Tyranny delineated

Abstract

This chapter analyzes how the Andronici might have recalled to some contemporaries the situation of Elizabethan Catholics. The chapter talks about the tyranny of Andronici that operates at a number of levels and through a series of linked networks of evil counsel and of sexual or sexualized corruption and influence. It also describes the figure of Saturninus, who, from the outset, reveals himself as the stuff of which tyrants are made. The chapter points out how Saturninus is shown to be a creature of his passions, as evidenced by his instant attraction and attachment to Tamora. It also discusses how the play “Titus Andronicus” presented the impulses that lie behind aims that are quintessentially “feminine.”