Titus Andronicus Research Paper

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Shakespeare’s Worst Play “Titus Andronicus”, by William Shakespeare, is the first tragedy Shakespeare has ever written. This play has proven to be very controversial and usually banned in many schools because of its’ gory scenes and “over the top” deaths. It is the ultimate revenge tragedy with no decent humor, forgiveness, or redemption. This play, however, does lay a fundamental basis of the characters for the characters Shakespeare writes later on. Tamora could be seen as the early Lady Macbeth, or Aaron as Iago in Othello. Although the play is obviously not the best one, it does have a lot of useful, important information that help the students understand the background of Shakespeare. “Titus Andronicus” serves as a test track for Shakespeare…show more content…
In Shakespeare’s tragedies, the characters tend to unfold as the story develops. Not only are the characters similar, but most of his tragedies have reoccurring themes as well. “Titus Andronicus” has the foundation, but without the developed, intelligent, characteristics Shakespeare develops as he goes along. “Shakespeare peels away the layers of his characters until the only thing left is pulp.” This quote explains how the characters in Titus Andronicus will stop at nothing, which is a common characteristic in another Shakespeare tragedy, “Othello”. In “Othello”, Iago is the developed villain of Aaron. Both are composed of complete evil, but Iago is “refined” evil- he knows how to cleverly manipulate. Aaron, however, does not expose the same keen characteristics as Iago. Although Iago can be seen as a human, Aaron cannot be even seen as humane by the audience. Everything he does is completely corrupt. Aaron does not speak a line where there is any sort of forgiveness or pity. There is also no motivation behind Aaron- no lust, jealousy, or anger. Another model character example would be Tamora and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth and Tamora both stand out in a society that was male dominated and women were treated like the sexual properties
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