A New Villain
Comments(3) All the violence, all the blood, instead of at the heat of moment in the Shakespearean play, Titus Andronicus, Aaron might be the only one can be able to see the underlying truth of this struggle that himself was very much a part of it. A deeper truth that not only speaks to the audience at his time, at the very end of the play, a line, “vengeance rot you all,” in my mind this tells me William Shakespeare is fully aware of the whole scope.
All the blood and pain started to pour out as early as Act 2, when Lavinia was badly mutilated and raped. The crimes committed on stage was intensified to a shocking degree by having Tomora’s sons slaughtered and baked into meat pies. And masterfully Shakespeare was able to craft, maybe even mingle the audience rage and hate toward one focal point, which is that of his audience at the time, achieve the theatrical success and mastery as a playwright.
The whole play is simply too gruesome, many critics argue. But if you read with the prism of Elizabethan time, you might think this is what the audience at that time want. And beneath the audience’s hunger of instant sensation, Shakespeare seem are speaking to us even louder—revenge or violence, once you started, it can never be stopped.
I do agree on you point that “…revenge or violence, once you started, it can never be stopped.” Moreover, it wiped out almost everyone it came into contact with.
I also agree that Aaron may have been the only one able to see the underlying truth of the violence and blood through out the play. He was able to separate himself, no real loyal or loving connection any other character. He was not motivated by love or hatred at anyone in particular rather for the fun of it. That is why he prevailed, that is until a character is introduced to whom he was tied to by love. His baby changed the entire dynamics against him and put him in line with all the other characters motivated by love/ hatred. And I believe that is what brought about his doom – personal connection to his child. If he had been able to keep himself detached as before, he might have had gotten away with everything unscathed.
What I like about Aaron is that although he is an outsider, he is the most attractive and imperative characters to the plot. In Titus Andronicus, Aaron (Hebrew name meaning “a teacher” or “mountain of strength”) is the painted as the devil. The Muslim is not of Rome and doesn’t seem to be a Goth either. He is portrayed to be from hell. However, whoever the “barbarous” is, he is the brains and designer behind the scheme to topple Titus and Tamora. Aaron is illustrated more as the villainous Iago and lesser in part as the out-of-control Othello. He is blamed for playing mind games on Tamara’s sons that lead to rape then cutting out Lavinia’s tongue: it is as if he committed the act. He actually did chop of Titus’ hand, but at this point, the reader has become less sympathetic to the pathetic Titus. The Moor is also responsible for Bassianus’ death but was it not Tamora’s tongue who spoke her son’s into action? What makes Aaron intriguing is that we don’t know why Aaron is behaving mercilessly – even Satan has a motus operandi. Titus kills Tamora’s sons and makes her eat him, so the reader somewhat justifies the revenge –Aaron is blamed for that too. Without Aaron the story is weak. Ironically, Aaron is also the most rigid, inflexible character when compared to protagonist Titus. Even when we see a bit of humanity for his and Tamora’s child, the offspring was used as another reason for more death. In the end the Romans decided to bury Aaron alive which makes a few statements about Rome. One, Rome is just as barbaric as Aaron and that the outsider seemed to have won in the end: he took their minds and kept his soul.
I initially viewed Aaron as resembling the Joker from Batman. As mentioned he did not seem to have any real purpose behind his desire for revenge. Rather his criminal actions seemed to be a form of entertainment for him. He seemed to derive pleasure from other’s people pains and ills as the Joker does. However, later in the play the reader does realize that he is motivated by a need to “get back” at those who wronged him, because of his dark skin, which give a human-like quality to his actions.