Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how, from the Greek "Oresteia" on, becoming an avenger in drama is a social role often distinct from the avenger's previous social role, suggesting a conflict between a public social persona and a private, familial persona motivated by revenge.The writer describes how, in Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus," the title character assumes a mad identity to conceal his murderous intentions against Tamora, former Queen of the Goths, just as Tamora pretends to forgive Titus for killing her eldest son. Both characters cast off their previous identities and take on a secret role of avenger, even while they play more compliant false, social roles while they wait for the right time to realize vengeful purposes.The paper concludes that for an avenger like Titus or Tamora, truthfulness and moral codes mean little in a society that has failed to protect their family's safety, thus they feel justified in taking primitive revenge against those who have wronged them.

From the Paper:

"Tamora, a queen, knows that she must politically assume a complacent role at first to placate the Roman populace. She will bide her time until the moment is ripe for her to take revenge on Titus and his family. The audience, as part of the structure of the play early becomes an unwitting witness to the false nature of Tamora's posture. They understand the division between public and private personas and duties--just as Titus killed Tamora's son as part of his duty as an avenger of Rome who had won a war, so Tamora will temporarily play a pleasant social role of a good prisoner of war and compliant wife to the emperor of Rome, until she is able to take her revenge. But Tamora's social and familial roles are now split--on the outside she is a queen, on the inside she is still an angry mother."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Helms, Lorraine. "'The High Roman Fashion': Sacrifice, Suicide, and the Shakespearean Stage." PMLA. Vol. 107. No. 3. Special Topic: Performance. May, 1992. pp. 554-565.
• Sacks, Peter. "Where Words Prevail Not: Grief, Revenge, and Language in Kyd and Shakespeare." ELH. Vol. 49. No. 3. Autumn, 1982. pp. 576-601.
• Shakespeare, William. "Titus Andronicus." Shakespeare Homepage. MIT. 21 Mar 2008 http://shakespeare.mit.edu/titus/titus.1.1.html

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