Titus Andronicus

Rating:
Summary: One of Shakespeare's Best Tragedies...
Review: Titus has been maligned by many who have read the better known works of Shakespeare as a violent and gruesome play. That it is, but it is precisely that and other elements that make it remarkable. To truly appreciate Titus one must have read some Roman plays (specifically Seneca's early tragedies) and be relatively well versed in Greek mythology and Roman history. In Titus, Shakespeare gives the audience a great deal of Greek mythology via Ovid's Metamorphoses (compare Lavinia with Philomela and the final "feast" with the infamous dinner that Thyestes had with his brother Atreus). But the play is not only a classic in this sense. It addresses the timeless theme of revenge and the endless cycle of violence begetting violence that ensues as the charachers seek "wreakful vengance" for each horrific deed and pain that one causes the other. There are no heroes in Titus and no "good guys" just raw emotion and passion laid bare. It is at once the worst of humanity recounted with some of the most beautiful poetry that has ever been written.