Introduction
The relationship between Titus and his daughter Lavinia in the Shakespeare’s early bloody; Titus Andronicus is portrayed to be a weak relationship. It is not a good relationship, which exists between a father and his daughter. Titus does not show real love towards his daughter as a father. Titus seems not to love her daughter as expected from the father. When Lavinia is violently raped by Demetrius and Chiron after killing Bassianus after Aaron persuaded them, he was supposed to take actions after learning the raping of her daughter. Lavinia was violently raped and those who raped her mutilated her tongue together with her hands. They did this to prevent her from revealing what happened. By cutting her tongue, they could prevent her from verbally revealing what happened to her and those who did that shameful act. By cutting off her hands, Lavinia could not demonstrate what was done to her. The attackers dragged and raped Lavinia in the forest where nobody could see them. The author uses Lavina as a virtual daughter of Titus.
After some time, Marcus upon discovering Lavinia out of his love for sister takes her to her father. This could make any effect in him since he was deeply thinking of his sons who were falsely reported by Aaron to be the murderous of Bassianius. This shows a male dominated society where male are favored in the society. They are seen as more important in the society than the female. Titus who sees his sons as more important than Lavinia depicts this. Instead of taking actions concerning his daughter who was mercilessly raped and mutilated, he grieved over his sons who were falsely reported to be the murderous. Lavinias at this time was not able to reveal what happened to her. She later on uses her mouth and stumps to write the names of her attackers. This was a true proof of her attackers. Upon realizing the truth, Titus could not take further action on the attackers. This reveals that the society where Lavinia comes from is a male dominated society and female were not seen as important in the society. The writer at first reveals that Lavinia was a very beautiful woman and her beauty made the male in that society to see her as an object. Lavinia is said to have been in love with Bassianus. Saturninus also tells Titus that he would marry Lavinia before he becomes the Emperor (Shakespeare,45). However, Bassianius refuses to give out Lavinia to Sartuninus. The name Saturninus alliterates Bassinnus as they have one thing in common of fighting for Lavinia. Furthermore, the author uses Lavinia to symbolize beauty of a woman. This further shows how the society view female. They view female to be sex objects in the society. Titus agreed to give out Lavinia to Sartuninius for marriage although he knew that she was engaged to Bassianus. This shows that Titus did not care about his daughter but he just wanted dowry.
Later in the play, Titus kills Lavinia. This further showed that he did not love her. During the feast after grinding Demetrius and Chiron, he asks Saturninus whether a father should kill his daughter after being raped. Saturninus tells him that he could. This is the time when he killed her. This reveals that Titus did not love his daughter. The relationship towards her was just for dowry. After her mutilation, Titus sees her as useless and thus leads him to kill her. A true father takes care and shows love towards his daughter even if the daughter looks too ugly that she cannot be married. This is opposite to Titus. The author uses repetition to emphasize different themes in his work.
Titus Andronicus is a great story, which talks about fourteen dead bodies, sword-fu, kung-fu, pie-fu, animal screams on the soundtrack and many more. The deads symbolize lack of peace in the society. There is a lot to say, which is the main essence of the story. In short this story is all about abominations in the society. Titus Andronicus who was the roman general return home after ten years of war. He returns with only four sons out of twenty five sons. When he returns home he comes with Tamora who was the queen of Goths, her three sons and the Moor who was Aaron. For him to obey the roman rituals he decides to sacrifice her oldest son to his own dead son. This gave Tamora the urge to revenge and hatred Titus even more.
After some time Tamora is made the empress by his majesty emperor Saturninus. This was a way to get back to Titus. The queen schemes with her lover Aaron to have Titus two sons killed. The two sons are executed immediately without anyone suspecting it. Uncertified she plans another scheme where she urges her sons Demetrius and Chiron to rape Titus daughter Lavinia. After they had raped her, they cut off her tongue and hands so that she cannot talk or point out the culprits who did that to her. Unfortunately the last son of Titus called Lucius is banished from Rome. He runs to exile where he seeks alliance with the enemy Goths so that he can attack Rome as a way of revenge. Every new misfortune really hits the tired, aged Titus heavily. After some time the old man started to act oddly, something everyone assumed age was catching up with him and he was going crazy (Shakespeare,55). .
Titus tries to capitalize on his madness by forcing himself to be the figure of vengeance. Tamora pretends to come to his rescue and decide to give him justice if the old man will convince his son Lucius to cease fighting Rome. Titus who had fake his madness for a long time tricks here. He captures her sons, kills them and decide to make pie out of their dead body. In the end he feeds this pie to their mother where he decides to kill his daughter Lavinia and Tamora.
Lavinia she is the only daughter of Titus Andronicus. She accepted Saturninus offer which was to make her his empress (Shakespeare,73). This is because she was really in love with Bassianus. All this was before she got raped in the forest. After that incident she was muted and she became horrified. Her suffering went well with her father suffering which made his father to seek revenge. Deprived of her different means of communication and robbed of her most precious chastity made father hungry even more. Her relationship with Bassianus never made her father happy. The rape of Lavinia is the central and most horrific crime in this play. Her father decided to kill her so that people cannot take her advantage. This shows inhuman beings in the society.
Titus decision to kill her own daughter is based on many things. Some of these facts were to give way Lucius to be the head of the country. This is because no one will come to claim hand in marriage of his daughter, and claim to the empress. He also did not want to leave her to suffer in the cruel hands of the world.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, and Jonathan Bate. Titus Andronicus. London: Routledge, 1995. Print
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