Titus Andronicus. / William Shakespeare ; edited by Jonathan Bate.

edited by David Bevington.

Violence is an enduring feature of Titus Andronicus,it illuminates the nature of evil more than it attempts to transcend evil through human nobility.The first part of the play functions to give the avenger a motive for his bloody course of action.Ironically,Titus is himself responsible for setting in motion the events that will overwhelm him.Vilolence could be seen in Titus slaying his son , for assisting in the abduction of his daughter lavinia.Equally unsettling is the play's depiction of gender relations.Titus slayed his daughter Lavinia ,lest she "survive her shame " and by her presence continually remind Titus of the disgrace he has suffered by her rape.The archaic code of male dominion insists that a father 's honor is paramount and that his daughter's death is preferable to to shameful life even if,as in Lavinia's case ,she is wholly innocent and victimized in losing her chastity."In The Complete Works of Sahekespeare"5ht edition