(26) Titus Andronicus

Rape, murder, cannibalism, mutilation, decapitation…Titus Andronicus has all this and more, much more actually. This play, Shakespeare's first Tragedy, is a brutal, gory bloodfest and parts of it are downright repugnant. For example, there is a scene where a girl is gang raped and then her hands and tongue cut out to prevent her from revealing the perpetrators. Really. She is then openly mocked, bloody stumps and all, directly afterwards in one of the most difficult scenes I've yet encountered. And then there’s the whole cannibalism thing, where a mother is fed the bones of her recently murdered children, all baked up nice in a creamy, delicious pie. Really.

So, as you may have guessed, this play is a big turn off to many a Shakespeare fan, and appears to be his least liked play, by overall, general consensus (this is interesting actually in that during Shakespeare’s time it was quite popular, a so-called “revenge play” that was in vogue back then). You can find a whole bunch of great quotes from famous Shakespeare critics deriding the thing as a steaming pile of crap. My favorite by far is from the great T.S. Eliot:

"[Titus Andronicus] is one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever written, a play in which it is incredible that Shakespeare had any hand at all."

Apparently this play is so bad that for centuries everyone refused to believe that Shakespeare wrote it, a theory that has some merit but has been pretty much debunked in modern times (the thinking now is that he only wrote part of it, which also strikes me as apologetic).

So, you ask, what did I think? Frankly, I’ve read worse. Some of the characters and images are actually quite interesting (the whole shooting arrows into the castle thing in Act IV, Scene III, where Titus uses words as actual weapons, a common and well wrought theme in the play), and some of it downright silly (young Lavinia being told to carry her father’s freshly severed hand in her mouth: “And, Lavinia, thou shalt be employ'd in this; Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.”). So silly in fact that I think there is some credence to the theory that Shakespeare is just messing with us. Indeed, some have suggested that this play isn’t a Tragedy at all but rather a Comedy, because it is so over the top. And it has been adapted as comedy, with some success (my favorite: Titus Andronicus as a cooking show). So, I guess I didn't find it all that bad but can definitely sympathize with anyone who thinks it is his worst work. It is interesting, however, to note that of all the plays so far, this one easily seems to generate the most controversy.