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Silence In Titus Andronicus

121 Words1 Pages
In Titus Andronicus, Lavinia’s physically enforced silence serves as a metaphor for the silence culturally enforced on women in the seventeenth century, and thus Lavinia was silenced long before her rape and mutilation.
Through contextual research and close readings of sections of the play, I will explore the complexities and nuances of this argument – Lavinia’s silence at the beginning of the play, her scathing attack on Tamora, her failed plea to be murdered instead of raped, her disturbing reveal of her attackers, and of course her death at the hands of her father. These key scenes bring up the relationship between gender and communication, as well as highlighting the patriarchal definition of rape which was slowly changing in Shakespeare’s
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