The Tamora Effect: Bad-assery that tragically leads to Death

                                      “Same old song and dance my friends.”

                                                                            - Aerosmith

 The character of Tamora in Titus Andronicus is a strong woman who doesn't stand by and let men walk all over her. When her son was brutally executed and her pleas to Titus for mercy go unheard she takes matters in her own hands. Thus begins the vengeance plot that takes place in the play. It is Tamora’s survival instinct and willingness to use her beauty to expose and bring down her enemies that ultimately seals her fate.

      Back in Shakespeare’s time and reflected in Titus Andronicus, is evidence that a woman is judged by her beauty, and what her body can achieve for the advancement of their male counterparts, and that once a woman is deemed useless, is quickly extinguished. Our example in this case is poor Lavinia, our friendly neighborhood ornament, and tragic pawn in Shakespeare’s topsy-turvy Roman world. Her beauty (namely her virginity), is held in higher regard than her own life. The tension between Tamora and Lavinia plays into the Virgin/Whore complex that still is going strong today. The history of American drama takes a page from Shakespeare plays. Some of the most famous American plays apply the Tamora Effect. 

In modern film and television, Tamora still exists today. 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman is a perfect example of this. The film stars Kristen Stewart as the virginal Snow White fighting for good, and the amazing Charlize Theron portraying the beautiful ass-kicking evil queen obsessed with youth. It is easy to see that Theron is the Tamora to Stewart’s Lavinia. Both the film and the play have similar plot lines, and both end in the death of the “sinful”, and the triumph of the “pure”. Both Tamora and Ravenna have power and don’t mind doing what is necessary to get what they want. This we all know, means that Ravenna has stepped into male territory, and therefore has to die. Both the movie and the play feature power plays involving fathers and daughters as well. 

            As for me, I personally always root for the Tamoras’ and Ravennas’ of the world because women should be allowed to flex their intellectual and physical muscle without fear of retribution in the form of ostracism, Cucking stools, rape, amputation, and death.