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The Toxic Fruit of Revenge (Titus Andronicus)

The Toxic Fruit of Revenge (Titus Andronicus)

Last updated on: June 12, 2016 at 8:37 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Toxic Fruit of Revenge (Titus Andronicus) 2016-06-12T20:37:45-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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The_Most_Lamentable_Tragedie_of_Titus_Andronicus_by_William_Shakespeare_1611_opt Humans do terrible things and the desire for vengeance is powerful.*

Christians are commanded to love their enemies and do good to those who do harm to us personally. Jesus said:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

These are hard words, since violence calls out for justice. Justice is good, but individuals, you and me, cannot be trusted with the power of the sword. God alone has that power and God has given it to the state. A person might defend his family or his friends in an act of love during an emergency, but once the immediate crisis is over, personal vengeance is forbidden.

That does not mean it isn’t satisfying . . . watch a Hollywood action movie or listen to Kenny Rogers sing Coward of the County. Crime, especially violence against the helpless, sticks in our throats, makes us sick, and fills us with a desire to act.

We cannot safely do so.

This does not mean that justice must wait for Paradise, though perfect justice must. God has allowed legitimate government to carry “the sword” and though justice is blind in human hands, it is better than vengeance. Murder revenged is murder, because done from hate toward hate.

This must be said, but with caution. We cannot forgive for other people who are wronged or demand that they forgive. God must deal with the heart of each hurting person. I pray for justice, for the enemies of the people of God, and that the Lord will have his perfect and often severe mercy on us all. God sees all and judges all and no man or woman is innocent.

Shakespeare turned my thoughts this way in his very difficult play Titus Andronicus. If I was tempted to revenge before reading the play, I was cured by the ending. Ugliness happens so quickly to Titus and to his family that it would be unbelievable if history did not have so many examples of worse. We see murder, rape, and cannibalism all done in the name of revenge. Titus begins a nobleman and ends a madman who should have left vengeance to the gods.

The language is brutal, lacking the poetry Shakespeare could bring to most tragedies. Righteous anger or abused love can breed poetry, but not revenge. There are no noble figures and only the violated and murdered Lavinia is decent from beginning to end. Nobody gets a great speech because anger clouds minds. Schemes become ever more foolish and contrived, but they work. Why? As Rome becomes a snake pit of revenge and plotting, nobody believes what is before him, but sees subtle evil everywhere. Evil is everywhere, but it burns up all wit and cleverness for barbarism, bloody revenge. All of the hate culminates in horror that only a man grown bestial could contemplate.

Each character that seeks personal revenge begins better, more noble, than they end. Each plunges down into crudity with self-pity erasing even a father’s love for his daughter. Revenge cannibalizes the host.

One difficult character is the Queen’s lover, Aaron. He delights in evil and at his death only regrets he could not have done more harm.** We always wish that every bad man have complex motives, but some choose to embrace evil. Such was Judas who sold the Son of God for money and such is Aaron. Good people find it hard to deal with the man who sides with devils and so Aaron survives a long time. Even his love for his child is selfish because the child is his ticket to immortality.

You cannot invite evil into your house and thrive. Titus says to “Revenge,” “Rape,” and “Murder:”

Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee:
Welcome, dread Fury, to my woful house:
Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too.
How like the empress and her sons you are!
Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor:
Could not all hell afford you such a devil?
For well I wot the empress never wags
But in her company there is a Moor;
And, would you represent our queen aright,
It were convenient you had such a devil:
But welcome, as you are. What shall we do?

Titus gets his revenge, but it is a useless, ugly, ignoble end. The Queen gets her revenge on Titus, but only at the cost of corrupting her entire family. The Emperor gets revenge, but loses his throne. All of Rome is hurt by leadership that uses the city for their feud.

God save us. God save us from turning our good desire for justice into selfish hatred. God save us from self-righteousness that shouts judgment with no pause for doubt and no place for mercy. God help us if we are governed by those too embroiled in personal desires for money and power to seek justice.

God save us from revenge, rape, and murder.

————————————————–

*I hesitated to post this piece, since the day it will appear a horrible shooting happened in Orlando, but decided as part of a series it was not inappropriate for today. Solidarity with every soul created in the image of God who was murdered.

**Aaron is a “Moor.” If Shakespeare deserves credit for his sympathetic treatment of Othello, he deserves criticism for playing to prejudice with Aaron. Still evil men like Aaron exist in all races.

William Shakespeare went to God four hundred years ago. To recollect his death, I am writing a personal reflection on a few of his plays. The Winter’s Tale started things off, followed by As You Like It. Romeo and Juliet still matter, Lady Macbeth rebukes the lust for power, and Henry V is a hero. Richard II shows us not to presume on the grace of God or rebel against authority too easily. Coriolanus reminds us that our leaders need integrity and humility. Our life can be joyful if we realize that it is, at best, A Comedy of Errors. Hamlet needs to know himself better and talks to himself less. He is stuck with himself so he had better make his peace with God quickly and should stay far away from Ophelia. Shakespeare gets something wrong in Merchant of Venice . . . though not as badly as some in the English Labour Party or in my Twitter feed. Love if blind, but intellectualism is blind and impotent in Love’s Labours Lost. Brutus kills Caesar, but is overshadowed by him in Julius Caesar. We should learn not to make Much Ado about Nothing. We might all be Antony, but if we would avoid his fate then we must avoid flattery and the superficial love of Troilus and Cressida. We are fools, but our goal should be to accept it and not to degenerate into Biblical fools during our Midsummer Night’s Dream. Richard III is a symptom of a bad leadership community, but be careful that use Measure for Measure to guide your reaction to the mess. The modern university is Iago in Othello playing on our sins to destroy the nation. You can’t accumulate your way to a great leader and personal piety in Henry VI (Part I) is not enough to make a great king. God will save the King, not our stupid partisan squabbles seen in Henry VI (Part 2) and not kingmakers as existed in Henry VI (Part 3). Fortunately, in God’s world All’s Well That Ends Well. Two Gentlemen remind me that being in love is grand. King John keeps winning and so loses. Slander always gives way to truth in Cymbeline. We need patrons, but God help us if we flatter them and lose them as Athens did with Timon of Athens. We need good leaders and not have to hope against reason that one turns out well like young Prince Hal in Henry IV Part One. Being powerful is all fun and games, until it isn’t as Henry learns in Henry IV Part Two. Virtue can be jolly and edgy, as The Merry Wives of Windsor show. We can all be shrews and need The Taming of the Shrew. Pericles did not live in a Zootopia, his world was more realistic. No revenge lest we end like Titus Andronicus.

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