Stereotype Hold True In Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

I love literature, because it shares the beauty of its language. Literature according to me is the most elegant medium of human expression. A medium so elegant, that it informs you not only about the characters being written about, but also about the writer, and indubitably yourself. Literature has the power to influence society, while simultaneously reflecting it.

Hidden in the pages of fiction, is often a lot of knowledge about the real world. One of the other reasons, I love studying literature is because I believe it helps me understand human psychology better. From all the characters I have ever studied, Lavinia and Tamora from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, are definitely the two I have studied in the most detail. This is because I chose to base my extended essay in English on their analysis, since as women they really stood out in an otherwise male-dominated setting. Moreover, the interpretation that I saw of the play in Stratford’s Swan Theatre represented the women as strikingly dichotomous stereotypes. Tamora’s character was a conspicuous depiction of the
‘whore’, while Lavinia was the ‘virgin’.

Since I had studied other Shakespearean plays such as Julius Caesar and King Lear in the past, I found this apparent stereotyping on Shakespeare’s part very surprising.
This led to me basing my extended essay on the topic “To what extent does the virgin-whore stereotype hold true in Titus Andronicus?”. After studying the text closely, and exploring the language, the reaction of the characters to different situations and people, as well as their general attitude, I realized that the stereotypes weren’t actually absolute. What I concluded from my study, was that though on the surface, both the women appeared to abide by the classic good woman-bad woman dichotomy, when looked at more closely, they displayed more qualities than just the ones associated with their stereotype. Both the characters were in fact, in a typically Shakespearean manner as well rounded and well-nuanced as people in real
life.

I love reading poetry, for many reasons. One of these reasons is for that quiet smile of surprise when some prolific poet manages to express your thoughts more clearly than you can. I read poetry because of the desire to come across quotes like “But he who dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.” by Anne Brontë in ‘The Narrow Way’, which make me realize that I always thought this way, but just never knew how to express it so accurately. At university, I wish to learn the techniques of the geniuses that write literature. I want to frame rhetorics as touching to read as “Why should I blame her that she filled my days // With misery?” or metaphors as ethereal as “Or hurled the small streets upon the great,” from William Butler Yeats’ No Second Troy.

Aside from reading, and writing, I am also very passionate about an Indian classical dance form called Odissi, which I have been learning and performing for almost 13 years now. Odissi has its roots in the Natya Shastra, an ancient treatise about performance of dance or drama, which gives information about all possible aspects of theatre. This literature today is also the primary source of my theatre Research Investigation (part of my IB coursework) in Sanskrit theatre. Natya Shastra, which came into my life because of dance, highlights the complementary bond between literature and other forms of art such as theatre and dance. The Natya Shastra illustrates that, through literature one can acquire knowledge about every other possible subject.

At university, I look forward to devoting my time to reading, and critically analyzing diverse genres of literature. I want my understanding of diverse texts to be strengthened through discourse with others who are also passionate about literature.