To this day, I still remember a book titled Feast by Thomas Flowers, about a young man and his father. This young man was transgender and preferred to be called Lavinia. Though he, or rather she, wanted to live her own life, she was targeted by a family with a grudge against her father. Lavinia was mutilated, and her tongue cut out of her mouth to prevent her from speaking. Her father found out about it, and as such, killed her attackers and fed their mother their flesh. The name “Lavinia” was from an old tragedy written by William Shakespeare himself, a tragedy called Titus Andronicus. 

Titus Andronicus is a revenge story about a Roman general named Titus, who wanted revenge on Tamora, Queen of the Goths. The tale begins with Titus being proclaimed as the successor to all of Rome. Titus begins to fight against the Goths who’re invading Rome and manages to take Tamora, her sons, and her lover as prisoners. When Titus kills her oldest son to avenge his children, Tamora and her family decide to take revenge on him. Meanwhile, Titus refuses the throne and agrees to marry his daughter to Saturninus, whom he decides would be best suited to lead Rome. Saturninus agrees. However, Lavinia is already engaged to Saturninus’s brother, Bassianus, and he complicates things even further when he refuses to leave her. After a series of gruesome deaths, the story eventually culminates in Lavinia being violently raped and mutilated. Titus grieves for his daughter. And as his mind descends into madness, Tamora and her sons begin to enact their revenge by further convincing Titus of his insanity. However, once Tamora departs, leaving her sons behind, Titus kills them, before turning to Lavinia and telling her he is going to cook them. 

The most memorable scene in the story happens towards the end when Titus is seated at a feast near Saturninus and Tamora. After he asks Saturninus what a father should do when his own daughter had been raped, Saturninus answers that the father should kill her. This is enough for Titus, and he kills Lavinia. Shortly after, he reveals to Saturninus and Tamora that they’d been eating her sons the entire time, and he kills Tamora. Saturninus kills Titus, though he was later killed by Lucius, a man who would take the throne. The story ends with Tamora’s lover dying of starvation, regretting that he couldn’t do more evil. 

Titus Andronicus emphasized revenge as its main theme. It shows what happens when characters are blind-sided by revenge, with little to no regard for the consequences. It’s almost seen as a religious rite, that it was expected. But more than that, it’s the violence that captivates the audience. In fact, the play has often been criticized for its use of violence. However, this violence is used to underline the bloody massacre that revenge can lead them to and acknowledges the blinding hatred the two parties feel for each other, a hatred that eventually engulfs everyone involved.

Titus Andronicus was said to be Shakespeare’s first tragedy. It underscored themes of revenge, of hatred, of the breakdown of order, and of the loss of innocence. It showcases all the lives lost for the sake of hatred gone awry. Though sociopolitical attitudes are different now, it’s important to remember the carnage that could result from hatred gone unchecked.