Upon reading Act 3 and 4 up to scene 3, I thought it necessary to further discuss the issue of Race as it specifically relates to Aaron, the Moor. After the first two Acts, we encounter the issue of race when Aaron once again arrives at one of the most heart wrenching events in the book, Titus’s discovery of his sons’ unfortunate fates as well as his first glimpse of the violated Lavinia. In Act 3.1 we hear Aaron further his evil plot by telling Titus to cut off one of his own hands to appease the Emperor for his sons supposed crime. Titus says, “Did ever a raven sing like a lark,” 158. Clearly the choice of raven draws attention to the color of Aaron’s skin color. However, it is still hard to say exactly where Aaron stands on these issues. He does not respond to Titus’ comment and instead continues his set up of his incredibly cruel trick and then in line 200, he exclaims how much it pleases him to do this “villainy”. Aaron seems to be motivated purely by his desire to cause evil. He fulfills his archetypical role as the Machiavel extremely well up until this point. But we still do not have a clear idea of what is motivating him.

Later, at the end of act 3 scene 2 lines 76 till the end, invite another more in depth look at racism. This sequence is the fly incident in which we find the clearly insane Titus talking about not killing an innocent fly only to grab the knife and start stabbing it himself when Marcus draws a connection between the “black ill-favored fly” and the “Empress’ Moor.” He gets specific with his prejudice saying that “the Moor come hither purposely to poison me.” line 72. This is a difficult part of the text to understand. For one thing, there is a lot of racial tension here and it is obvious that Titus has an extremely irrational reaction when he stabs the fly simply because it is black like Aaron. However, it has been Aaron and Tamora who have orchestrated the crimes against Titus and his family and therefore it is hard to decide where exactly race fits in. It is clear that at least some of Titus’ anger at Aaron is rational.

We get another idea of where this play stands on race in Act 4 Scene 2 where we witness the debacle with Tamora and Aaron’s child. The scene is filled with the most insulting racial remarks aimed at the innocent mixed race child and at the heart of it Aaron tries to keep control. They say the baby is a shame and that it looks like a toad in lines 68 and on. Interestingly Aaron, instigator of some of the most hateful crimes in the entire story, is suddenly possessed by his child’s image, exclaiming that having his son is a desire greater than any other he has. When he decides to keep the baby, Tamora’s sons eventually agree, although it goes against their mother’s order. We are left wondering why, with so much hate expressed towards his racial character, is Aaron still in charge? They all specifically look to Aaron to formulate the plan and lead them further.

These few snippets of racial tension and hate leave us in a strange place regarding where the play stands on race. Aaron’s dual role as a racial outsider as well as the play’s chief instigator of evil makes him hard to pinpoint. His responses to the racial remarks he hears are few and seem unrealistic. At the same time, it would be hard to say that he does not feel these insults hurting him, especially when it is directed at him and his new born child. We have to wonder why we do not delve deeper into his psyche. We are left wondering why the main planner of the most horrendous crimes is black and therefore immediately different from the rest of the characters.

It seems to me that Aaron’s portrayal is quite racist and at best, only shows a white/European idea of what black men are like. Perhaps this will change once we finish the play.