the mutilated garden
TRANSCRIPT
The Mutilated Garden in Titus AndronicusBy Albert H. Tricomi
Presented by Dara Miller
Titus AndronicusDistasteful mishmash or widely misunderstood?Critical re-examination: Nicholas Brooke and Alan SommersThe issue of taste: decorous poetry and Senecan horror Ornamentality and decorativeness of poetry thematic matrix
Central Thesis“[The] thematic matrix, which governs the imagistic structure of the play, culminates in a dialectic contrast between the play’s predatory animal images and its cardinal emblem of the enduring but mutilated garden. Through these central image patterns, the play reveals the tragic efforts of the Andronici to preserve a world of civilized virtues from the onslaught of demonic barbarism…the very qualities of language in Titus Andronicus that once excited critical contumely hold the potential for revealing the play’s thematic integrity and imaginative power.”
The Forest and the FountainSpeak, gentle niece, what stern ungentle hands Hath lopp’d and hew’d and made thy body bare Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments, Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep inAlas, a crimson river of warm blood, Like to a bubbling fountain stirr’d with wind, Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips, Coming and going with thy honey breath. (Titus 2.4)
The Forest and the FountainClemens: “It is not only the idea that a human being at sight of such atrocities can burst forth into a long speech full of images and comparisons which appears so unsuitable and inorganic; but it is rather the…almost wanton playfulness which reveals the incongruity.”Tricomi: Not ludicrous; establishes principal images of garden setting
The Forest and the Fountain “Traditional fixture in pastoral setting”Associates with images of the lily, the deer, and the park all also associated with LaviniaForest devolves from “lovely and attractive” to becoming synonymous with “barbarism and chaos”
The Forest and the FountainLavinia as “bubbling fountain” – “appropriate, tasteful, almost conventional image of lost virginity and subsequent shame.”“Emblem of ceaseless suffering and loss…fountain of sorrowful life.”In Titus’ view, transforms into a “brine-pit”
Other Nature Imagery:Aaron adder, panther, raven, black flyTamora lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!)Andronici overall identified as plants, “cut down or stunted in their growth”Tamora etc. identified as “savage carnivores preying upon the Andronici, who are the flesh and blood of civilized Rome.”Clash leads to destruction of pastoral world
Transformation and Retaliation:Revenge leads to transformationOnce revenge is accomplished, no choice left but death for Titus and LaviniaThe play’s resolving metaphor: the fractured and dismembered “garden” can begin to grow againConclusions: Synthesizing emblem of the mutilated garden reveals integrity of imagistic structure and authenticity of tragic idea