Titus Andronicus Act 2 – “… make pillage of her chastity…”

Titus Andronicus Act 2 – “… make pillage of her chastity…”

“This is the day of doom for Bassianus:


His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,


Thy sons make pillage of her chastity


And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.

Wow. Act 2 of Titus is very hard to work through. The violence is overwhelming. Tamora being discovered with her lover by Bassianus and Lavinia is berated by them. She then commands her son’s to kill Bassianus. Her sons announce their intention to rape Lavinia and even after Lavinia pleads with Tamora as a woman and a mother to save her life or kill her, Tamora shows herself to be remorseless and even suggests to her sons that they make sure Lavinia is silent about all these events after they have had their way. The continual references to pits and holes is openly Freudian and the lack of sympathy shown for Lavinia by Tamora and her sons is almost sickening. Lavinia is almost represented as a victim responsible for her own attack. It is a very disturbing scene.

"Enter...Lavinia, her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out, and ravished."

After the rape, Chiron and Demetrius return on stage with Lavinia, whose hands and tongue they have cut off in order to stop her from naming her attackers. Lavinia is discovered by her uncle Marcus, who shows the first sympathetic expressions in the whole play (without this this act of the play would be too much to take). He gently takes Lavinia to her father. Meanwhile, the body of Bassianus is discovered in a pit, but Titus Andronicus’ sons who have fallen into the pit by an accident, and they are accused of his murder as ‘proven’ by their presence in the pit and a false letter revealed by Tamora which ‘reveals’ their intentions. At the end of Act 2, Tamora and the Evil Revengers seem to be winning hands down.

The Score:

Tamora 2

Titus 1