Quiz 1

1.  Name a way that Lavinia is violated/hurt by Demetrius and Chiron.

2.  Name a distinct, second way that she is violated/hurt.

3.  Who kills Bassanius?

4.  In what place do Titus’ sons Martius and Quintus end up dead with Bassanius?

5.  In what more wholesome activity are all these characters supposed to be engaging when all of the above happens?

Bonus Question: what does “wot” mean?

Agenda:

Questions about the play:

• Inspired from Daniel’s post: If Titus Andronicus reminds us of contemporary violent movies, what’s the appeal of that violence, then and/or now? Is this play compelling or gross?  Why would anyone want to watch it?
• From Megan’s blog post: “Not many writers during this time period allow females to be strong, why then would Shakespeare make Tamora such a strong character? Is Tamora going to eventually take over everything and come to power? … Also, is it Lavinia’s fault that she is taken advantage of, or did she do everything she could to possibly save herself?”  I’d add: what kind of alternative to Tamora does Lavinia offer?
• Why do Chiron and Demetrius claim to “love” Lavinia (2.1.71-74) just before raping her? What are we to make of this?
• From Monday: Why are the characters so changeable (see, e.g. 1.1.254-58 –> 299-314)?  Why does Saturnine want to marry Tamora?
• Consider for Monday: treatment of race in the play, around Aaron the Moor, the Goths, or the Romans.

Literary Terms:

• Foil
• Circumlocution (2.3.20-30)
  
• Anastrophe (2.3.112-13)
  
• Ellipses (2.3.168-71)
  

Notes/ideas from class

Literature/theater not as “classic” or source of moral self-improvement but as play, amoral art, satisfaction of curiosity or fantasy (goes against both some contemporary ideas of art, and also early modern, rule-bound culture). 

• Many characters in the play do not “follow the rules”
• Is there anyone in this play who follows the rules?

Women as pawns in the play

• What look like marriages for love also often involve strategic interests of male alliance or cutting off alliances (e.g. Saturninus choosing Tamara)
• Love easily becomes rape–about male power rather than sex
• women more subject to a reductive binary than men characters (either perfectly chaste or sexually ravenous)
• women as anchors for the only good / evil binary in the play that holds.