Shakespeare definitely toys with the audience whether or not Titus Andronicus is overall the best possible father figure he can be in a society like Rome, or still the worst father figure you can ever have. Just shown from Acts 1 and 3:

In Act 1, Scene 1, he stabs his own Mutius for possibly betraying Rome. When in the same Act, Tamora is pleading Titus not to kill one of her sons since the war’s over. But Titus denies her saying it’s to avenge his sons lost in the war. Why Titus hates that his sons died in battle, yet is okay killing one of his own just like that, to me, felt two-faced.

But in Act 3, Scene 1, Titus cries and pleads for the Tribunes to let go his two sons, who have been falsely accused for Saturnius’ death. “Be pitiful to my condemned sons, whose souls is not corrupted as ’tis thought. For two and twenty sons I never wept, because they died in honor’s lofty bed” (lines 8-11). The tribunes pass by him. “Let my tears staunch the earth’s dry appetite” (line 14) one example of his weeping for his sons.

Can anyone name other examples they thought of about Titus being a good/bad father figure?

– Charlton

P.S. I watched a little bit of the film adaptation to Titus starring Anthony Hopkins last week. Instead of feeding Tamora her sons in pie form, if Titus served her with some fava beans and a nice Chianti?