Bodies
Of course, bodies play a pivotal role in the imagery of Titus Andronicus, as they are frequently torn apart, mutilated, and otherwise injured throughout the course of the play. The play is known as Shakespeare's bloodiest drama not only because of how many people die, but also because of how characters themselves speak about the violence enacted against their enemies. Many characters – including Titus – seem to delight in especially gruesome images of torture and death, a phenomenon that, many argue, reflects the civil unrest present in Rome. At the end of the play, Marcus describes sewing a body back together, limb by limb, as a metaphor for the healing of the state.
The Hunt
Hunting imagery – that of cunning predator and innocent prey – pervades the play, as characters attempt to seek revenge on their unsuspecting enemies. The hunting imagery is also related to the pervasive body imagery, as hunting is fundamentally a sport based on violence and killing. No characters embody this attitude more than Chiron and Demetrius, who compare Lavinia to a doe they will kill for fun.
The Pit
The imagery surrounding the pit, as discussed elsewhere in this guide, is notably disturbing and unsettling. It is described as a cannibalistic womb, a tomb, a mouth, and other vehicles of consumption that hardly make it a desirable place to end up. The pit is, for many characters, the ultimate symbol of death, as it returns its inhabitants back to the earth (or, in the case of the vagina metaphor, to the womb).
Lavinia's Mutilation
When Marcus encounters Lavinia after she has been brutalized by Tamora's sons, he cannot help waxing poetic (literally) about her condition. He launches into an elaborate speech describing her injuries in such a way that is reminiscent of Renaissance love poetry – even, not surprisingly, some sonnets that Shakespeare himself had written. He describes the blood coming from her mouth in much the same way that a Petrarchan poet would describe the red lips of an attractive woman in a blazon. In so doing, Marcus eroticizes Lavinia's wounds and Shakespeare, perhaps, parodies the very poetic tradition of which he was a part.
