[Sorry for the late post! For some reason it didn't post yesterday...]
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Act 4, Scene 3 offers us a refreshing breeze of prose
through the character of the Country Fellow. This is the first time he uses
prose in the play, and is rare in his early plays. Why do you think he does
this? What effect does it have on the play, and in particular, the events of
Act Four?
Q2: In Alexander Leggatt’s brief essay on the play (in the
back of the book), he writes that “The extravagance of the play’s action takes
it to the edge of grotesque comedy. For Aaron, peering through the wall that
signifies his detachment, it is a comedy” (249). How does Act 5 seem
to underline Aaron’s view of the play—or life itself—as a comedy staged for his
benefit? Why might this prove that Aaron could actually be played by the comic
actor of the troupe?
Q3: How would you advise the actors play the elaborate
meeting between Titus and Revenge in Act 5, Scene 2: as a tense, thrilling
drama or as farcical slapstick? Is Titus cunning to see through the disguises
of Tamora and her sons, or are the disguises really so bad that anyone could
see through them? How does the language help us understand how to stage this
extremely bizarre scene?
Q4: Leggatt, writing about Lavinia’s death, notes that “The
last we hear of Lavinia is Lucius’ command to bury his father and sister in the
family tomb. She is released from an intolerable life, but she is also absorbed
into the patriarchal world that was implicated in her suffering” (246). How do
the men in the play speak about the deaths of both women in the play, allowing
them to be “absorbed” in the same manner?
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