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Definition of Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation, and that of the... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a character's understanding of a given... read full definition
Dramatic irony is a plot device often used in theater, literature, film, and television to highlight the difference between a... read full definition
Act 5, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Are They thy Ministers?:
In Act 5, Scene 2, Tamora disguises herself before approaching Titus in a scene full of situational and dramatic irony. The audience is aware of her disguise plot, as she announces her intentions on stage prior to knocking on Titus’s door. Although Titus suspects Tamora’s identity, he only questions her outright once and seems to take her subsequent explanation (that she is "Revenge") at face value—at least on the surface. When Titus plays along with Tamora’s ruse by suggesting that her two sons must be personifications of Rape and Murder, Tamora’s response introduces situational irony to the scene:
Tamora: These are my ministers and come with me.
Titus: Are they thy ministers? What are they called?
Tamora: Rape and Murder; therefore callèd so
’Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men.
Titus: Good Lord, how like the Empress’ sons they are,
And you the Empress! But we worldly men
Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes.
O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee,
And if one arm’s embracement will content thee,
I will embrace thee in it by and by.
In the quote above, Tamora’s introduction of her sons Chiron and Demetrius as Rape and Murder (named thus because they are the kind to avenge victims of those crimes) is an extreme example of situational irony, as they are in fact the perpetrators of such violence against Titus’s own daughter. There is further irony in Titus’s recognition of Tamora and her sons, as well as in his decision to play up his madness to confuse and frustrate her plans. Thus, as the scene unfolds, the audience watches as Tamora and Titus each attempt to sound each other out and trick their opponent, in a multilayered instance of dramatic irony.
Related Themes:
Act 5, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Will't Please You Eat?:
In Act 5, Scene 3 Titus feeds Tamora her own sons, baked into a pastry, as revenge for their rape of his daughter, whom he himself murdered moments before in order to mitigate her dishonor. This is a gruesome act of dramatic irony, as in the previous scene Titus states exactly what his plans are regarding the baking of her two sons:
Titus: Will ’t please you eat?—Will ’t please your Highness feed?
Tamora: Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus?
Titus: Not I; ’twas Chiron and Demetrius.
They ravished her and cut away her tongue,
And they, ’twas they, that did her all this wrong.
Saturninus: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
Titus: Why, there they are, both bakèd in this pie,
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.
’Tis true, ’tis true! Witness my knife’s sharp point.
When Tamora and the other guests first arrive at the feast, Titus encourages everyone to eat, claiming that the food may be “poor” but it will "fill [their] stomachs]." In the passage above, he again encourages everyone to eat and pays particular attention to urging Tamora to ingest the “food on the table.” The fact that Titus only reveals the gruesome truth of the pastries’ human filling once he is sure that Tamora has eaten her sons adds to the horrible, macabre, somewhat uncomfortably humorous irony of the scene.
Related Themes:
