Violence in the State in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

The final scenes of Titus Andronicus produce a tragic bloodbath of a catharsis that leaves Rome in the hands of a new emperor, Lucius, who is offered by Shakespeare as the superior statesman of the play. The conflicts that mount throughout the earlier scenes are resolved in a manner that corresponds to the tragic genre of the play and ultimately define characters and articulate important themes about revenge, violence, and personal honor, namely that they should be pursued with caution and moderation. The feud between the Andronicus family and the Roman Empire, under the guise of Tamora and Aaron, heightens in intensity and depravity as the play progresses, producing festering grudges and heinous acts of vengeance leading to the climax. With violence acting as a sort of vehicle to establish dominance throughout the play, Shakespeare presents calculated acts of violence carried out with logic and a rational, objective viewpoint as the acts that carry the most worth in the state. Lucius best embodies this ideal by acting as both an amalgamation of Titus and Marcus and a foil to Aaron. When Lucius inherits Rome at the end of the play, it is clear that blind 'pious violence' and ruthless acts of vengeance are, in the end, futile, thus condemning the path of the characters Lucius exists in contrast to.