Succession and confessional politics combined

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Peter Lake
Keyword(s):  
Roman History ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Revenge Tragedy ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
Henry Vi

This chapter focuses on the play “Titus Andronicus,” which is considered not merely a revenge tragedy. It explains how Titus is suffused with evocations and references to the Aeneid and central elements in the plot that are taken from Ovid. It also mentions how Titus was described as a “noble Roman history” when it was entered in the stationer's register. The chapter discusses the Titus' central concerns: succession, tyranny, resistance and the nature and origins of monarchical legitimacy. It shows how Titus contains echoes of and parallels with the Henry VI and Richard III plays and how it was set within a meticulously evoked and entirely fictional version of Romanitas.

Care

2018 ◽  
pp. 280-294
Author(s):  
Neema Parvini
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
King Lear ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Henry Vi

This chapter assesses the extent to which harm is caused in Shakespeare’s plays when the moral order breaks down by focusing on plays in which the dramatis personae revert to the Hobbesian state of nature and unspeakable cruelty: Titus Andronicus, 3 Henry VI, Richard III, and King Lear. In such moments Shakespeare seems to invoke the image of the tiger, which he only uses fifteen times in all his works. In the constrained or tragic vison (Thomas Sowell), when there are no institutions with which to reinforce the morals that bind people together (authority, loyalty, fairness, sanctity), the worst aspects of humanity – as embodied in the tiger – are granted their fullest expression. However, in Shakespeare’s version of this vision, human nature provides the seeds of its own rebirth.

‘She’s Turned Fury’: Women Transmogrified in Revenge Plays

2018 ◽  
pp. 220-236
Author(s):  
Janet Clare
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Revenge Tragedy ◽  
Henry Vi ◽  
Revenge Plays

This chapter explores early modern responses to Hecuba, arguing that whereas Euripides’ Hecuba is a sympathetic tragic heroine and successful avenger, this model was not replicated in early modern plays. Instead the two aspects of Hecuba’s role, that of lamenting mother and ruthless avenger, bifurcate in English revenge tragedy. Pitiful, mourning mothers such as Isabella from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy are unsuccessful, while savage ones, such as Tamora from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Queen Margaret in Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy, are abhorrent and aberrant, inflicting violence from a position of power. In contrast to Germany and France – where artistic treatments of the Biblical Judith decapitating General Holofernes offer a heroic, political image of female vengeance – the chapter argues that in early modern England revenge was definitively not a woman’s business.

Going Roman: Richard III and Titus Andronicus compared

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lake
Keyword(s):  
Richard Iii ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Revenge Tragedy

This chapter provides a comparison of Richard III and Titus Andronicus. Both Titus and Richard III have at their centre an elaborated picture of tyranny. While Titus comes off as a revenge tragedy, it also features a political under-plot, in which, as well as revenge being achieved by the Andronici, legitimacy is restored to a Rome ravaged by the tyranny of Saturninus and the Machiavellian atheism and evil counsel of Tamora and her lover Aaron, the Moor. While the radical purport of what actually happens in Richard III is obscured rather than highlighted by the heavily providential mix of prophecy and prodigy that suffuses the action, none of that is true of Titus Andronicus.

4. Plays of the 1590s

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Wells
Keyword(s):  
National Unity ◽  
Romeo And Juliet ◽  
English History ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
The People ◽  
Henry Vi ◽  
National Welfare

During the first decade of Shakespeare’s career he wrote a series of closely inter-related plays based on English history drawing heavily on Holinshed’s Chronicles and other accounts. These plays show a serious concern with political problems, with the responsibilities of a king, his relationship with the people, the need for national unity, and the relationship between national welfare and self-interest. ‘Plays of the 1590s’ introduces each of these plays, sketching its origins, stories, and themes. It also touches on aspects of Shakespeare’s techniques and artistry. The plays considered are Henry VI (Parts One to Three), Richard III, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Edward III, and King John.

Shakespeare’s Style in the 1590s

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goran Stanivukovic
Keyword(s):  
Romeo And Juliet ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Robert Greene ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Midsummer Night's Dream ◽  
Much Ado About Nothing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Henry Vi ◽  
Love's Labour's Lost ◽  
Dramatic Practice

Shakespeare’s early style is explored from the angles of theory and dramatic practice, and in relation to the social and political contexts of the 1590s. Arguing that ornament and symmetry are the two distinct properties of Shakespeare’s early style, the essay discusses hyperbole, repetition, and parallelism as the most prominent features of that style. Claiming that Shakespeare’s use of bombast in the Henry VI trilogy and in Titus Andronicus is more sophisticated than Robert Greene and William Scott deemed it to be, the essay also explores the complex employment of symmetry, repetition and parallelism in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Richard III, and in the embedded sonnets in Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing. In conclusion, hyperbole is linked with the period’s colonial aspirations, demonstrated in a comparative analysis of Much Ado and Richard Hakluyt’s Principal nauigations.

Sound in Mind and Body: Hearing Early Modern Revenge Tragedy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison K. Deutermann
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Revenge Tragedy ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Henry Vi

This chapter traces how revenge tragedy took shape on the early modern stage, outlining the model of violent, invasive hearing on which the genre would increasingly depend. Many late-sixteenth century plays delight in sonic excess, combining cannon fire, trumpets, and alarums with the rumbling thunder of bombastic speech. In these productions, loud noises are often associated with violence, and particularly vengeance. Revenge is said to ‘thunder’ into bodies, or to ‘shriek’ and ‘cry’ out; noise itself becomes a weapon. Contemporary anatomy texts support such thinking, as do early modern theories of theatrical influence and effects. Increasingly, revengers’ speeches become weapons to be wielded precisely -- that is, directly into the ears of specific, intended victims --rather than released indiscriminately into crowds of hearers. Through Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy andShakespeare’s 3 Henry VI and Titus Andronicus, this chapter argues that revenge tragedy is intimately bound up in thinking about what sound can do to listeners both on and off the stage. The theatrical form proves explicitly invested in the question of what it means to hear plays in performance.

(Re)Contextualizing gender representation in Hamlet

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Darr
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Gender Representation ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Conduct Books ◽  
Titus Andronicus ◽  
Revenge Tragedy ◽  
English Translations

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My dissertation "(Re)Contextualizing Gender Representation in Hamlet" argues that all Hamlets reflect their historically specific gender crisis, which helps explain why Hamlet remains the most adapted Shakespearian drama. Each Hamlet recontextualizes its representation of gender to reflect the gender norms of that historical period, beginning with Shakespeare's. My first chapter traces the ongoing conversation regarding male and female gender norms from Italian conduct books to their English translations, which in turn instigated an English counter-response. My second chapter interrogates gender representation in the English dramatic genre of revenge tragedy from its Senecan roots through Thomas Kyd's foundational play The Spanish Tragedy to Shakespeare's first revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus. My third chapter explores twentieth century film adaptations of Hamlet as each film recontextualizes Hamlet and Ophelia within that period's dominant scholarly perception of the characters. My last chapter centers on the emergence of video game adaptations of Hamlet, which was made possible by the arrival of independently funded independent games. These innovative and interactive reimaginings of Hamlet participate within the larger, ongoing conversation concerning the representation of gender within the video game medium. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the transitional moment that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet during accounts for the play's incredible afterlife, especially in regards to the representation of gender.

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