Titus Andronicus

See also: Titus

Titus Andronicus (or the lamentable Roman tragedy of Titus Andronicus , in English Lamentable The Most Roman Tragedy off Titus Andronicus ) is perhaps the first Tragédie of William Shakespeare, and certainly bloodiest. It describes an inextricable cycle of revenge between Titus, imaginary Roman general, and his enemy Tamora, queen of the Goths.

The part

The first representation proceeded the January 24th 1594 (Reference?) and was a great popular success. Do the political context of the victory over the Invincible Armada Spanish, of the bringing together of Elisabeth with the aristocratic and popular mediums violently anti-papists explain the success of the part mainly, at one moment when the name of Rome , repeated hypnotiquement 200 times in the part, sucite no species of compassion, but a common detestation of the people of the suburbs and London ship-owners (Reference?), which grows rich considerably by the pirate catches on the convoys of the very catholic King of return of the Americas. Its bloody aspect, which points out our Grand puppet, is a higher bid on the inspiration of his/her companions and rivals, Christopher Marlowe and Kyd, which has just given its " tragedy espagnole" in the same theater with the very small scene, " the Rose" , with also a great number of characters, who are thus intermingled one in another in the actions with collective violence.

But this small group of poets of the suburbs of London, which adopts the dissenting tendencies of its audience, is recently ridges of them with the pressures of the ecclesiastical authorities Anglicans. Marlowe was assassinated in obscure circumstances, at one moment when the rumor of Athéisme runs about it; Kyd has just been questioned by the spangled Chambre on this subject, i.e. it underwent torture and that it is imprisoned when Shakespeare composes Titus Andronicus . Out, he does not hesitate (Reference?) to put in scene a provocante declaration of Atheism through the character of the Aaron black. There Shakespeare makes only fall under a tendency of its public, it takes of true personal risks, facing the ecclesiastical authorities to affirm the independence of poetry and the theater (Reference?).

The text was published this same year in an anonymous edition. It was the greatest public success of Shakespeare, a long time rejouée, and translated into German by itinerant companies. Well later, when the diplomacy of Jacques Ier of England tries to make forget this bias anti-catholic, the mixture of horror and pathetic will be declared not conforms to the guns of the traditional taste, the multiple mutilations of the characters and excessively morbid situations shocked then romantic criticisms, after having charmed the general public. The part for that was regarded a long time as minor in work shakespearienne, even Apocryphe.

However, the genius shakespearien is entirely there (Reference?), in this first part entirely in worms Décasyllabique S, as not very limpid in its intrigue and its outcomes as parts to come, but seizing by the brilliant invention (Reference?) characters who are born from the very complex organization of the worms and his multiple directions, of their rate/rhythm which varies constantly by starting again the play of the actor by the surprise, strange assonance, the desired discordance.

The part with the characteristic not to be centered around the role titrates, like will be Hamlet , or Lear . Titus, but also his/her Marcus brother, Tamora, the queen of Goths, Aaron, his/her black lover, are as much of point of sights on this dark business of interlaced revenges, quite as enigmatic in their true motivations and each one bearing germinates of them the most splendid inventions of work to come. Titus, the old blasé general contemplates and organizes his catastrophe with the giddinesses of Lear on cliff, without one being able to never decide if it entirely insane or is had by the cruel reason of the Stoïcisme sénéquien. Marcus is an unsoundable commentator of the events, or the worst of the perverts, organizer of these crimes in series, it is indécidable. Tamora is a great success of Shakespeare in the female characters, it is a barbarian queen of great pace, a mother accessory to delinquent wire, a heady amante in charge of an erotism direct and charming, a sadistic bitch, a player effreinée in the conquest of the capacity, until death, of multiple facets that one does not find in the other female characters of Shakespeare. Aaron is a Othello opposite, worst of the men, atheist, immoral, and plotter proves finally the only capable one of a true human feeling, to give his life to save that of his son, whereas the part of cease to give the sad spectacle of abused subsidiary relations. And it is this character who offers the final bouquet of poetry, the worms best balanced major and lucid thoughts, before fall the curtain.

Titus Andronicus found its justification at the 20th century, grace for example to the setting in outstanding scene of Peter Brook in 1955, with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. This part, known as Peter Brook, speaks about the most modern emotions - violence, hatred, cruelty, the suffering .

Comment

“ That is essential, Lavinia, that you do not have any more hands, because it is in vain that one uses them with the service of Rome ” (Act III, scene 1).

Here the formula, drawn from work itself, which summarizes it with as much exactitude than the words can reach. These hands, ruins of battles wild and without glance, these hands whose each wound was a cheer with the nation, saw for any reward, for any harvest with skinned work, hundred other humiliations to trace their red furrow in their cold and used palm. And yet in fact the bravest hands, charged with merit were sliced for any medal that two heads dear since the cradle of childhood.

The work of Shakespeare is of all the times and of all spaces, it is a heavy hammer breaking the naive illusions. She teaches us that, some act could shine in the past, of an existence, it is not merit which lives more than one beat of wings.

Adaptations

Simple: Titus Andronicus

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