Audience Enjoyment of the Reiteration of Violence in Titus Andronicus and The Duchess of Malfi - Essay Example

?Audience Enjoyment of Reiteration of Violence in Titus Andronicus and The Duchess of Malfi When we look back at the past, it is often strange to seehow interests have changed and grown. In Elizabethan England, one such interest was that of theatre, and the genre of revenge tragedy. Such plays were often extremely violent, consisting of much onstage death and violence, as well as threats, anger and implied violence. While these plays appear to have an excessive focus on gore and violence, and not enough on character depth or being realistic, to the modern viewer or critic, they were loved by fans at the time, and were extremely popular for a substantial period of time. Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus is a masterpiece of violence, revenge and bloody murder, most of which occurs onstage. Written in the 1590s, Titus Andronicus is often considered Shakespeare’s first tragedy, and may have influenced more by other writers or the demands of the public than his later works. By today’s standards, this appears extreme, yet the play was written based on the desires of the audience at the time. In fact, despite the 14 deaths that occur during the play, Titus Andronicus can be considered tame compared to other contemporary plays of the time . Like Titus Andronicus, Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi can be considered a revenge tragedy. It was written around 1613-1614 and was published in 1623. Even though it was published later, the audience for both plays was very similar. Violence in this play is also extreme, with many on stage murders, predominantly in the last act. Both plays received varying reception being popular with the public at the time of production, but criticized severely by many modern day scholars. Violence is depicted against the human body in many ways throughout these plays in many ways including the physical, violence towards the self, the spirit and the mind, religious and political violence as well as supernatural. This violence was prevalent on the stage and both encouraged and desired by the Elizabethan audience. Elizabethan and Jacobean Theatre In the early seventeenth century King James I was the ruler of both Scotland and England, a time often known as Jacobean. He was preceded as ruler of England by Queen Elizabeth I, who died in 1603, consequently much of the population at the time retained Elizabethan sensibilities. Both rulers were strong patrons of the arts and of theatre, and supported them. In theatre, the era could be considered as the “theatre of death” with both playwrights and audiences being fascinated by the acts of death, murder and violence . The Jacobean era brought about a new generation of theatre, with the first construction of public buildings specifically for the purpose of plays, many different theatres were built of varying use and popularity. One of the most well known is the Globe Theatre which remains strongly associated with Shakespearean plays, including Titus Andronicus although Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, was also performed there. The structure of the theatres of the time is an important consideration when examining the way that plays were produced and the way in which violence was portrayed. Plays today are viewed in a picture-frame type stage, where the audience looks directly onto the stage and observes only that single direction. In the time of Early Modern London theatres were laid out differently, and this is a crucial difference in examining the way in which plays were presented. There was no front curtain in the way that modern theatres have, instead the audience surrounded the stage from three sides with only the backstage curtained off. Consequently, all scene changes had to be made in full view of the audience. This meant that to prevent the stage becoming littered with dead bodies, and to show differences between locations, bodies had to be dragged off the stage between scenes, or get up and walk themselves . What brought violence so prominently onto the stage in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century? One theory allocates the cause of this to the Protestant Reformation, which caused a significant change in the culture of England during the sixteenth centaury. No longer was religion so predictable and orderly, instead, it was undergoing dramatic shifts. Because of this, violence in theatre no longer needed to be strictly aligned with images of Christianity, instead there was more freedom of expression and people could experience more variety in performances . In addition, the sponsorship of the live performance by first Elizabeth I, and then James I grew the industry substantially. Players had much more freedom in their art, and were able to exhibit, in detail events that no ordinary person would see, and in the case of Titus Andronicus and The Duchess of Malfi appeared unlikely but nevertheless appealing. Violence as a Theatrical Spectacle The violence portrayed both plays was by no means tame. The Elizabethan audience must have had a high tolerance for blood and gore to even watch such plays, let alone enjoy them. Real blood and body parts were used in the Elizabethan theatre, obtained from the slaughterhouse, and was considered to be an essential component of the art . For many of those attending the performances, the spectacle of violence, blood and death would have been more interesting than any of the narrative that the play told . It is clear from the popularity of these plays and the years for which they were performed that the violence that they offered, excessive as it seems, was highly desired by the audiences. In Titus Andronicus dismemberment is an important aspect o the play, most prominently through Tamora’s sons, who Chiron and Demetrius rape Lavinia, the daughter of Titus, as a means of revenge against her father. To cover their crime and perhaps to further their revenge, Lavinia’s tongue is removed from her mouth and her hands amputated. She is mocked by those who hurt her Demetrius: So, now go tell, an if they tongue can speak, Who ‘twas that cut thy tongue and ravish’d thee. Chiron: Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so, An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe (Titus Andronicus, 2.4.1063-1066) Although it occurs offstage, the rape and amputation of Lavina is a central theme in the play, and she is present in the background of many scenes standing mute, as an apparent reminder of the violence that has occurred, and the driving desire for revenge that is present in many of the characters in the play. Revenge drives many of the events, and it is circular in nature. As one person exacts their revenge, another demands revenge for that action. The final scene is a violent example of this, with a number of onscreen deaths. Titus kills his own daughter Lavinia and then Tamora and is killed himself by Saturninus who is immediately killed by Lucius. This leaves four dead bodies on the stage and Lucius ruling that Aaron should be punished with a death of starvation and thirst. It is a violent ending to a bloody and revenge filled play. The final act of The Duchess of Malfi brings together all the subterfuge, and the focus is on revenging the now dead Duchess. First Ferdinand kills Julia in an attempt to keep his secret, then Bosola attacks and kills Antonio by mistake. Bosola then visits the Cardinal killing his servant, injuring the Cardinal and killing Ferdinand who attempts to intervene. The scene ends with both the Cardinal and Bosola succumbing to their injuries. Endings where multiple people, often all the key characters, are killed are common in revenge tragedies, and appear indicative of the audience of the time. The play builds to a climax, to the crimes of the villains being revealed and the victims being absolved. In the tradition of ‘an eye for an eye’, most of the killers, regardless of how noble their desires were, end up being killed. Within the pages of Titus Andronicus there are a total of six different body parts that are disassociated from their owners, three hands (two belonging to Lavinia and one to Titus), two heads (Titus’s son’s) and one tongue (Lavina’s). Physical violence is prominent throughout the play and the number of dismembered body parts that were used indicates a significant need for props. This also occurs in The Duchess of Malfi although to a lesser degree. Physical violence in Webster’s play is more delayed, with the early acts consisting of mental and emotional abuse of the title character, the Duchess by her brothers. Yet, a key prop that is used is a dismembered hand, which is given to the Duchess by Ferdinand who convinces her that it is her husband’s. Given the next move by her brother is to show her figures of her family, apparently dead, the use of the hand as a prop seems hardly necessary. For the audience, the presence of the prop is the first evidence of physical violence in the play, and it is likely to stir up the expectations and excitement of the crowd. A fascination with dismemberment is not limited to historical plays, but can be seen even in today’s society. For example, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the period of 1992 to 1993 exhibited the work of eight different artists all of which focused on the body, with such pieces as a severed leg and sculptures of genital systems . This implies that it was not simply a matter of time or location that drew Elizabethan audiences to onstage violence, but rather that this fascination in inherent in our human nature. The rape and subsequent dismemberment of Lavinia in Titus Andronicus is more than a physical act, rather it is violence against the spirit and mind of Lavinia. The sexual violence goes against the right of a woman to give her body to her husband . Emotional and verbal violence are prevalent early in The Duchess of Malfi. At the opening of the play the Duchess has been recently widowed, and her brothers threaten her, demanding that she should not remarry Ferdinand: What suitors do solicit her for marriage, And whom she best affects. She’s a young widow: I would not have her marry again (The Duchess of Malfi, 1.1.243-245) This invasion into her personal life and decisions continues throughout the play, with Ferdinand threatening and disowning her once he discovers her secret marriage and children. The Duchess is imprisoned within her quarters, but despite her brothers desires she does not break down. Bosola: She will muse for hours together; and her silence, Methinks, expresseth more than if she spake Ferdinand: Her melancholy seems to be fortified With a strange disdain (The Duchess of Malfi, 4.1.10-14) This apparent indifference by the Duchess causes Ferdinand, who is increasingly losing his sanity, to use a prop to convince the Duchess of the pointlessness of her life. Meeting her in the darkness her passes her the severed hand of a dead man, convincing her that this is evidence of her husband’s death. The torture of the Duchess continues with her being shown wax images of her family and terrorized by madmen before finally murdered. These scenes and actions are as much violence as the physical and blood atrocities that follow them. The Duchess is tortured for remarrying, for marrying beneath her station and for her secrecy by her brothers, but more importantly, she is tortured by a mad brother who had hoped to gain her fortune and was thus seeking revenge from her. Titus Andronicus and The Duchess of Malfi are both tales of revenge, they speak of a woman wronged, Tamora by the death of her eldest son and Duchess of Malfi herself through her torture and eventual murder. For the Elizabethan audience, a revenge tragedy was a conflicting idea. In the Old Testament of the Bible the idea of taking revenge is encouraged, with people encouraged to take “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot . This meant that the violence that was seen in revenge killing was something that could be enjoyed and encouraged. Yet, similarly, in the New Testament, Jesus talks about turning the other check and letting God exact punishment . Consequently, revenge was a difficult subject and because of this one that drew intense interest. The supernatural plays an interesting role in The Duchess of Malfi, after the Duchess is killed, her brother Ferdinand who had desired her sexually throughout the course of the play begins to show wolf-like characteristics. This is associated with lycanthropy or becoming a wolf-man. From the spiritual perspective, many of the characteristics that Ferdinand possesses can also be associated with Catholicism. At the time Protestant was the official religion, and thus, these aspects were undesirable. This was also strongly associated with dismemberment, with werewolves considered to carry off the limbs of their victims . The Fascination with Violence It is idealistic and naive to consider that Elizabethan audiences were primitive in their desire to see and experience violence. How different is the representations on the stage for Titus Andronicus or The Duchess of Malfi than our own horror or thriller movies, our depictions and almost idolisation of gang violence, robberies and many other violence circumstances. Perhaps violence is simply a native part of human nature, and our staging of it, whether it is in plays or on television, is a means of understanding the phenomena . If this is the case, then the audiences of Early Modern London were not so different from ourselves having a deep fascination with violence, although no clear way to describe why. This can be seen in our own society in the way in which people will often slow down to see what has happened at a traffic accident or the way in which advertisers and directors can successfully use violence as a means of capturing our attention. Conclusion Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi are two plays that take full advantage of the Early Modern staging, dramatic technique and environment to bring forward the full violence of their text. Both plays call for dismemberment, multiple on-stage deaths and both mental and physical violence. Throughout the performances, the human body is damaged in many different ways; the Duchess is insulted, pushed around, threatened, tortured emotionally and then killed, while Lavinia is raped and mutilated, until she is finally killed by her own father. Yet, despite the apparent barbarity of the plays, and the criticism by many modern scholars, it appears the audiences enjoyed them. Certainly, the performances offered an escape from the everyday lives of the audience, giving them excitement and entertainment. The spiritual, supernatural and the religious all play a strong role in the tales that the actors weave, drawing the audience into the spectacle. Even in modern society, these same desires are still prevalent, with people being fascinated in violence, often despite their intentions. References 1984. New International Version Bible, Zondervan, Aebischer, P. 2004. Shakespeare's Violated Bodies: Stage and Screen Performance, Cambridge Univ Pr, 24-28. Fletcher, R. H. 1918. An Elizabethan Stage [Online]. [Accessed December 23 2011]. Foakes, R. A. 2003. Shakespeare and Violence, Cambridge Univ Pr, 1-5, 56. Maguire, L. E. 2004. Studying Shakespeare: A Guide to the Plays, Wiley-Blackwell, 50-55; 202-210. Owens, M. E. 2005. Stages of Dismemberment: The Fragmented Body in Late Medieval and Early Modern Drama, University of Delaware Press, 1-2, 18. Webster, J. 2009. The Duchess of Malfi, London, A & C Black Publishers Limited, 25-30. Woodward, J. 1997. The Theatre of Death: The Ritual Management of Royal Funerals in Renaissance England, 1570-1625, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1-5.  Read More