Titus Andronicus and Logos

Titus Andronicus is a humanist play, having as one of its main concerns the definition of man and human civilization. the distinguishing mark of these is logos (i.e. words and reason), which must be the ruling principle of the civilized state as well as the healthy human being. But Rome is “headless”: logos is often answered with weapons, as when Alarbus and Mutius are killed, a development which reaches its climax with the rape and mutilation of Lavinia, who, now mute and handless, becomes an emblem of Roman civilization. This degradation is emphasized by metamorphoses into beasts, stone and chaos, and by the association of the Goths with the devouring pit in the forest (Act II, Scene iii), which forms a contrast to the humanist ideal of the body politic (cf. Menenius Agrippa's famous parable of the belly and the limbs). From this wilderness Rome is gradually reclaimed as Lavinia manages to reveal the identity of her ravishers, as Titus, now able to resist the false eloquence of Tamora, punishes the enemies of civilization, and the people of Rome, responding to the true eloquence of Marcus and Lucius, choose the latter as emperor.