Titus Andronicus

Rating:
Summary: Bloody, senseless drama!
Review: Quentin Tarantino must surely have got his inspiration for his senseless and bloody scenes from this Shakespearean play. For those lovers of blood and gore, you will be delighted in this play. Shakespeare starts with the usual beheadings, but then in a stroke of mad 'genius' decides to up the ante and add mutilations, rape, cannibalism, betrayal, setups, murder and a host of other villainous acts to shock the audience. The only ones who will be disappointed are those who love eye gouging, but rest assured, Shakespeare has pretty much covered everything else.

The racism in the play is sickening. At every opportunity, Aaron the moor is self deprecating, equating his blackness with evil and calling himself slave, thick-lipped etc. I am hardly a fan of political correctness, but why the excessive name calling. It seems Shakespeare had this racist streak in him, which may have been a product of his times. Check out Othello and The Merchant of Venice for more evidence of this.

The 'hero' in the play, Titus Andronicus was someone I had much difficulty sympathizing with, probably because of the improbability of losing more than 20 sons to a war, and his lack of mercy at the beginning of the play which started everything else. His near lapse into insanity is reminiscent of King Lear and both plays share the same theme of ingratitude: in Lear it is the ingratitude of his daughters while here it is the ingratitude of the state.

I would not recommend this book to those who want to read some good Shakespearean drama. Try King Lear instead.

Rating:
Summary: One of Shakespeare's best but always misunderstood plays
Review: Since this was Shakespeare's first tragedy - it's understandable how he could write something so utterly out of character for him. Everyone must find their own feet to stand on. I find that the college students I teach respond well to this particular piece. The violence, gore and blood keep our up-to-date students involved. They also seem to respond well to Aaron. They are amazed at the evilness and the twisted plot. I will continue to teach this in my classroom and think this version is just fine for the beginning Shakespeare student.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Since this was Shakespeare's first tragedy - it's understandable how he could write something so utterly out of character for him. Everyone must find their own feet to stand on. I find that the college students I teach respond well to this particular piece. The violence, gore and blood keep our up-to-date students involved. They also seem to respond well to Aaron. They are amazed at the evilness and the twisted plot. I will continue to teach this in my classroom and think this version is just fine for the beginning Shakespeare student.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: So it's a rather repetitive play emotionally: revenge, revenge, revenge. Well, Shakespeare does revenge better than anybody, so it's still a great play. When Quentin Tarentino got a chance to meet Peter O'Toole, O'Toole was asked what he thought of PULP FICTION, since it was so vastly inferior to LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. O'Toole said, "I liked PULP FICTION. It's the modern TITUS ANDRONICUS."

Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare's 1st Tragedy
Review: This is a good play, but it does not represent Shakespeare's best efforts. The genius that he displayed in the previously written "Henry VI" plays takes a back seat to blood and gore. While a certain amount of violence is required for a good drama, it seems graphic horror is here for the mere sake of graphic horror. Neither do the villains represent Shakespeare's best efforts. Aaron, Tamora, Chiron, or Demetrius are not chilling or captivating in their evil the way King Richard III is. Nor do they grab our attention with a crisis of conscience. (Claudius and Macbeth do) On the positive side, the play moves at a good pace. Lavinia is fine as the innocent martyr. Saturnius is memorable as the poor man caught in the middle. Titus, Lucius, and Marcus are fine as the heroes.

Rating:
Summary: The First Wizard of Gore
Review: This is perhaps The Bard's least well known work, but a classic nonetheless. If H. G. Lewis had been a playwrite living in Old England, this is no doubt the kind of drama he might have produced. It has more blood & violence than the most exploitive exploitation film. Heads severed off, murdered children baked into a stew & served to their father, rape, vengeance, mayhem, insanity... all served up in the guise of classic literature. PERFECT!

Rating:
Summary: Bloody, but great
Review: this was shakespeares first play and one of his best ever. i have to agree with the guy below me

Rating:
Summary: Blood, guts and gore: a satire of revenge
Review: Titus Andronicus is a tragedy of comical proportions. People are easily raped, maimed, and murdered at the drop of a tongue or arm throughout. Titus' feigned insanity brings wretched results for his edible enemies. The request for a detached hand results in hilarious conversation among a handful of volunteers.

This play reminds me of the scene from the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film where the knight has been chopped arm and limbless but still wants to keep fighting.

Revenge ends in a heap of chopped up bodies in Titus. No, the characters are not fleshed out and in great opportunity of winning your sympathoies; they are not supposed to be. The plot is bigger than the players in this one, and it works this way. Revenge does not take much about a person into account. In the end, only the demonlike Aaron keeps his tongue, but who will listen to him? That, dear reader, is the point.

Rating:
Summary: Blood, guts and gore: a satire of revenge
Review: Titus Andronicus is a tragedy of comical proportions. People are easily raped, maimed, and murdered at the drop of a tongue or arm throughout. Titus' feigned insanity brings wretched results for his edible enemies. The request for a detached hand results in hilarious conversation among a handful of volunteers.

This play reminds me of the scene from the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film where the knight has been chopped arm and limbless but still wants to keep fighting.

Revenge ends in a heap of chopped up bodies in Titus. No, the characters are not fleshed out and in great opportunity of winning your sympathoies; they are not supposed to be. The plot is bigger than the players in this one, and it works this way. Revenge does not take much about a person into account. In the end, only the demonlike Aaron keeps his tongue, but who will listen to him? That, dear reader, is the point.

Rating:
Summary: One of Shakespeare's best but always misunderstood plays
Review: Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare's finest plays. However, most people don't understand what it's really about. It is about love and how hate is born of love and how one cannot hate without the depth of love. But it is also a comedy, in a way. The things that happen are so horrible that the only thing you can do is laugh. But this is not the case dearing the scene were one of the characters, Lavinia Andronicus, is raped by Demetrius and Chiron the youngest sons of the Queen of the Goths. In that scene the last thing you can do is laugh. It is so powerful that you just have to cry and shrink into a ball. This is Shakespeare's most powerful play but people over look it because they don't understand it. But none the less this play is a masterpeice and my favorite play ever.