Jody Walshe
Death and Revelation of Character in Titus Andronicus and Antony and
Cleopatra.
In the course of Antony and Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus all of the eponymous
characters, and many others besides, die unnatural deaths. These numerous deaths do
not merely pander to the morbid curiosity of the audience but also reveal new insights
into the characters of both the victims and the perpetrators. In these plays
Shakespeare uses death as an exploratory concept by which to probe into the
personalities of his characters. This is made all the more poignant by what Aristotle
describes in his Poetics as the ‘Tragedy of Revelation,’ in which he notes the power of
character revelation as a dramatic device. In death, whether committing murder or
suicide, characters reveal aspects of themselves which otherwise would have
remained hidden.
Wilders1 observes that “committing suicide … according to Roman stoical principles,
was seen as noble,” and understanding Antony’s perception of his actions is key to
appreciating why he chooses to take his own life. At the suicide of Eros, Antony’s
eulogy indicates the raised and noble status which his follower has now attained
though the method of his death:
“Thrice nobler than myself
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
I should and thou couldst not! My queen and Eros
Have by their brave instruction got upon me
A nobleness in record.
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‘Introduction’ Antony and Cleopatra (1995) J. Wilders
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Jody Walshe
… And, Eros, thy master dies thy scholar” (IV.xiv.96-103)
Antony makes Eros’ bravery all the more impressive by paralleling it with his fear to
commit the same act a few lines earlier. This comparison is made by Antony as soon
as Eros dies, when he wonders at his being “thrice nobler than myself,” a comment
made far more powerful when taking into account that Antony was a famous warrior
and considered virtually unparalleled in combat. In addition, the cluster of
complimentary phrases to describe Eros’ action - “nobler,” “valiant,” “brave,”
“nobleness” - indicate Antony’s admiration for the courage that resulted in such a
deed. Despite the power of his speech, in this case, Antony’s actions speak louder
than his words and the clearest indication that he has been impressed by Eros’ suicide
is that he promptly attempts to do the same. In this instance, Eros’ death elevates him
from one of Antony’s followers, to a man three times “nobler” than one of Rome’s
most prized warriors.
Similarly, Antony sees his own demise as his final and most lasting triumph.
Ultimately, he is unable to cope with the self-knowledge integral to so much of
tragedy. He cannot incorporate military or romantic failure into his understanding of
himself. His dying speech indicates the values he esteems, showing how he considers
himself a victor and illustrating his desire to be remembered as a hero:
“The miserable change now at my end,
Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts
In feeding them with those my former fortunes
Wherin I lived the greatest prince o’th’ world,
The noblest; and do now not basely die,
Not cowardly put off my helmet to
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Jody Walshe
My countryman; a Roman by a Roman
Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going;
I can no more” (IV.xv.53-61)
His language is that of courage (“not cowardly,” “valiantly”) and pride, (“the greatest
prince o’th’ world / the noblest”) similar to the speech he made over the body of Eros.
Although Antony’s death has often been seen by critics as ‘bungled’ or ‘botched’
Kahn2 asserts that “on the English stage and in humanistic studies, suicide was a wellestablished marker of the Roman exemplar’s dignity” and the deaths of those such as
Lucrece and Brutus were seen as signifying rationality and free-will. The man who
died sau manu – by his own hand – robbed his rival of victory and honour thereby
avoiding the shame of defeat. In choosing suicide, Antony believed that his name and
honour remain untarnished.
Cleopatra also begins to see suicide as a more positive means of “defeating Caesar
and overcoming the onslaughts of fortune”3 after her lover’s demise. Her suicide
denies Caesar the glory of parading her through the streets of Rome as a captive as he
intended. Cleopatra will no longer be the impressive trophy that Caesar hoped she
would be and even he admits that in ending her own life, she has won the final
victory:
“Bravest at the last
She levelled at our purposes and, being royal,
Took her own way.” (V.ii.334-6)
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‘Shakespeare’s Classical Tragedies’ Coppelia Kahn
‘Introduction’ Antony and Cleopatra (1995) J. Wilders
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Jody Walshe
This speech is made all the more reverential since in Shakespearean England; the
expression “bravest” did not only carry connotations of courage but also was
associated with words such as “fine,” “splendid” and “excellent.”
Caesar acknowledges Cleopatra as a woman who “took her own way” then and
nowhere is this more clearly apparent in her life than the way in which she chooses to
end it. Cleopatra’s death testifies to her splendidly diverse character. Although, both
she and Antony take the same course, their reasons are very different. Where
Antony’s Western rationality forbids him from seeing himself as continuing to live as
a disgraced soldier or jilted lover, Cleopatra refuses to have her diversity reduced and
instead chooses death. In Act IV, Antony observes the quickly shifting clouds (“the
rack dislimns” (IV.xiv.10)) which are highly appropriate to depict his lover’s ever
changing mind. She will flit from declaring her undying love for Antony, to making a
political alliance with his enemy. She is essentially dramatic, almost denying Antony
his dying words in her desire for performance:
Antony: I am dying, Egypt, dying.
Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.
Cleopatra: No, let me speak, and let me rail so high
That the false hussy Fortune break her wheel,
Provoked by my offence. (IV.xvi.43-7)
Here, Cleopatra’s self-awareness in her role as grief-stricken lover rises to a near
comedic level, but nonetheless, epitomises her theatrical qualities.
This dramatic skill is evident in abundance at the moment of her death. Purely
dwelling on the visual; Cleopatra dies on stage, clothed in her royal robes before
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Jody Walshe
laying the asps upon her body, giving a sense of her grandeur and air of the exotic.
As Antony considers his death to be his triumph, Cleopatra’s allows her to retain her
status and dignity. Her death acts as her refusal to let Roman rationalise and simplify
her. She is never reduced to the captive of Caesar; instead she dies the forceful queen
we have seen from the beginning of the play.
In Titus Andronicus the eponymous hero reveals his true self, not through suicide as
in Antony and Cleopatra, but through the committing of murder. An interesting
example can be found in the instance of Titus’ killing of his mutilated daughter,
Lavinia, in Act V scene iii. This play is deeply influenced by the Senecan notion that
death acted as a release into rest which is not to be feared and this is evident in Titus’
killing of his daughter:
“Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee,
And with thy shame thy father’s sorrow die” (V.iii.45-6)
In this speech to his violated and disfigured daughter as he strikes the mortal blow,
Titus makes his motivation for the action clear – he is committing a mercy killing.
For the sake of herself and him, it is better that her suffering is put to an end. In
Titus’ desire to destroy her “shame,” appears to be a fatherly urge to protect what
reputation she has left once she has been raped by two men, had her hands severed
and her tongue cut out. This is not an act that Titus’ commits rashly; he has been
tormented by the anguish of his “gentle girl,” (III.ii.34) most notably in the scene at
the small banquet where he feeds his helpless child, while attempting to decipher the
reason why “she drinks no other drink but tears” (III.ii.37-8). Interestingly the stage
direction “He kills her” coupled with Lavinia’s inevitable silence, leaves huge scope
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Jody Walshe
for interpretation and Bate4 notes the variety with which the scene can be played from
the Warner production in which Titus crisply snaps Lavinia’s neck to Santa Cruz
where she steps towards his knife, actively embracing her father and her demise.
Partly, this killing also indicates Titus’ limit for suffering since he has been destroyed
by her suffering:
“Killed her for whom my tears have made me blind” (V.iii.49)
The excess implied in this image of to the point of blindness indicates that his
tolerance for pain has at last been reached. Titus shows himself to be human, in being
so consumed with sorrow that he is utterly shattered. Eventually he is warped into an
avenger, a man who tricks Tamora into devouring her own sons. This is hardly
surprising when considering the horrific list of Titus’ suffering:
“…twenty-one of your sons have been killed in battle, you’ve killed the
twenty-second in a fit of pique, your daughter has been raped and had her
hands cut off and her tongue cut out, two further sons have been wrongly
accused of murdering you son-in-law and the remaining one sent into exile,
you’ve been told that the two who are condemned will be reprieved if you
chop off your hand, and you do so, only to have the hand and the heads of the
two sons sent back to you in scorn.” 5
Lavinia is not the only one of Titus’ children that he has executed. In the play’s
opening scene we are shocked and appalled to see him murder his son Matius without
any qualms in a fit of rage. This killing is shocking since it is so immediate, coming
only three hundred lines into the play. It also undercuts any audience sympathy
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‘Introduction’ Titus Andronicus (1995) J. Bate
‘Introduction’ Titus Andronicus (1995) J. Bate
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Jody Walshe
cultivated for Titus who has been seen on stage with the coffins of his two dead sons.
The reason for this killing also seems remarkably trivial:
Lucius: “My lord, you are unjust, and more than so:
In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son”
Titus: “Nor thou, nor he, are any sons of mine:
My sons would never so dishonour me.” (I.i.298-300)
A mistaken sense of honour does not seem to merit the disowning and killing of one’s
own child.
Arguably the most disturbing moment in terms of death and the revelation of
character in Titus Andronicus can be found when Titus orders the human sacrifice of
Tamora’s son to give his sons a proper burial. Bate6 states that “the religious rituals
of a civilized culture, it was believed, involved animal rather than human sacrifice”
which makes Titus’ desire for human blood even more shocking. This is especially
interesting when considering the blurring of the boundaries between the supposedly
barbaric Goths and their allegedly civilized Roman captors. Rome notably prided
itself with being civilized and the enemy of barbarism. The word ‘civilized’ comes
from ‘civilis’ meaning ‘of citizens, of the city’ and Rome was famously the city. This
makes Titus’ sanction of this brutal and unnecessary killing all the more distressing,
since it reveals him deviating from cultural expectations he supposedly esteems as a
Roman hero. For Titus, the killing of his son reveals that he is just as barbaric as the
Goths he has spent ten years battling.
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‘Introduction’ Titus Andronicus (1995) J. Bate
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Jody Walshe
In his portrayal of death, Shakespeare reveals the limitations of human emotional
capacity and language. Titus finally resorts to laughter when the language he attempts
to use to express his grief in is stretched to its limit. Antony’s suicide exposes his
inability to acknowledge the conflicting forces within himself. He can only be the
typical Roman hero (Antony famously claimed to be descended from Herakles), not
the vanquished general or abandoned lover; therefore he cannot continue to live. For
Antony and Lavinia death results in a merciful release from a life that was no longer
bearable to them. But the in the case of Cleopatra she is not just escaping from the
inevitable defeat and slavery in Rome, she uses her death as an act of defiance against
the men that have attempted to label and control her throughout the play. It is the
character of Cleopatra that Shakespeare uses to depict death as an assertion of selfhood and a weapon against her enemies.
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