Act 5, Scenes 1–2 Summary
Act 5, Scene 1
On a plain near Rome, Lucius enters at the head of an army of Goths. He has received letters from Rome confirming Saturninus’s suspicions that the people hate him and are ready to welcome Lucius into the city.
One of the Goths comes to Lucius, leading Aaron and his son, whom he has just captured. Lucius is about to kill the child, but Aaron says he will reveal all he knows in return for his son’s life. He then tells Lucius the truth about Bassianus’s murder and the rape and mutilation of Lavinia. He cheerfully admits his part in these outrages and says that he cried with laughter at depriving Titus of his hand. His only regret is that he could not perform ten thousand more acts of cruelty. Lucius is disgusted and tells the Goths to “stop his mouth, and let him speak no more.”
Aemilius then enters, bringing news from Rome. On behalf of the emperor, he invites Lucius to a parley at his father’s house, an invitation Lucius accepts.
Act 5, Scene 2
In front of Titus’s house, Tamora, Chiron, and Demetrius enter, disguised. When Titus comes to the door, he immediately recognizes Tamora, but she says that she is the spirit of Revenge, come from hell to assist him in his plans for vengeance. Titus indicates Chiron and Demetrius, calling them Rape and Murder, and asks Revenge to prove her identity by killing them. However, Tamora says that they are her servants, whom she needs, and Titus appears to accept this, along with her identity as Revenge. They promise to bring Titus the empress and her sons, as well as the emperor, if Titus will ask Lucius to a banquet at his house. Titus sends his brother Marcus to invite Lucius, along with some of the “chiefest princes of the Goths,” to this feast.
Tamora takes her leave, and the three of them are about to go, when Titus demands that Rape and Murder should stay with him. As soon as Tamora has gone, Titus calls in his nephew, Publius, and his other kinsmen, Caius and Valentine, and asks them to bind Chiron and Demetrius and stop their mouths. He departs briefly and returns, carrying a knife, with Lavinia, who is carrying a basin.
After reciting the wrongs that he and Lavinia have suffered at their hands, Titus explains his plan to the helpless Chiron and Demetrius. He will kill them and bake them into pies, which he will then serve to Tamora and his other guests at the feast with Lucius.
Analysis
While this section does not solve the problem of Titus’s madness, it does show that whatever derangement he may suffer has not enfeebled him and will not impede his capacity for revenge. It is Tamora who shows remarkable gullibility in her assumption that Titus really believes she is the spirit of Revenge who has come to help him, despite several very clear hints that Titus knows exactly who she is and who her sons are. It would presumably be simple enough for Titus to take all three of them prisoner, but as he explains to Chiron and Demetrius, he has a more artistic form of retribution in mind for Tamora.
Scene 1 gives Aaron the Moor another chance to revel in his villainy and discuss his addiction to evil with a disgusted audience. Having admitted to all his crimes against Lucius’s family, saying that he almost broke his heart “with extreme laughter” upon seeing Titus’s hand returned to him with the heads of his sons, Aaron goes on to...
(This entire section contains 857 words.)
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relate various other offenses to be taken into consideration:
Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors,
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot;
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters,
“Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.”
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.
The gruesome practical joke in which Aaron says he has often indulged would have cost him a great deal of hard work and brought him no profit whatsoever. This makes him Shakespeare’s most completely villainous character, with no apparent motive other than limitless natural spite and sadism. However, it is precisely this lack of psychological realism that prevents Aaron from being mentioned in the same breath as the great Shakespearean villains: Edmund, Iago, or even Richard of Gloucester. The first two are instances of Shakespeare at the height of his powers, but Richard III is a play of similar date to Titus Andronicus and may even be earlier. Richard, however, is a more interesting villain than Aaron because his psychology is convincing and because he has a sense of purpose, as well as intelligence and charm. It is difficult to imagine any other Shakespearean villain stooping to the puerile tricks Aaron plays to spite people with more humanity than he has.