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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Body of Rome:
Throughout the play, there is a repeated motif that occurs in which Rome is metaphorically referred to in embodied language, as though there is a literal body of Rome that is in need of care, protection, and healing. The first of these instances occurs in Act 1, Scene 1, as Marcus encourages Titus to take up the mantle as the people’s chosen Emperor of Rome:
Be candidatus, then, and put [the white robe] on
And help to set a head on headless Rome.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Some Certain Snatch:
Aaron’s desire to assist Tamora in her quest for revenge against Titus, Saturninus, and Rome leads him to concoct a villainous plot that hinges on the rape of Titus’s daughter, Lavinia. In Act 2, Scene 1, Aaron approaches Tamora’s sons Demetrius and Chiron in order to convince them to commit the act. Playing upon their preexisting lascivious desires for Lavinia and their masculine competitive instincts, Aaron uses a metaphor to suggest that instead of fighting each other or lusting after Lavinia in vain, the brothers might be better served hunting her together:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Chiron: Aaron, a thousand deaths
Would I propose to achieve her whom I love
Aaron: To Achieve her how?
Demetrius: She is a woman, therefore may be wooed;
She is a woman, therefore may be won;
She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.
[...]
Then why should he despair that knows to court it
With words, fair looks, and liberality?
What, hast not thou full often struck a doe
And borne her cleanly by the keeper’s nose?
Aaron: Why, then, it seems some certain snatch or so
Would serve your turns.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Swallowing Womb:
During the hunt in Act 2, Scene 3, Quintus and Martius are led through the woods by Aaron the Moor to a pit, under the false pretense that it holds a trapped panther. However, when Martius trips in the darkness and falls into the pit, he discovers not a panther, but the dead body of his sister’s husband, Bassianus. As Quintus attempts to help him up out of the pit, he uses a metaphor that foreshadows the play’s gruesome end:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out;
Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good,
I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb
Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave.
I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—A Crimson River:
As Marcus tries to discover what happened to Lavinia in Act 2, Scene 4 after discovering her alone and mutilated—absent her hands and tongue—he uses metaphorical language to describe what he can observe:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Speak, gentle niece. What stern ungentle hands
Hath lopped and hewed and made thy body bare
Of her two branches, those sweet ornaments
Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in,
And might not gain so great a happiness
As half thy love? Why dost not speak to me?
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirred with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy rosèd lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—A Wilderness of Tigers:
In Act 3, Scene 1 Titus uses a metaphor to express his despair at the current state of the Roman Empire and of his own terrible, tragic circumstances:
Unlock with LitCharts A+O happy man, they have befriended thee!
Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
But me and mine. How happy art thou then
From these devourers to be banishèd.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sorrows to a Stone:
During Act 3, Scene 1, Titus is overcome with grief at the news that his sons Quintus and Martius will be executed for the murder of Bassianus, which they did not commit. Disconsolate, he begs and begs the tribunes for mercy, but to no avail. When Lucius enters the scene and sees his father lying on the ground and pleading to an empty street, he uses a metaphor to try and wake him from his stupor:
Unlock with LitCharts A+O noble father, you lament in vain.
The Tribunes hear you not; no man is by,
And you recount your sorrows to a stone.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Wash'd, Cut, Trimm'd:
When Aaron is captured by the Goths in Act 5, Scene 1, he offers to trade information with Lucius in exchange for the life of his infant son. As he recounts the evil deeds he committed throughout the duration of the play, he uses a disturbing metaphor to discuss the rape of Lucius’s sister, Lavinia:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Aaron: Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity
To that which thou shalt hear of me anon.
'Twas her two sons that murder'd Bassianus;
They cut thy sister's tongue and ravish'd her
And cut her hands and trimm'd her as thou saw'st.
Lucius: O detestable villain! call'st thou that trimming?
Aaron: Why, she was wash'd and cut and trimm'd, and 'twas
Trim sport for them that had the doing of it.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Body of Rome:
Throughout the play, there is a repeated motif that occurs in which Rome is metaphorically referred to in embodied language, as though there is a literal body of Rome that is in need of care, protection, and healing. The first of these instances occurs in Act 1, Scene 1, as Marcus encourages Titus to take up the mantle as the people’s chosen Emperor of Rome:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Be candidatus, then, and put [the white robe] on
And help to set a head on headless Rome.
Related Themes:
