Shakespeare Summarized: Titus Andronicus

Summary

The video script provides a humorous and graphic overview of Shakespeare's lesser-known play, 'Titus Andronicus'. It describes the play as extremely gory, even by Shakespeare's standards, and questions the authorship due to its brutality. The summary outlines the play's plot, which revolves around a blood feud between Roman General Titus Andronicus and Goth Queen Tamora, filled with revenge, murder, and dismemberment. The video also humorously discusses the play's contribution to society, highlighting the original 'Yo mama' joke. It concludes with the play's chaotic ending, where Titus exacts his revenge in a gruesome manner, leading to a new emperor and a resolution to the violence.

Takeaways

• 📚 The speaker uses Macbeth as a benchmark to measure the gore level in Shakespeare's plays, with Romeo and Juliet rated at 4 and Hamlet at 9 on a scale of 1 to Macbeth.
• 🎭 'Titus Andronicus' is considered by some as the most gory and disturbing of Shakespeare's works, leading to questions about its authorship.
• 🤔 There are speculations that 'Titus Andronicus' might be Shakespeare's first tragedy, possibly co-written with George Peele, and an emulation of the popular revenge plays of the time.
• 🏺 The play revolves around a blood feud between Roman General Titus Andronicus and Goth Queen Tamora, with a series of brutal acts and revenge.
• ⛰️ After returning from war, Titus Andronicus refuses to become Emperor and instead supports Saturninus, leading to a chain of tragic events involving his family.
• 🗡️ Titus's decision to kill Tamora's son Alarbus ignites a cycle of violence and retribution that drives the plot of the play.
• 👥 Saturninus's impulsive marriage to Tamora, despite initial intentions to marry Titus's daughter Lavinia, sets the stage for further conflict.
• 🏥 Lavinia's brutal assault and mutilation serve as a pivotal moment in the play, highlighting the extreme violence and the lengths to which characters will go for revenge.
• 👶 The birth of Tamora's child, who appears to be fathered by Aaron, a Moor, adds a layer of complexity to the plot and the characters' motivations.
• 🏰 Lucius, Titus's remaining son, raises an army to avenge his family, leading to a climax where Titus exacts his revenge in a gruesome manner.
• 🍽️ The play concludes with a shocking and ironic 'reconciliation' banquet, where Titus serves his enemies in a most literal sense.
• 🎉 Lucius becomes Emperor, and Aaron is executed, marking the end of the cycle of violence and the rise of a new era.

Q & A

What scale does the speaker use to measure the goriness of various texts?

The speaker uses a scale from 1 to Macbeth to measure the goriness of texts, with Macbeth being the most gory.

Why do some people question if Shakespeare actually wrote Titus Andronicus?

Some people question Shakespeare's authorship because of the play's extreme gore and the stark contrast it presents to his other works.

What are the three mitigating factors mentioned for the play's content?

The mitigating factors are: it might be Shakespeare's first tragedy, he may have collaborated with George Peele known for gory plays, and he was likely emulating the popular revenge plays of the time.

Who are the main characters in the blood feud depicted in Titus Andronicus?

The main characters in the blood feud are Roman general Titus Andronicus and Goth queen Tamora.

Why does Titus decide to kill one of the Goth prisoners upon his return from the war?

Titus decides to kill Alarbus, the eldest son of Queen Tamora, as a form of retribution for the death of his own sons in the war.

What drastic action does Saturninus take out of spite for Titus?

Saturninus marries Tamora on the spot, after initially intending to marry Titus's daughter, Lavinia.

What is the significance of Lavinia's method of communication after her mutilation?

Lavinia uses Ovid's Metamorphoses and writing with a stick in the dirt to reveal the names of her attackers, Chiron and Demetrius.

How does Aaron, a Moor with an intimate relationship with Tamora, contribute to the plot?

Aaron helps Tamora's sons, Demetrius and Chiron, in their plot against Lavinia and later reveals the revenge plot under threat to his own child.

What is the original 'Yo mama' joke mentioned in the script?

The original 'Yo mama' joke is a line spoken by Demetrius and Chiron after they have wronged Tamora, with the lines 'Villain what hast thou done?' 'That which thou can'st not undo.' 'Thou hast undone done our mother!' 'Villain, I have done, thy mother!'

How does Titus exact his revenge on Demetrius and Chiron?

Titus captures Demetrius and Chiron, slits their throats, and drains their blood into a basin held by Lavinia.

What is the final outcome for the characters in the play?

Lucius becomes Emperor, Aaron is executed, and the play ends with a sense of resolution and public satisfaction.

Why does the speaker initially believe that Titus Andronicus contributed nothing to society?

The speaker initially believes the play to be a relic from a gorier time and an embarrassing first play from a writer who hadn't yet grown into his style.

Outlines

00:00

🎭 Shakespeare's Gore Scale and Titus Andronicus

The speaker introduces a personal scale for measuring the gore in literature, using Macbeth as the peak of gore. They compare other Shakespearean plays to Macbeth on this scale, but then bring up 'Titus Andronicus', a play they had not previously encountered. The speaker describes 'Titus Andronicus' as extremely gory and questions whether Shakespeare actually wrote it, considering its graphic content. They suggest that it might have been Shakespeare's first tragedy, possibly a collaboration with George Peele, or an emulation of the popular revenge plays of the time. The play is outlined as a bloody feud between the Roman general Titus Andronicus and the Goth queen Tamora, with a series of gruesome acts of revenge and betrayal.

05:01

😱 The Climax and Resolution of Titus Andronicus

The second paragraph delves into the climax and resolution of 'Titus Andronicus'. After a series of horrific events, including the mutilation and murder of several characters, Titus goes to extreme lengths to exact revenge. He captures Tamora's sons, Demetrius and Chiron, kills them, and uses their blood for a gruesome act. Titus then hosts a banquet where he shockingly kills his own daughter, Lavinia, and Tamora. Saturninus, the emperor, is left in disbelief, and the play concludes with Lucius becoming the new emperor, bringing an end to the cycle of violence. The speaker also humorously notes the play's contribution to society as the origin of the 'Yo mama' joke.

Keywords

💡Macbeth

Macbeth is a play by Shakespeare known for its dark and violent themes. In the video, it is used as a benchmark to measure the 'goriness' of other Shakespearean texts. It is mentioned to set the scale for the extreme violence and gore depicted in Titus Andronicus.

💡Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus is a Shakespearean play that is considered extremely violent and gory. The video discusses this play's content and its place in Shakespeare's body of work, questioning its authorship due to its graphic nature.

💡Blood Feud

A blood feud is a long-standing and deep-seated conflict often involving revenge and violence. In the video, the blood feud between Titus and Tamora is central to the plot, driving the extreme acts of vengeance and brutality.

💡Gore

Gore refers to the explicit depiction of violence and blood in a narrative. The video uses the term to describe the graphic content in Titus Andronicus, contrasting it with other Shakespeare plays and discussing its place in the scale of violence.

💡Revenge

Revenge is a motive in the play where characters act to avenge a wrong done to them. The entire plot of Titus Andronicus revolves around acts of revenge, leading to a cycle of violence and retribution.

💡Shakespearean Tragedy

A Shakespearean tragedy refers to a type of play by Shakespeare that typically involves a tragic hero and ends in disaster or tragic circumstances. The video discusses whether Titus Andronicus might be Shakespeare's first foray into this genre.

💡Collaboration

In the context of the video, collaboration refers to the possibility that Shakespeare may have worked with another writer, George Peele, known for his gory plays, on Titus Andronicus. This is one of the mitigating factors considered when evaluating the play's authorship.

💡Emperor

The Emperor is a central figure of power in the play, with the role being passed from one character to another. The video discusses how the power dynamics and the position of Emperor influence the plot and the characters' decisions.

💡Lavinia

Lavinia is a character in Titus Andronicus who suffers a horrific fate, symbolizing the extreme cruelty in the play. Her character is used in the video to highlight the play's graphic content and the themes of violence and tragedy.

💡Aaron

Aaron is a Moor character in the play who has an intimate relationship with Tamora and plays a significant role in the plot's treachery. The video discusses his actions and their impact on the play's narrative of betrayal and revenge.

💡Yo Mama Joke

The 'Yo mama' joke is a humorous reference made in the video to highlight an unexpected contribution of the play to society. It is used to lighten the tone when discussing the otherwise grim and violent content of Titus Andronicus.

Highlights

The speaker uses Macbeth as a ruler to measure the goriness of various texts, with a scale from 1 to Macbeth.

Romeo and Juliet is rated a 4 on the scale, while Hamlet is a solid 9.

Titus Andronicus is introduced as a play potentially more gory than Macbeth, questioning if Shakespeare even wrote it.

The play is described as two hours of pointless mayhem, dismemberment, and murder.

Titus Andronicus might be Shakespeare's first tragedy and a collaboration with George Peele.

The play could be an emulation of the popular revenge plays of the time.

There is uncertainty about Shakespeare's authorship of Titus Andronicus.

The play revolves around a blood feud between Roman general Titus Andronicus and Goth queen Tamora.

Titus decides to murder Tamora's eldest son, Alarbus, to avenge his own sons' deaths.

Titus refuses the role of Emperor, suggesting Saturninus instead.

A complex web of relationships and betrayals leads to further conflict and murder.

Tamora uses her newfound power as empress to seek revenge for her son's death.

Titus's family suffers further losses and betrayals, escalating the violence.

Lavinia communicates her assault by writing names in the dirt with a stick in her mouth.

The play includes a subplot involving Tamora's mixed-race child and Aaron's protective actions.

Titus's desperate attempts to seek help from the gods are highlighted.

The play concludes with a gruesome banquet and the rise of Lucius as Emperor.

The speaker humorously notes the play's contribution to society as the original 'Yo mama' joke.

Transcripts

So some of you might have picked up on the fact that I tend to use Macbeth as a ruler to measure overall

goriness of various texts; for example on a scale of 1-to-Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet would be maybe a 4 while something like Hamlet

would be a solid 9. Now,

this is a perfectly serviceable scale to measure against- or, at least, so I thought- until I had my attention drawn to a play I'd

never read before. While I started reading Shakespeare at a pretty early age,

I strongly suspect that my parents kept Titus Andronicus on the higher shelves, well out of my reach. Now

let's... let's talk about this for a minute. Titus Andronicus is a play so gory and disgusting the people question if Shakespeare even wrote it

at all. It's roughly two hours of pointless mayhem,

rampant

dismemberment, and frankly disturbing amounts of murder.

Shakespeare, the man who made a three-day fling between underage teenagers the most iconic love story in history. The man who explored the tortured psyche

of kings and princes driven to murder. The poet who practically defined half of our modern character archetypes over the course of his career.

THAT'S the guy who supposedly wrote this two hour pointless gore fest. Now

there are a few mitigating factors to this. One people think that this might have been the first tragedy

Shakespeare ever wrote, and I don't think any of us would be able to defend our first piece of creative writing. Two, he might have

been collaborating with this dude named George Peele, who was known for writing very gory plays. Three,

he was probably very deliberately emulating the stupidly popular revenge plays of the time.

Shakespeare hadn't yet had time to functionally define the standard of entertainment for the next 400 years, so instead

he'd have been drawing on what was popular BEFORE his time,

which was this particular variety of good clean mindless disgusting fun. And four, people aren't even sure he wrote this, so we can hate on

the play all we want. And, trust me,

we want to. But we don't have to hate on the Bard, too.

Okay, so, Titus Andronicus is about this blood feud between this Roman general Titus and this goth queen Tamora.

So long story short, the Emperor is dead and General Titus Andronicus has been chosen to succeed him as soon as he returns from

his ten-year campaign fighting the Goths.

Speak of the devil, Titus promptly returns with a whole mess of prisoners and a lot of issues as a consequence of the death of

his sons in the war. So, in order to make up the difference, Titus decides to murder one of the Goth prisoners-

You know, an eye for an eye, a pile of

dismembered limbs for another pile of dismembered limbs. This plays the essence of why turnabout is not a good idea. So they decide to kill

this dude Alarbus, who happens to be the eldest son of Queen Tamora. So Tamora's like, "Please don't kill my kid," and Titus is

like, "Nah", and kills her kid. Breezing past that for a moment, Titus super doesn't want to be Emperor, and says Saturninus, the former of

his oldest son, should totally rule instead. So Saturninus is like, "Ah, sweet. Hey, thanks,

I'll marry your daughter Lavinia! Sound good?" and Titus is like, "sounds awesome".

But unfortunately,

Lavinia is already engaged to Saturninus' brother Bassianus who objects rather strenuously to

abruptly losing a future spouse. Bassianus scoots off with Lavinia in tow, and Titus's son Mutius covers their escape, whereupon Titus murders him. So Saturninus

abruptly changes his mind about both marrying Lavinia AND liking Titus, and, to spite him, marries Tamora on the spot. Now,

this is bad for several reasons,

but most noteworthy is that Tamora's pretty salty about the death of her kid, and now she has the power of an empress. Anyway,

Titus is still grumpy about Mutius turning on him, and while he's furiously objecting to Mutius being buried in the family tomb, Tamora persuades Saturninus

to pardon the Andronicus family AND his brother Bassianus, allegedly because he's been the emperor for like, five minutes and starting his reign by hunting

down the beloved Andronicus family would be a pretty bad start. Her REAL reason, of course, is so that she can systematically

disassemble Titus' life as vengeance for her dead kid. Man,

it's only ONE dead kid. So she basically asks Saturninus to leave the Andronicus family alone

so she can kill them all herself, and because nothing is sexier than murderous intent, Saturninus agrees. Now that everyone's friends again,

they decide to have a celebratory hunt the next day, where I'm sure nothing will go wrong at ALL. (foreshadowing)

So the next day Tamora's two sons Demetrius and Chiron are fighting over Lavinia.

But don't worry, Aaron, a Moor with an intimate relationship to Tamora, breaks up the fight and helps them reach a peaceful

reconciliation. They can BOTH have Lavinia- *deep breath intake*- as long as they kill her boyfriend, cut off her tongue so she

can't rat them out, do unspeakable things to her in the woods,

and then frame Titus' two sons for the murder of Bassianus.

So they... do that, and Saturninus immediately sentences Martius and Quintus to death on the grounds that Tamora and Aaron

TOTALLY found the letter they wrote about how totally stoked

they are to murder Bassianus, and a bag of gold they TOTALLY used to pay for the assassins.

Nobody in this play is terribly intelligent.

It helps emphasize the murder.

So Titus is none too pleased at the prospect of losing two MORE kids, and then Titus' brother Marcus shows up with Lavinia,

who's now down a few important body parts. Rough day for Titus, and it's about to get rougher. Aaron shows up and tells Titus that

Saturninus will TOO-

-OTALLY spare his son's life if Titus lets him cut off his hand. Or Marcus. Or his remaining son Lucius. Aaron's not picky.

So Titus agrees to lose a hand, and after THAT excitement happens,

they ship the hand off with Express Postage, and Titus and Lavinia briefly bond over their mutual lack of hands, whereupon they receive a return

package containing Titus's original hand along with Martius and Quintus' heads. Whoops.

So Titus is roughly 110% done with this nonsense, and sends his remaining son Lucius off to raise an army of Goths to wreak

vengeance on those who dared wreak vengeance on him in the first place. See how this s*** keeps happening one of you has to be the better man

here, or, this is never gonna end. Anyway Titus has a minor crisis at dinner after Marcus kills a fly, but in his defense

he's had a REALLY rough day.

He takes Lavinia out to the garden so he can read to her, just like old times.

Don't you dare make me feel feelings,

you Shakespearian excuse for a Tarantino movie.

But Lavinia takes the opportunity to try and communicate to her family what exactly happened her; First by finding relevant passages in Ovid's

Metamorphoses, and then by grabbing a stick with her teeth and stump hands, and writing Chiron and Demetrius in the dirt.

Oh-ho-holy s***. Screw getting your hand cut off for no reason. Lavinia is by FAR the most hardcore out of all of you

whiny Romans. So, meanwhile, in the *evil* royal mansion, Tamora's just had a kid, but unfortunately for all parties involved he's looking a little...

TAN for someone whose parents were allegedly a pasty Roman and an east Germanic evil queen. Well, that's odd.

Who's the only dark skinned cast member who could possibly be the father?

...Whoops. Now, when I started reading this, it was my honest belief that this play had contributed nothing to society. I thought it was a

relic from a gorier time. An embarrassing first play from a writer who hadn't yet grown into his style.

But this play. THIS play has contributed something to society that we CANNOT overlook, and for this,

I shall let the play speak for itself.

"Villain what hast thou done?" "That which thou can'st not undo." "Thou hast undone done our mother!" "Villain, I have done

thy mother!" That's right, you heard it here first folks, the

original "Yo mama" joke. So Demetrius, Chiron, and Tamora all want the baby dead, so Saturninus never finds out the Tamora was unfaithful,

but Aaron rejects rather strenuously to his baby getting murdered,

so he kills the nurse and midwife and flees into the night with the baby. So back to Titus.

He's a little unbalanced as a consequence of all that nonsense, and among other things has Marcus

shoot arrows at the sky, with letters addressed to the gods asking for help.

I'd make fun of his inefficient delivery system, but given what happened the LAST time he used the postal service,

I can't really fault him. So things are falling apart for old Saturninus. Lucius

successfully marshaled an army of Goths, and he has the power of public opinion on his side.

So Saturninus decides the best plan is to unbalance

Titus even further and use him to persuade Lucius to stand down. Speaking of Lucius,

he's just found and captured Aaron carrying Aaron Jr. And after Lucius threatens

his kid, Aaron spills the whole revenge plot, including what Demetrius and Chiron did to Lavinia.

Speaking of Demetrius and Chiron, Tamora & sons have decided to drive Titus over the edge with a plot worthy of a Scooby-Doo episode.

Tamora dresses up like the Spirit of Vengeance, probably not that one, and tells Titus that she'll give him vengeance if he called off Lucius

and his army of Goths. He agrees,

but only if she leaves Demetrius and Chiron, disguised as the spirits of Rape and Murder

respectively, with him. So Tamora, THOROUGHLY convinced that Titus is crazy,

leaves her two sons with him, whereupon he captures them, slits their throats, and drains their blood into a basin held by Lavinia. Flawless plan,

Tamora. Way to assume your enemy was too crazy to recognize the people he wanted to murder really, REALLY hard. So Titus hosts a reconciliatory

banquet at his place in order to mediate a discussion between Saturninus and Lucius.

So while they're eating, Titus innocently asks if it's right of a father to kill his daughter if she's been violated, and Saturninus is all

like, "Hell, yeah, dude," so Titus is like, "Good to know!" and ganks Lavinia. Dude, not at the dinner table. So Saturninus

is like, "Dude!" and Titus is like, "Wasn't me. Demetrius and Chiron

made me do it". Saturninus is like, "Well, bring 'em up then!

Let me talk to 'em," and Titus is like, "Uhh, talking's probably not an option anymore. Tamora

there's already EATEN some of them". Yeah, Titus made a pie out of Demetrius and Chiron. Then he ganks(?) Tamora, too. Saturninus subjects for this

And the play's

basically over. Lucius is Emperor now, the people are happy, and oh, right, they execute Aaron, whose only regret was that he wasn't more of

a dick in life. True story. *sings 'What Goes Around... Comes Around' by Justin Timberlake*