How Shakespeare Uses Sensory Details to Warn His Audience of Dark Themes
In lines 100 through 150 of Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare warns his audience of the horrific violence and misery that is about to ensue. Shakespeare’s warnings come in the form of sensory details—sights, sounds, and even smells—that communicate to theatregoers that Titus Andronicus is not a show in which everything turns out okay.
When Titus returns to Rome, he brings with him the Queen of the Goths, Tamora, who he describes as “distresséd.” The word “distresséd” indicates that Tamora is in a visibly poor condition. Her clothing is likely ripped, and she may have some wounds from the battle in which she was captured. Undoubtedly, her face also displays emotional anguish as a result being captured and taken to a foreign city. Tamora’s rough appearance is a visual warning to the audience that the women of Titus Andronicus are not safe from violence, and this proves especially true when Titus’s daughter Lavinia is brutally raped and mutilated by Tamora’s sons.
As the scene continues, Titus, his sons, and his captives arrive the tomb of the Andronicii where Titus demands that Tamora’s oldest son Alarbus be sacrificed to appease the shades of fallen Roman soldiers. In response, Tamora exclaims “rue the tears I shed, / a mother’s tears in passion for her son” before she kneels as indicated in the stage directions. Tamora’s reference to shedding tears is indicative of the fact that she is crying while her description of her tears as “a mother’s tears” suggests that she is not only crying but weeping. When Tamora kneels—or more likely falls to her knees—her collision with the hollow wooden stage will produce a resounding and solemn thud. The aural and visual cues of Tamora’s pain and anguish tell the audience just how tragic the play will become as almost all the main characters are driven to suffer despair like Tamora’s.
The final and most visceral sensory details of this scene occur both on and off the stage: Tamora’s son Alarbus is dragged away as Titus’s son Lucius describes how Alarbus will be dismembered and fed to a fire presently being built. A few minutes later, Lucius and his brothers return “with bloody swords,” and Lucius declares that Alarbus’s remains “feed the sacrificing fire / whose smoke like incense doth perfume the sky.” As Alarbus is dragged offstage, the audience should see him struggle and resist the son’s Titus. They should also see smoke and maybe some flickering lights to indicate the fire that is being built for the sacrifice. If a director wanted to be especially brutal, they might have Alarbus scream off stage, and when Titus’s sons return their swords should be stained a dark red and perhaps even be dripping. Finally, the audience should see a large plume of black smoke and smell burning meat when Lucius compares the smoke of the fire to incense. These sensory details, while sickening, are a reflection of what is come and serve as a stern, albeit graphic warning to the audience that doom and damnation are all that await the characters of Titus Andronicus.
Throughout Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare uses vivid sensory details to fascinate and disgust his readers and his audience. In this early scene of the play however, the sensory details foreshadow the more grotesque and gratuitous violence that is to occur. As a result, this scene becomes a warning to the audience that Titus Andronicus really is a story in which (almost) everyone dies and in rather horrific ways.
Sources
Shakespeare, William. Titus Andronicus from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Folger Shakespeare Library, March 8, 2022. https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/titus-andronicus/.