payment page
Summary
Aaron rejoices that Tamora is now the empress. As her lover, he anticipates better opportunities for himself. His thoughts are interrupted by a brawl between Chiron and Demetrius, who argue over which of them deserves Lavinia’s love. Aaron counsels them to stop arguing. Instead, he encourages them to catch her during the hunt and to join together in raping her.
The next day, Titus, Titus’s sons, Saturninus, Tamora, Bassianus, Lavinia, and Marcus gather the for the hunt that Titus had proposed at the end of act 1. As the company sets out to the forest, Chiron and Demetrius reaffirm their intention “to pluck a dainty doe to ground” (2.2.29).
Analysis
The first act concludes with Saturninus declaring “a love-day” (1.1.501). This announcement would appear to make for a seamless transition into act 2, which opens with Aaron’s poetic paean to Tamora. Now that she has become empress of Rome, he believes he will be able to ride the wave of his mistress’s ascent. The language of Aaron’s speech is quite lofty, opening as it does with an image of Tamora climbing to “Olympus’ top, / Safe out of Fortune’s shot” and “advanced above pale Envy’s threat’ning reach” (2.1.1–4). Yet however sophisticated Aaron’s rhetoric may be, it’s also laced with sexual innuendo as he plans, for example, “to mount aloft with [his] imperial mistress, / And mount her pitch” (2.1.13–14). Thus, though act 2 opens with a declaration of love, the crudeness of Aaron’s intentions quickly reveals itself. His love-talk is, in this sense, as much of a sham as Saturninus’s declaration of a “love-day.” And so, despite the play’s seeming turn to matters of romance, we are truly still in the realm of violence.
This much becomes clear as the opening scene of act 2 continues, and Aaron comes upon Tamora’s sons, Chiron and Demetrius, fighting over their love for Lavinia. The two young men’s love talk is clearly underwritten by violence, as their quarrel nearly escalates into a sword fight. Aaron explains that such behavior isn’t tolerated in Rome, and he cautions them that they might meet a violent end at the hands of the law: “I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths / By this device” (2.1.80–81). But Aaron isn’t interested in avoiding violence, as becomes clear when he encourages the brothers to cease quarreling and instead join forces. Like a parent telling their kids to stop fighting over toys and learn to share, Aaron suggests that Chiron and Demetrius kidnap Lavinia and each have their way with her. As if rape weren’t violent enough on its own, Aaron conflates the act with the activity of the day: hunting. Telling the boys to take Lavinia to one of the “many unfrequented plots” (2.1.122) in the forest, he conjures a hunting metaphor when commanding them to “single . . . thither then this dainty doe, / And strike her home by force, if not by words” (2.1.124–25).
