and I thy friend.
I am Revenge, sent from th’ infernal kingdom
To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind
By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes. (5.2.29–33)
Tamora speaks these words to Titus, to whose house she has come disguised as an embodiment of “Revenge.” She believes that this disguise will allow her to manipulate Titus in his madness and convince him to invite his son Lucius for a feast at his home. Her ulterior motive is to isolate the Goth army, which is now under Lucius’s control and seeking vengeance against her. But Titus sees through her disguise immediately. This is partly because he is not actually mad. Yet it’s also because, despite being in disguise, Tamora is arguably more fully herself than ever. She is as much an embodiment of revenge as her sons are embodiments of rape and murder. Thus, by presenting herself in a guise that in fact reveals her essence, Tamora makes herself fatally vulnerable to Titus’s own revenge plot.
