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.
The image of Rome as a metaphorical body missing its head is striking and grotesque, and it's an apt signifier of the empire’s current state of affairs at the start of the play. Following the death of the recently deceased emperor, the Rome of Titus Andronicus is caught between two brothers struggling in pursuit of power—over their country and over their chosen romantic partner, Lavinia. With this passage, Shakespeare signals that this play takes place during the decline of the Roman Empire, even if it is a fictional one.
Another significant instance in which this motif appears is during Act 5, Scene 3, at the conclusion of the play:
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproars severed as a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body,
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
Following the extreme violence and bloodshed of the climax, Marcus addresses the Roman people, pledging to help them repair their broken country through the metaphorical healing of the Roman “body.” By drawing this parallel between the crumbling infrastructure of the state and the literal dismemberment of the empire’s leaders, Marcus likewise affirms that the empire may heal itself just as the body may heal a broken limb.
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.
The image of Rome as a metaphorical body missing its head is striking and grotesque, and it's an apt signifier of the empire’s current state of affairs at the start of the play. Following the death of the recently deceased emperor, the Rome of Titus Andronicus is caught between two brothers struggling in pursuit of power—over their country and over their chosen romantic partner, Lavinia. With this passage, Shakespeare signals that this play takes place during the decline of the Roman Empire, even if it is a fictional one.
Another significant instance in which this motif appears is during Act 5, Scene 3, at the conclusion of the play:
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproars severed as a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body,
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
Following the extreme violence and bloodshed of the climax, Marcus addresses the Roman people, pledging to help them repair their broken country through the metaphorical healing of the Roman “body.” By drawing this parallel between the crumbling infrastructure of the state and the literal dismemberment of the empire’s leaders, Marcus likewise affirms that the empire may heal itself just as the body may heal a broken limb.
