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Summary
After the death of the emperor of Rome, his two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus, ask the masses to determine who should succeed to the throne. The first invokes his natural rights as the first-born son, while the second calls upon his virtue and graciousness. They are silenced by the tribune of the people, Marcus Andronicus, who announces that the citizens of Rome have elected to the throne Titus Andronicus, a great general who has spent the last ten years vanquishing Rome’s enemies, losing twenty-one sons in the process. Titus enters to great fanfare, trailed by four living sons and two in coffins. He also brings with him the captives Tamora, Queen of the Goths, as well as her three sons and Aaron the Moor. Despite a desperate plea from Tamora, Titus orders that Roman custom be followed and that Tamora’s oldest son be ritually sacrificed in exchange for Titus’s own dead offspring.
Marcus offers Titus the scepter of Rome on behalf of the people, but Titus refuses it on account of his age. Instead, he states that Saturninus should be emperor because he is the eldest son. Saturninus returns the favor by taking Lavinia as his empress. Bassianus revolts against this, claiming that Lavinia is betrothed to him. He then spirits her away with the aid of Lavinia’s remaining brothers: Lucius, Mutius, Quintus, and Martius. When Mutius intercedes with Titus on behalf of his fleeing sister, Titus strikes him down and kills him. It is only after his other sons plead with him that Titus allows Mutius to be interred in the family tomb.
Publicly humiliated by the loss of Lavinia, Saturninus announces that he will instead take Tamora as empress. The new empress slyly advises him to accept the apologies of Titus and his sons, while secretly promising Saturninus that she will help him find another day to exact revenge on the Andronici. The new emperor closes act 1 by declaring it a “love-day” and inviting everyone to the court for a feast. Titus offers to organize a hunt for the new emperor the next day, and Saturninus accepts.
Analysis
Act 1 lays out the major conflicts that will unfurl in bloody splendor over the course of the play: the bitter contest for the Roman throne, the vengeful feud between Titus and Tamora, and the foreshadowed rape of Lavinia. The opening speeches of Saturninus and Bassianus represent a Rome that is deeply divided between tradition and virtue. Must Rome respect the lineage of the eldest son, Saturninus, or should virtuous Bassianus be crowned emperor? As it turns out, the people opt for neither choice. Instead, as Marcus announces to Titus upon his victorious return to Rome, it is the decorated soldier the people have chosen for the throne. Yet Titus refuses to set his own head “on headless Rome” (1.1.186). Though the matter is quickly resolved when Titus recommends Saturninus for the job, the empire’s deep political divisions nonetheless remain. The language of this opening scene emphasizes these divisions through frequent metaphorical references to the body politic of Rome. The wounded nature of the imperial “body” portends the various violations and dismemberments to come.
Even though the coronation of Saturninus appears to resolve the play’s opening tensions, the first act has really sown the seeds of many new conflicts. To the contrast between traditional right and virtue (as embodied by Saturninus and Bassianus, respectively), Shakespeare adds the contrast between Roman honor and Goth barbarism. When Marcus urges, “Thou art a Roman, be not barbarous” (1.1.385), the implication is that Rome stands as a symbolic bastion of civility and honor. Yet what counts as honorable in Rome is strikingly barbarous. When Tamora pleads for her son’s life, Titus ignores her cries to ensure the performance of a ritualistic execution, done in the sacred name of honor. Even more dramatic is Titus’s later slaying of his own son, Mutius, which he also performs in defense of the family’s honor. Yet even as he acts according to Roman norms and values, it’s hard not to recall the cry made by Chiron, a supposedly barbarous Goth, as his brother was taken for sacrifice: “Was never Scythia half so barbarous!” (1.1.131). The seemingly simplistic distinction between honorable Romans and barbarous Goths is thus immediately complicated, and we are made to question the violence at the heart of Roman civilization.
Act 1 closes with the high ceremony of the court. However, it’s clear that the show of politeness and the promises to let bygones be bygones is all a sham. Titus and the rest of the Andronici are all eager to believe the sham and to forget the crimes committed in the heat of the moment. Tamora, however, is hungry for revenge, and as she promises in the first act’s most chilling speech: “I’ll find a day to massacre them all / And raze their faction and their family” (1.1.459–60). This vow marks the opening move in what will turn out to be a bloody revenge tragedy. But what’s notable here is the way revenge has a way of amping itself up and spiraling out of control. It’s worth remarking that Tamora’s vow isn’t simply to punish Titus by killing one of his sons. Her sense of justice is not of the eye-for-an-eye sort. Instead, she vows explicitly to kill all the Andronici. This vow may seem far out of proportion with the crime done against her family. However, as we’ll see throughout the play, this game of violent one-upmanship is what distinguishes the emotionally fueled concept of revenge from a more legalistic concept of justice.
