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Titus Andronicus and PTSD
Titus Andronicus and PTSD
Julia Mach
16 October 2017
Imagine your loved one going off to fight a war and not being able to see them for three
or more years. Imagine your loved one coming home, but they are not the same as they once
were, only a shell of their former selves. Now, imagine one night you are sleeping and all of a
sudden, your loved one is choking you because they think you are the enemy they fought
overseas. For some people, this is their harsh reality, especially for soldiers who come back
home filled with untreated trauma leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While going
through the whole process, writers, like Shakespeare, often bring comfort to people in showing
them that they are not alone in the struggles they are currently facing either alone or with their
loved ones. PTSD is a mental disease that not only affects the person who has it, but affects all
the people around them. It affects not only ones mind, but their thoughts and actions as well.
Although the term "post-traumatic stress disorder" was not part of the medical discourse in the
late sixteenth century when Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus, the play nonetheless accurately
portrays how war affects a soldiers psychological equilibrium, even the most senior of soldiers,
While the term post-traumatic stress disorder was not used during the late sixteenth
century, early attempts at a medical diagnosis did occur causing for signs and symptoms to be
recorded along with an equivalent term for PTSD. While the term PTSD was not added to
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1980, recordings of
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psychological symptoms date all the way back to ancient times (Friedman). This includes text
such as The Bible, where there is reference to soldiers being removed from the frontline due to
nervous breakdown in Deuteronomy 20:1-9; the first major epic, the tale of Gilgamesh, where
Gilgamesh experiences posttraumatic symptoms due to losing his friend, and in the battle of
Marathon by Herodotus written in 440 BC, where the first case of chronic mental symptoms is
recorded on the battlefield (M. A. Crocq and L. Crocq). Recordings of attempted treatments of
this psychological disorder, however, would not occur until The American Civil War in 1861-
1865 and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871, which is why Shakespeare only writes about
certain signs and symptoms in his works but does not talk about treatment. Yet, one should not
claim that Shakespeare invented PTSD as Deborah Willis warns saying, But rather than claim
that Shakespeare invented PTSD four hundred years before DSM-III, I will argue that the honor-
driven retaliatory practices which Shakespeare assumes to be pervasive in Roman and Goth
cultures allow his characters an alternative way to cope with the overwhelming emotions and
special understanding of what PTSD was; instead, he was only able to observe the reactions
people had when dealing with overwhelming emotions and tragedy. Even in terms of a name
given to this psychological disorder, one cannot seem to find a single word or phrase used
constantly in scholarly writings until the publishing of The Anatomy of Melancholy in 1651 by
Robert Burton. In his book, Burton defines the natural causes of being melancholy with the word
perturbations which he defines as, A cruel torture of the soul, inexplicable grief, poisoned
worm, consuming body and soul, and gnawing at the very heart, a perpetual executioner,
perpetual night, heating worse than fire and a battle that has no end. It crucifies worse than any
tyrant; no torture, no strappado, no bodily punishment is like unto it (Burton 299). While this
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may seem like an odd way to describe PTSD due to its poetic imagery, it is an accurate definition
of some of the signs and symptoms that military personnel have to deal with after coming home
from war. The word melancholy was used before perturbations but it did not define the
complete psychological disorder, instead it only focused on a person feeling perpetually sad. In
todays psychological world, PTSD is defined as, the development of characteristic symptoms
recollections of an event, distressing dreams, dissociative states that could last for a few minutes
or days which are referred to as flashbacks, intense psychological distress, dissociative amnesia,
from the others, no longer being able to feel happy emotions, diminished interest in previous
enjoyable activities, quick temper, verbal and physical aggression, participation in reckless
concentration difficulties, problems with sleeping, and dissociative symptoms with ones body
(American Psychiatric Association 275-6). Even without a fixed term or possible treatments,
Shakespeare was still able to create accurate portrayals of soldiers damaged psyche and the
While not all of the detrimental, psychological effects of PTSD were distinctly known in
understand how war affects a soldiers psyche, which can cause them to act irrationally and
violently. The play introduces readers to Titus through a dramatic entrance on a chariot with his
captives in tow coming back from war. Ms. Willis describes Titus backstory of war saying,
Titus and his son Lucius return as combat survivors, carrying coffins and haunted by ghosts.
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Their experience of loss is notably extreme. In the course of five wars with the Goths, twenty-
one Andronicus sons have been killed on the battlefield (Willis 35). While Titus is seen as this
very successful warrior, his psyche and mindset have become damaged by five years of war and
the extreme loss of his twenty-one sons. However, he seems to be of sound mind as he gives this
very passionate speech about his experiences in war including the many losses he had to endure
during it. During his speech, however, he seems to falter when he says, Titus, unkind and
careless of thine own,/Why sufferst thou thy sons unburied yet/To hover on the dreadful shore
of Styx? (I.I.89-91). It seems as if Titus is no longer talking to his audience, but rather is now
talking to himself about needing to bury his son. Yet, in the next line, he goes back to directly
addressing his audience. He also addresses himself in the first person, which draws concern to
his mental stability. When seeing the play live or recorded, often these few lines will be said in a
different tone of voice and with different instrumental music showing that something is not right
with Titus. In seeing this abrupt change, one wonders why it happens, yet Titus does not address
or chooses not to recognize it and the reader can even skip it if they are not paying close
attention to the text, play, or film. One could even speculate that in that moment, after having
brought up all those he has lost in war, Titus is having a flashback to his many sons dying on the
battlefield. Many veterans often have flashbacks due to some type of trigger such as an image, a
word/phrase, movement, a noise, etc. Flashbacks, as defined by the most current edition of DSM,
DSM-IV, as dissociative reactions in which the individual feels or acts as if these traumatic
event(s) were recurring. (Such reactions may occur on continuum, with the most extreme
Association 271). These flashbacks cause the soldier to relieve a very traumatic event and can
often make them feel like they are actually there in that moment psychologically and physically.
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Ms. Willis describes Titus mindset explaining, Traumatic experience irrevocably alters the
survivor's perception of the world. It produces wounds, physical and mental, that by their very
nature cannot heal, losses that cannot be recovered (Willis 52). No matter how strong of a
warrior Titus is, he has suffered lots of emotional trauma causing him to become mentally
unstable and most likely be suffering from flashbacks caused by PTSD. This portrayal of a
flashback remains accurate to the signs and symptoms of PTSD, while also showing how a
soldiers psyche can easily become unstable leading to irrational acts of violence and quick
tempers.
Titus mental instability is only made worse when he is required to fulfill a religious
ritual by giving his twenty-one lost sons one more brutal death in penance for their own deaths.
Willis describes the ritual saying, They require not only proper burial but also an extra death:
neither victory on the battlefield nor the capture of the enemy's royal family has been enough to
pay them back for their own loss of life. The survivors owe them another killing: the ghosts
would take out their rage on their own family if not allowed one further opportunity to humiliate
the enemy. Moreover, this killing must be extravagantly bloody, recapitulating through the
lopping of limbs and hewing of flesh the conditions of death on the battlefield (Willis 35). This
penance act is extremely violent and bloody which does not help Titus who may already be
psychologically stricken with flashbacks. This is why some people argue that Titus has his sons,
Lucius, Puer, Quintus, Martius, Mutius, do the sacrifice for him because he cannot bear to be a
part of the ritual. Yet, he is still the one who condemns Tamoras oldest son, Alarbus, in saying,
Patient yourself, madm, and pardon me./These are their brethren whom your Goths
beheld/Alive and dead, and for their brethren slain/religiously they ask a sacrifice./To this your
son is marked, and die he must/Tappease their groaning shadows that are gone (I.I.124-9). He
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cannot go against the religious ritual because his morals and honor as a soldier tell him that he
must do this final act for his sons. Current research being done by Jeffery R. Wilson describes in
abstract the importance of a soldiers honor and why Titus had to kill Tamoras son saying, The
culture of honor in the military can condition soldiers such that demilitarized veterans feel
compelled to seek violent revenge when they think someone has slighted their integrity. This
argument has its origin in an unconventional source: William Shakespeare's play Titus
Andronicus, which opens with the title character returning from war and ritually slaughtering the
eldest son of his enemy's empress (Wilson 1). While Titus honor as a soldier defends his
actions, his morals that have allowed him to remain sane during war do not agree with his
decision to kill an innocent life, causing Titus mental instability to worsen substantially. It also
does not help Titus mentally that Tamora is there to condemn his decision in the moment saying,
O cruel irreligious piety (I.I.133) and is a symbolic reminder to Titus of his wrongdoing, in
terms of his morals, throughout the rest of the play. Titus must also endure seeing bloody swords
once more and graphic details about the bloody death from Lucius. In seeing and hearing about
all this violence, Titus may become triggered either by seeing the blood on the swords or hearing
about the violent act of killing Alarbus. Soldiers with PTSD often have triggers, which can cause
them to have more flashbacks and become even more mentally unstable. As Titus psychological
equilibrium becomes even more unstable, his decision-making becomes irrational leading to his
actions being more violent which is seen with some soldiers who have been diagnosed with
PTSD.
As Titus psyche is further devolving along with a dwindling rationale for his actions, he
begins to lose control over these actions causing him to lash out and kill his son, Mutius. Before
Titus stabs his son, one can notice Titus becoming upset when he shouts, Traitors, avaunt!
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threatened by the fact that Saturninus, the king, allows for his sons murderers to leave due to the
king picking Tamora as his queen after Lavinia, Tituss daughter, would not have him. In being
threatened, Titus is put on high alert, as anyone would be, but since he has been at war for so
long, he could see this as a threat to his life. He is threatened even further when Mutius blocks
Titus path and Titus says, What, villain boy,/Barrst me my way to Rome? (I.I.292). Titus
does not address Mutius as his son and instead only sees someone blocking his way. He is not
thinking rationally and his psyche has devolved so much, that like many other PTSD veterans,
Titus strikes without consciously realizing what he is doing and kills his son. Most likely, in
blocking Titus path, Mutius causes Titus to have another flashback, which is why he calls his
son a villain boy and does not register when his son cries out for help. Lucius, another son to
Titus, then tries to rationalize with Titus about what he has just done to his son when Lucius
says, My lord, you are unjust, and more than so./In a wrongful quarrel you have slain your son
(I.I.294-5). Yet, Titus cannot rationalize this information due to him having PTSD causing him
to reply, Nor thou, nor he, are any son of mine./My sons would never dishonor me./Traitor,
restore Lavinia to the Emperor (I.I.296-8). Titus again does not recognize one of his sons and
instead calls him a traitor. While Titus may have some understanding that he is talking to his
son, he cannot rationalize the information due to not being in the correct state of mind. However,
within the next couple of lines, Titus is brought back to reality and once again seems to function
normally. Titus continues to have these highs and lows caused by his PTSD and he is not fully
aware of his instability because he himself does not fully comprehend what is happening to him
nor does anyone else. When two of Tamoras sons horribly rape Titus daughter, Lavinia, Titus
grip on reality is totally shattered, causing him to no longer be able to function as a normal
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member of society. He is once again at war and is willing to sacrifice anything or do anything to
win including chopping off his own hand, feeding his enemies their own sons, killing his own
daughters, and dying in order for balance to be restored once again, which in this case means
getting revenge for Lavinias rape and having a new king on the throne. This revenge act for
Lavinia acts as a container for traumatic emotion, enabling characters to bypass or transmute
major PTSD symptoms such as intrusive recollection or psychic numbing, while also helping
them recover a sense of agency, cohesion, and meaningful action (Willis 32). While Titus
appears to be acting coherently in creating his elaborate plan of revenge, he is still unstable and
is experiencing his PTSD in different ways that allow him to achieve his goal of getting revenge.
Titus himself recognizes his own madness to an extent saying, I knew them all, though they
supposed me mad (5.2.1412). However, he believes it to be part of the role he is playing to get
his revenge instead of realizing he is experiencing actual madness. This is a struggle that many
soldiers who have PTSD have due to not being able to fully understand their mental instability,
ironically because of the fact that they are mentally unstable. While Titus may not fully
understand what is happening to him, others do see it, such as Tamora, who describesThis
closing with him fits his/lunacy./Whatever I forge to feed his brain-sick humours (5.2.70-1).
Those around him know something is wrong with him, but unfortunately, those who notice do
not care enough about Titus to actually say anything or help him. Those who do care about Titus
lean on him for help instead of being his support system causing him to sink deeper into his
PTSD in order to get his revenge. All of this explains why Titus has to die at the end of the play
because unfortunately, he would no longer be able to function normally in society, even with
Lavinias rape being avenged. Like many soldiers who battle against PTSD, it can be a losing
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battle, if not treated correctly and with proper medication, because without it they are essentially
Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeares earlier works causing for this theme of trauma
to ones psyche and post-traumatic stress disorder to be shown in some of his later works as
well. In Henry IV, Part 1, Hotspurs wife, Kate, is complaining about her husbands regular
involvement in mortal combat and his odd behavior due to all of the physical fighting when she
says:
O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?/For what offence have I this fortnight been/A
banishd woman from my Harrys bed?/Tell me, sweet lord, what ist that takes from
thee/Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep?/Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon
the earth,/And start so often when thou sitst alone?/Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in
thy cheeks;/And given my treasures and my rights of thee/To thick-eyed musing and
curst melancholy?/In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watchd,/And heard thee murmur
Courage! to the field! And thou hast talkd/Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents,/Of
and of soldiers slain,/And all the currents of a heady fight./Thy spirit within thee hath
been so at war,/And thus hath so bestirrd thee in thy sleep,/That beads of sweat have
stood upon thy brow/Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream;/And in thy face strange
motions have appeard,/Such as we see when men restrain their breath/On some great
sudden hest. O, what portents are these?/Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,/And
These lines describe different parts of a PTSD diagnosis for Hotspur, including experiencing
traumatic events over and over, re-experiencing those traumatic events in his sleep, difficulty
sleeping, becoming more agitated, a general lack of interest in sex, isolating himself, distancing
himself from Kate, not wanting to discuss his feelings, hints at Hotspur having these symptoms
for a long time, and him not faring well in civilian life but still doing well in combat (Bennet).
Kates account is highlighting the main features of PTSD, showing off Shakespeares awareness
of PTSD during his time even without an official name for it. This also shows that Titus
Andronicus not only suffered from PTSD, but that it was done purposefully by Shakespeare to
bring awareness to what is happening to soldiers out on the battlefield. Other references to PSTD
can be seen in Midsummer Nights Dream when Theseus gives an example of how anxiety can
distort the accuracy of perception, and in Macbeth where Macbeth experiences several different
signs and symptoms of PSTD such as hallucinations and desensitization to violence. While
coming to understand how or why Shakespeare makes so many references to PTSD is difficult,
Shakespeare allows for many soldiers, both current and in the past, to accurately describe what
they are going through so other people may understand their own struggles and battles with
PTSD.
Imagine your loved one being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and
trying to help them through a process you know nothing about due to lack of knowledge about
what exactly they are experiencing. Imagine your loved one using literature, like Shakespeare, to
give you a glimpse into the battle they are fighting inside their heads. Imagine getting your loved
one back, both physically and mentally for the first time since they went off to war. Even though
the term post-traumatic stress disorder was not a part of Shakespeares vocabulary when he
wrote plays like Titus Andronicus, the play does accurately portray how war affects a soldiers
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psyche, even for the most senior soldiers, causing them to act violently and irrationally at times.
Titus goes through different stages of PTSD while also showing off flashbacks and the
breakdown of ones psyche. In doing this, people in todays society are able to come to a
somewhat better understanding of what their loved ones are going through in suffering from
PTSD. While many people may not look to Shakespeare for a better understanding of PTSD, it is
just one format in which people can come to better understand mental illnesses of the like. These
formats also give a voice to those suffering from PTSD who cannot give a voice to themselves.
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Work Cited
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth
Bennet, Glin. Shakespeare and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Extra. The British Journal of
Psychiatry, vol. 198, no. 4, 2011, pp. 255. Ovid, doi: 10.1192/bjp.198.4.255.
Crocq, Marc-Antoine, and Louis Crocq. From Shell Shock and War Neurosis to Posttraumatic
articles/PMC3181586/.
Friedman, Matthew J. History of PTSD in Veterans: Civil War to DSM-5. U.S. Department of
overview/basics/history-of-ptsd-vets.asp.
Willis, Deborah. The Gnawing Vulture: Revenge, Trauma Theory, and Titus Andronicus.
Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, 2002, pp. 2152. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/
3844038.
Wilson, Jeffrey R. Righteous Slaughter: Honor and Revenge in Titus Andronicus. Abstract.
Harvard College Writing Program n. d., n. pag. Harvey University. Web. 11 Oct. 2017.