Home > Shakespearean Criticism > Titus Andronicus (Vol. 62) - Sara Eaton (essay date 1996)

Titus Andronicus (Vol. 62) - Sara Eaton (essay date 1996)

Sara Eaton (essay date 1996)

SOURCE: “A Woman of Letters: Lavinia in Titus Andronicus,” in Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender, Indiana University Press, 1996, pp. 54-74.

[In the following essay, Eaton suggests that through Lavinia, Shakespeare dramatized contemporary social tensions concerned with the value of humanist education. In particular, Eaton contends, Lavinia embodies the upper-class, humanist-educated woman who is perceived as a societal threat and who must consequently be silenced.]

                                                                                          I will learn thy thought;
In thy dumb action will I be as perfect
As begging hermits in their holy prayers.
Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven,
Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign,
But I, of these, will wrest an alphabet,
And by still...

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