An examination of the themes of revenge and tomb imagery in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.
Looks at the use of the tomb image to evoke and perpetrate revenge in the play, Titus Andronicus. The paper touches on each of the main characters and their actions, as well as the importance of the tomb in Roman culture. Discusses the character of Tamora, her motivations for revenge, and why the revenge is carried out in the way that it is.
In William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus the prominence of the tomb is an image which provides the backbone of circumstance to this revenge tragedy. The Andronicus family tomb and the pit represent death in contrast; traditional against unhallowed resting places, both which nonetheless become places of humiliation and revenge. The body plays the part of tomb as a forced return to the origins of life. Roman religion also conjures scenes of resting places in the many allusions to Hades or Hell and the river Styx.