Titus Andronicus and the wicked streets of Rome

Abstract

Titus Andronicus is full of dichotomies: Black/white, good/bad, men/women, Goths/Romans, educated/uneducated (is a verse in Horace just a verse in Horace, or ought we to look for a deeper meaning?), whole/mutilated, alive/dead. The way in which the play represents the tensions between inside and outside is however particularly provocative. This essay explores how Titus Andronicus disturbs and undermines the distinction between inside and outside through its use of stage space, its evocation of early modern ideas about Roman architecture, and its deployment of coded reminders of the effects of the English Reformation.