Group Presentations

Everyone has done an amazing job with the group presentations so far and I've really enjoyed watching them.  The play that has interested me the most is Titus Andronicus.  Not only because it is so gory (which I'll have to admit is what got my attention initially) but because it seems like a dense labyrinth of intertwining stories, all dealing with revenge. It  made me wonder how it was received by audiences when it came out in the playhouses.  How did Elizabethan audiences like that the "bad guy" was a woman?  How did they respond to the violence?  Did they use red ribbons? I looked up a quick synopsis of the play on the Internet to be able to blog about it but it is definitely on my summer reading list. I'm just not the beach-read chick lit type I guess. 

To be fair, Titus drew first blood, killing Tamora's first son, but it is still horrifying to me what Demetrius and Chiron did to Levinia.  This takes the Shakespeare rape scene to a whole other dimension not unlike some horror movies I've seen. The poor girl doesn't even get to live after managing to identify her attackers with a stick and her stumps! Which leads me to wonder if maybe Shakespeare got into some kind of trouble or got bad reviews because he definitely toned down the violence in his later works.  This was his first tragedy, right? Maybe he wanted to make a splash to get noticed, or perhaps he was channeling the rapes of of Roman and Greek mythology that were brutal and animalistic.  Zeus was a pretty dirty guy.

 I'd like to talk about Aaron.  Who is this guy and why is he so evil? is he some kind of personification of minority oppression and frustration?  It confuses me that he sacrificed himself for the baby he had with Tamora considering everything he tells his captors about his evil plot and the fact that the only regret he has is that he didn't commit more evil in his life. By the way, I thought Craig did a great job with the speech Aaron gives before he gets buried. 

On a final side note, I love that the group brought up Sweeny Todd.  In the synopsis of the play I read it says that before Titus put Demetrius and Chiron in the meat pies, he slit their throats and let their blood drain into a basin.  JUST LIKE SWEENY. good job guys.