Shakespeare's Insistant Theme, Imagery, Use Term Paper

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She's gone forever! / I know when one is dead, and when one lives; / She's dead as earth." (King Lear V.iii.256-260)

Titus Andronicus is the central figure and tragic hero of the homonymous play by William Shakespeare. He is a General of Rome and father to Lavinia and Lucius. He is a brave solider of Rome who has spent the last ten years of his life fighting Rome's enemies. Although very successful and praised for his heroic acts, Titus Andronicus now feels incapable of assuming the role his country had envisioned for him. Moreover, despite the fact that in the beginning he is seen as a model of piety, and praised for his adherence to tradition and custom, it is precisely this inflexibility - "For now I stand as one upon a rock / Environed with a wilderness of sea, / Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave, / Expecting ever when some envious surge / Will in his brinish bowels swallow him." (Titus Andronicus III. i) - that eventually brings about his tragic end when his enemies decide to take revenge against him. The bloody ending of the play which also involves Titus Andronicus' murder by the King is in fact symbolic of Rome's history and its very foundation.

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In the beginning, Titus Andronicus is illustrated as a reasonable man and a brave General of Rome. Nonetheless, in his case, it is the desire for revenge that eventually destroys him. Once revenge is set in motion - similarly to Macbeth -Titus Andronicus finds he cannot resist its power and repents when it is too late: "I have done a thousand dreadful things / as willingly as one would kill a fly, / and nothing grieves me heartily indeed / but that I cannot do ten thousand more" (Titus Andronicus V.i.145-148) because his fate has been sealed.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Literature Center. http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/othello/2/

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Literature Center. http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/kinglear/

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Oxford Shakespeare. Internet. http://www.bartelby.com/70/index41.html

Shakespeare, William. Titus Andronicus. Literature….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/shakespeare-insistant-theme-imagery-use-32789