Titus Andronicus Relationship

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Within Titus Andronicus, we may also examine the balances in the relationship between Tamora and her sons, Chiron and Demetrius. As Empress of Rome, though formerly Queen of the Goths, Tamora may be expected to command respect and loyally as Titus does, as well as the love of her new husband and her sons. This expectation though is set against the fact that she is newly married, and therefore, newly owned by Saturninus, and also that her sons are grown men, possessing the right to their own destiny. Tamora, even as the revengeful villainess of this play, does hold the control over her sons that would be expected of an Empress. As the plot unfolds, it is not Tamora who holds the reins nor is it she who guides her sons. In Act 2 Scene 3, after …show more content…
[…]
LAVINIA: O Tamora, thou bearest a woman’s face -
TAMORA: I will not hear her speak; away with her!
DEMETRIUS: Listen, fair madam, let it be your glory
To see her tears, but be your heart to them
As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.”
(Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 2, scene 3, lines …show more content…
She does not lead the acts of revenge, merely follows in their wake. Where she would kill Lavinia immediately, her sons convince her to allow them their own desires as a form of revenge; where she would turn away from Lavinia’s pleas, her sons tell her hear them but be cold to them. The reverence for their mother’s word is removed, her power is taken. As Krausman Ben-Amos states “[…] in early modern England strong norms governed and reinforced obligations to and from children, based as they were on biblical injunctions and commands. The Protestant religion […] made strong claims regarding the duties of parents to nurture their children, and the obligation of children to obey, honour, and follow the prescriptions and demands of their parents.” (1997, p.5-6). So to may we see how Tamora, in teaching her sons her path of revenge, they’ve superseded her, taken her place and have fallen from the righteous, albeit not Christian in their context, path. In their disobeying, they have removed this reasoning from their exchange with their mother and as such it is unable to thrive. Both they and their mother suffer from this unbalanced and unreasonable
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