Arbitrary Difference Found in Sexual Distinctions

Despite their similarities, Titus is considered the protagonist and the play is named after him. The plot lends itself to this distinction by defining Tamora as a sexual predator, and thus evil. The desire to differentiate Tamora and Titus as evil and good is overpowered by their sameness demonstrated in the text. This is important to the meaning of Titus Andronicus because when Tamora and Titus are seen as the same, the play is much more uncomfortable for the audience and it forces them to examine underlying sexist views they may hold.

One of the most graphic scenes in the text is Lavinia’s rape. Chiron and Demetrius, with the blessing of Tamora, rape Lavinia. Although Tamora does not physically participate in the rape, she ignores Lavinia’s pleas for death and allows her sons to “satisfy their lust” with Lavinia. Tamora wants the rape to occur because it is another way to revenge her eldest son’s death. This is not the only rape Lavinia endures; Titus figuratively rapes Lavinia later in the text.

Titus forces Lavinia to relive her rape by asking her, “Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none but friends, What Roman lord was durst do the deed. Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst, That left the camp to sin in Lecrece bed” (4.1.62-65). Lavinia is surrounded by all men in this scene and it must be difficult for her to recall the rape in front of her father, uncle, and cousin. Contrary to Titus’ beliefs, they are not Lavinia’s friends: Titus and Marcus actually harm Lavinia by raping her again. Titus instructs her to “give signs”, but Lavinia can give no signs because she has no hands. Similarly, during a rape, the victim wants to cry for help or get away, but they are restricted and cannot do so.

The only signs Lavinia can give are by undergoing another type of rape. After Chiron and Demetrius cut out Lavinia’s tongue, Titus proceeds to interpret all of Lavinia’s feelings. He decides to take revenge for her. Titus rapes Lavinia of her own feelings and makes them his own. One definition the Oxford English Dictionary gives for the word sign is, “a mark of attestation (or ownership)”. Titus is telling Lavinia that she should give ownership of herself to him. It is another way in which Titus is raping her.

Later in the scene Marcus tells Lavinia that she should name the Roman lord who had raped her by writing his name in the stand with a stick. For Lavinia to do this she must put the stick into her mouth. A stick is phallic in nature, and Lavinia is forced to take it into her mouth so she can communicate the real rapists to her father. Therefore, Lavinia must be raped to be able to identify her previous rapists.

Although neither Tamora nor Titus actually perform the act of raping Lavinia’s body, they both participate in figuratively raping her. Tamora’s participation in the rape is obvious, while Titus’ partaking is more covert. This does not make Titus and Tamora any less similar. Just one of the reasons Tamora is seen as the antagonist is because she allows the rape of Lavinia to occur. Titus, the protagonist, rapes his own daughter and yet Tamora is sill the evil one.

Another way in which Tamora and Titus are similar is the in way they both grieve for their sons and want them saved. Tamora gets down on her knees and begs Titus to let her eldest son live. When Titus finds out that his sons are accused of Bassianus’ murder, he falls to the ground and tells of what he will do if his son’s lives are saved.

Tamora says to Titus, “Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed, A mother’s tears in passion for her son. And if thy sons were ever dear to thee, O think my son to be as dear to me” (1.1.105-108). This passage discusses Tamora and Titus’ likeness by comparing the two of them. Tamora compares her feelings for her son to Titus’ feelings for his sons. She says that if the feelings are similar, then Titus should let her son live because he would not want to endure the murder of his own sons. Titus does not let Alarbus live so Tamora must accept his murder. This part is foreshadowing because Titus does have to endure his sons’ murders in the same way that Tamora must later in the text. Just like the passage in itself points to the similarity between Tamora and Titus, the passage is similar to the passage Titus speaks after his sons are accused. They both discuss the tears that will be shed, and they both fall to the ground.

Tamora’s speech to Titus is also ironic. Tamora is appealing to Titus’ compassion for his sons, but Titus kills Mutius for the arbitrary reason of getting in Titus’ way. Yet, Titus states that his tears will melt the snow when Martius and Quintus are sentenced to death. Titus’ actions are hypocritical. Although both Tamora and Titus grieve, Titus’ grief does not mean as much because he killed one of his sons. Tamora is still seen as evil even though she never murdered her sons.

American society puts forth the façade that it is not sexist. Titus Andronicus challenges these views by making Tamora out to be the evil character when she is the same as Titus, the perceived good character. When a reader agrees that Tamora is evil, the play reveals that he or she may hold underlying sexist tendencies. This is because Titus is the same as Tamora, yet he is not seen as evil. Tamora is seen as evil because she is a woman; Titus is seen as good because he is a man.

When the sameness of Tamora and Titus is analyzed in the text, Shakespeare gives the reader a little lesson: one’s displayed beliefs are sometimes different from his or her actual beliefs. This relates to the tension between sameness and difference. In the face of sameness, one searches for difference. If no appreciable difference is found, a difference is arbitrated along the lines of sex.