The Symbolism Of Hands In Titus Andronicus

The Symbolism of Hands in Titus Andronicus Gratuitous mutilation, gang rape, and communion butchery are all on full demonstration in Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeares bloodiest and most violent representation works. Of the 24 characters named, 14 are either dead or under sentence of the same by the tolerates end. Due in part to its premise and disturbing imagery, gnomish reception of Titus has understandably flipped-flopped throughout various periods of analysis. What ushered in hellion decades of popular success and delighted audiences of the 1590s evoked barbed criticism from late-seventeenth and twentieth-century critics. Poet T.S. Eliot infamously referred to Titus as one of the stupidest and most uninspired gos forever written, while playwright Edward Ravenscroft dismissed it simply as a heap of rubbish (Shakespeare, 399). Yet for all of Tituss dreadful horrors, the violence that seemingly repulsed Eliot and company should not be viewed as erratic, uncalcu lated acts. Rather they should be understood as representations of a wider, warning(a) signifi keepce. It is through dismemberment, and the dismemberment of hands in particular, that the play potty be seen through an emblematic perspective to signify the defense of vengeance and the loss of semipolitical and personal confidence.

This essay tinctures to look for the symbolic meaning of dismembered hands in Titus Andronicus through an anthropological context, incorporating the classical writings of Greek physician Galen along with seven-fold pieces of widely circulated Renaissance art, emblems, and ritual gestures. The focus will accordingly turn to three distinct scenes ! of dismemberment within the play: the symbolic nature in the loss of Livinia and Tituss hands, and how the drop dead of Tituss hand to the stage can be understood. pickings apart functions to reveal the adverse trait of overconfidence in Titus, a characteristic that fuels an irrational judgment over the political agency his hand possesses, sealing his own tragedy. The...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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