Program Note
Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare’s version of the Italian Revenge Drama. Titus was extremely popular when it came out around 1590. Its popularity can be attributed to Shakespeare’s combining of popular English Renaissance elements: gore, Roman history and revenge. Titus Androncius was never a real person, Shakespeare based his Titus on collections of Roman histories he would have read in school and in his free time. Rather, Titus is a piece of bloody historical fiction set around the fall of the Roman Empire.
Titus Andronicus is set within the brutal society of Ancient Rome. Attitudes toward human life are illustrated, for example, in Roman practices after the birth of a child. The midwife would place a new-born on the ground in front of the male head of the household and only if the paterfamilias picked it up was the baby formally accepted into the family. If the baby was not picked up, then it was abandoned outside so it would either die or be picked up by a stranger to be used as a slave. It was in this harsh culture that Romans were raised. The Roman Empire was constantly at war so it was important for a family to have many strong sons to become warriors to bring honor upon the family name. It can be said that Roman boys were practically raised to die.
In Titus, Shakespeare refers to Roman society but he also uses Roman mythology in order to convey some of his themes. In Roman mythology the gods of chastity, sex and fertility are all female while the gods of war, fire and the underworld are all male. Women lived to be passed from the father’s household to her husband’s household. Acting as a public face and helper for the man of the house. Roman women did not have power (as we see in Titus’ Lavinia), but there are still stories of nearby powerful queens (as we see in the captured Queen of the Goths, Tamora). Ancient women were not born “dainty does”, but instead were trained by their society to be so. The few women who were able to break from the rigid hierarchy the ancient world are the women we know from legend and history-- such as Semiramis, a queen known for her brutality and mercilessness. Ancient housewives, on the other hand, go mostly forgotten. This sets up a world of extremes with very little middle ground; suggesting that one has to participate in the violence or be hurt by it.
Shakespeare was drawn to tell stories like Titus Andronicus because he was living in a time reminiscent of the Roman Empire, when violence and death were part of everyday life: in sports such as bear baiting and hunting, in public executions and floggings and in the wars that divided empires. Death was always looming with the threat of illness and plague, which resurged in 1573–1588 and again in 1596–1599. The mortality rate for children in Ancient Rome was 25% while in Elizabethan England it was 14%. The idea of “rebirth” of classical styles during the Renaissance distracted patrons of the arts from the death that surrounded them, which made Titus Andronicus an extremely popular play. It has continued to be popular throughout history, both in its original and “adapted” states.
Titus still has something meaningful to offer modern audiences. In the play we are introduced to a world in which violence is the accepted way of life. And although we may no longer abandon babies or take prisoners of war as slaves, we still live in a violent world. Think about the last video game you played, the last movie you watched, the last TV show and your reaction to the violence. Violence is everywhere and yet somehow extremely removed from our daily lives. Titus Andronicus explores what happens when brutality is no longer a detached concept and instead something real, up close and jarringly personal.
Isabel Smith-Bernstein
Dramaturg
Titus Andronicus is set within the brutal society of Ancient Rome. Attitudes toward human life are illustrated, for example, in Roman practices after the birth of a child. The midwife would place a new-born on the ground in front of the male head of the household and only if the paterfamilias picked it up was the baby formally accepted into the family. If the baby was not picked up, then it was abandoned outside so it would either die or be picked up by a stranger to be used as a slave. It was in this harsh culture that Romans were raised. The Roman Empire was constantly at war so it was important for a family to have many strong sons to become warriors to bring honor upon the family name. It can be said that Roman boys were practically raised to die.
In Titus, Shakespeare refers to Roman society but he also uses Roman mythology in order to convey some of his themes. In Roman mythology the gods of chastity, sex and fertility are all female while the gods of war, fire and the underworld are all male. Women lived to be passed from the father’s household to her husband’s household. Acting as a public face and helper for the man of the house. Roman women did not have power (as we see in Titus’ Lavinia), but there are still stories of nearby powerful queens (as we see in the captured Queen of the Goths, Tamora). Ancient women were not born “dainty does”, but instead were trained by their society to be so. The few women who were able to break from the rigid hierarchy the ancient world are the women we know from legend and history-- such as Semiramis, a queen known for her brutality and mercilessness. Ancient housewives, on the other hand, go mostly forgotten. This sets up a world of extremes with very little middle ground; suggesting that one has to participate in the violence or be hurt by it.
Shakespeare was drawn to tell stories like Titus Andronicus because he was living in a time reminiscent of the Roman Empire, when violence and death were part of everyday life: in sports such as bear baiting and hunting, in public executions and floggings and in the wars that divided empires. Death was always looming with the threat of illness and plague, which resurged in 1573–1588 and again in 1596–1599. The mortality rate for children in Ancient Rome was 25% while in Elizabethan England it was 14%. The idea of “rebirth” of classical styles during the Renaissance distracted patrons of the arts from the death that surrounded them, which made Titus Andronicus an extremely popular play. It has continued to be popular throughout history, both in its original and “adapted” states.
Titus still has something meaningful to offer modern audiences. In the play we are introduced to a world in which violence is the accepted way of life. And although we may no longer abandon babies or take prisoners of war as slaves, we still live in a violent world. Think about the last video game you played, the last movie you watched, the last TV show and your reaction to the violence. Violence is everywhere and yet somehow extremely removed from our daily lives. Titus Andronicus explores what happens when brutality is no longer a detached concept and instead something real, up close and jarringly personal.
Isabel Smith-Bernstein
Dramaturg