The English Program held its third installment of Horror in the Humanities on Oct. 22. The event focused on a reading of Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus.” While it was well-liked during the 17th century, critics of the time saw many issues with the topics portrayed.
Assistant English professor Jaleesa Harris shared her reasoning for choosing “Titus Andronicus.”
“It’s not the one that we read, it’s not the one that we love because it’s not his best work. Stylistically, I mean,” Harris said. “He rushes through the last act, he leaves plot holes, but the critics at the time only focused on the gore. I figured, if we’re going to criticize his work, we should criticize it like every other work.”
“Titus Andronicus” is one of the few gory and violent plays that Shakespeare wrote, often compared to the present-day “Saw” franchise. The amount of violence begins to overrun the plot, leaving readers confused about the point of it all.
At the time, “Titus Andronicus” was not well-liked, which led it to be one of his least performed plays. What some fail to realize, however, is that “Titus Andronicus” is one of Shakespeare’s earliest tragedies, so it is not comparable to some of his later works, such as “Hamlet.”
The amount of violence and gore displayed leaves various ethical issues. If “Titus Andronicus” were to be made into a movie, the play would be rated R by today’s standards and many aspects of it would need to be cut out.
While Shakespeare’s choice of delivery was considered unorthodox, the story beneath offered unique commentary. Sensitive topics in his time involved race and gender, both of which are tackled in a different light for the play.
The three main characters discussed were Titus, Tamora and Aaron, with each contributing to their tragedies in one way or another.
“Each level of violence we see through them, either due to their direct action or inaction,” Harris said.
One subject surrounding gender brought up in “Titus Andronicus” was sexual assault. The character Lavinia is told of her soon-to-be assault and pleads with Tamora to “kill her instead.” This action is supposed to pull at Tamora who, as a woman, would have understood that the situation Lavinia would be in was worse than death.
However, Tamora stays silent, and Lavinia is assaulted. During the assault, Lavinia also had her arms and tongue gruesomely removed, to not be able to identify her assaulter later.
Titus later finds and kills Lavinia, leaving readers with the question: “was it out of shame or mercy?”
Aaron is the man who orchestrates most of the tragedies, including Lavinia’s assault.
“Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things as willingly as one would kill a fly, and nothing grieves me heartily indeed but that I cannot do ten thousand more,” Aaron said at the end of the play as he realized he was dying.
Though Aaron is recognized as a terrible person throughout the play, he ends up being the only one able to continue his legacy through a child since the other characters all lose their children at some in the play.
Harris speaks on her reason for starting the “Horrors in Humanities” events and why it matters.
“I don’t enjoy horror, I don’t enjoy true crime at all. I’ve always been of the belief that reality is terrifying enough… but because it’s such a popular genre and it’s growing, it’s worth talking about people’s relationships with it… It was a reality for me at a very young age, so I don’t want to engage with it for fun,” Harris said. “But there’s so many different ways people can have relationships with it, that I would never say, ‘Hey you shouldn’t watch this.’”
The last meeting for the “Horrors in the Humanities” event will be held on Oct. 31, covering children in horror. If interested, contact Jaleesa Harris at [email protected] or Vanelis Rivera at [email protected].
