Role of Violence and Revenge in Titus Andronicus and Film Adaptation Titus - Essay Example

The Role of Violence and Revenge in Titus Andronicus and Film Adaptation Titus Many of Shakespeare’s play depict the theme of vengeance butamong these, Titus Andronicus is notable for being the most violent. Violence was also the major element displayed in Julie Taymor’s film adaptation Titus. Violence in media has been frowned upon by critics and viewers alike for decades, but it is quite essential so that the “Roman” nature of the play and film be more clearly depicted and in this particular play and movie, the use of violence is befitting as to drive home the message that revenge is always ugly and will only bring forth a succession of hateful acts in the name of supposed “justice”.

The Role of Violence and Revenge in Titus Andronicus and Film Adaptation Titus There are two notable cultural inspirations from which Shakespeare derives his plays, the Greeks and the Romans. And in this regard, Shakespeare’s roman plays almost always depict anarchy, gruesome deaths, dismemberment, and violence. (Leithart, 2004) Violent portrayal of the series of revenges acts in both the play and the movie is necessary to make the adaptation characteristically “Roman” and be true to its roots as Shakespeare imagined it.

The scene wherein Tamora’s eldest son Alarbus was impaled by the swords and spears of Titus and his sons before being consumed by flames was really brutal and the fact that it is the “religion of the romans” that require the sacrifice is really Romanesque as taken in the definition of “Roman” by Shakespeare. And the wordings in which Titus and Lucius sentenced Alarbus to death even after his mother pleaded for his life, did not paint a less gruesome picture (Shakespeare, 1809):Tit. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me.

These are their brethren, whom you Goths beheldAlive and dead, and for their brethren slainReligiously they ask a sacrifice:To this your son is markd, and die he must,To appease their groaning shadows that are gone.Luc. Away with him! and make a fire straight;And with our swords, upon a pile of wood,Lets hew his limbs till they be clean consumed. Revenge is the prime motivator for very thing that transpired in the play and film. It is but human nature to long for retribution especially when the wrong done to you is as grievous and as horrid as that Tamora and her sons with Saturninus had done to Titus and his family.

And the manner in which revenge was exacted by both parties did not spare the viewers from all vengeance’ gore and brutality. The ravishing and mutilation of Lavinia, the cutting of Titus’ hand in return for the heads of his sons, placing the entrails of Chiron and Demetrius to be consumed by their own mother, shows the cruelty and pure evil that dooms all those consumed by vengeance. In the movie, the Hero Titus became like a monster in his ardent desire to attain reprisal for all the faults done against him and his family and one comes to question whether who truly the villain is because Titus did more horrid acts against Tamora for the cause of his sons’ deaths and the honor of his daughter.

The gravity of the violence shown in the movie and the play is shown so that anyone who would try to harbor hatred and long for vengeance just as Titus did would think twice if they the cost of losing their humanity is a just price for exacting one’s revenge. In the end, Lucius called for restoration for even after full vengeance had been exacted, the cost was a lot of lives and more so, the life of his father and sister. The remorse for everything that transpired can be seen in the last line of the play spoken by Lucius (Shakespeare, 1809);Luc.

Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,And give him burial in his fathers grave:My father and Lavinia shall forthwithBe closed in our households monument.As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,No funeral rite, nor man m mourning weeds,No mournful bell shall ring her burial;But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey:Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;And, being so, shall have like want of pity.See justice done on Aaron, that damnd Moor,By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:Then, afterwards, to order well the state,That like events may neer it ruinate.

The normative view of violence in media dictates that the use of violence should deter the viewers away from violence and that these acts of brutality should not be glorified. (Marquardt, 1970) Violence in revenge was to make the play more Shakespearian-roman but more so though in some scenes, the line between glorification and admonition of violence was blurry but if one gets past the gore, you will see that the intent is to show the negative transformation that a person full of hatred will be under and that is deterrent enough for the viewers not to harbor such contemptuous thoughts and feelings.

ReferencesLeithart, P. J. (2004). Shakespeare and Rome. http://www.leithart.com/archives/000776.php Retrieved March 18, 2013Marquardt, A. K. (1970). The Spectacle of Violence in Julie Taymor’s Titus: Ethics and Aesthetics. Prix du mémoire de la Société Française Shakespeare. http://www.societefrancaiseshakespeare.org/document.php?id=1558 Retrieved March 18, 2013Shakespeare, W. (1809). Titus Andronicus. Printed from the text of Johnson, S. and Steevens, G. Printed for John Cawthorne, 5, Catherines-street, Strand.

, London, pp. 107Taymor, J. (1999). Titus. Clear Blue Sky Productions. Overseas FilmGroup. Urania Pictures S.r.l. NDF International. Titus Productions Ltd. DVD. Fox Searchlight pictures.