Thompson, Ayanna. “Indecorum and empire in Titus Andronicus.” Throughlines. Throughlines.org/suite-content/indecorum-and-empire-in-titus-andronicus. [date accessed].

Indecorum and empire in Titus Andronicus

The undeniable pull of Shakespeare's goriest tragedy

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Ayanna Thompson
Arizona State University

Titus Andronicus' use of violence seeks to expose how imperial Rome, built on excess and appetite, lost any coherent social and moral order. Drawing on classical ideas of decorum, the play presents a world where an empire’s drive to expand and incorporate others dissolves distinctions between Roman and foreign, civilized and barbaric. If we wipe away all the blood, we can find a cautionary reflection on early modern anxieties about empire, cosmopolitanism, and the unstable boundaries of cultural and racial identity.

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Further learning

Video

Empire and gender in Titus Andronius

Titus Andronicus exposes how empire shapes gender. Tamora’s vilified fertility contrasts Lavinia’s enforced silence, revealing how both motherhood and chastity are distorted within imperial power and revenge.

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Race and empire in Titus Andronicus

Aaron the Moor stands at the center of Titus Andronicus as both an architect of its violence and a self-aware, and self-possessed character, shaped by racial realities. Aaron exposes how empire constructs racialization.

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Titus Andronicus as the gateway drug

Students believe they know what Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet or Macbeth mean, but rarely do those “meanings” stem from the students’ close engagements with the texts. Using Titus Andronicus at the beginning of any Shakespeare class forces students to experience Shakespeare anew.

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