Two equally erroneous notions of love are presented in Shakespeare's plays Titus Andronicus (TA) and The Winter's Tale (TWT). Both are rooted in varying degrees of misogyny, but diverge significantly in their overall focus. The model of love represented in the OT is an end in itself; the play does not necessarily condemn Lavinia's treatment and plight, rather it accepts her situation matter-of-factly and displays her long demise with a detachment reminiscent of Tito's temperament. On the contrary, the marriage between Leontes and Hermione, despite being tainted by jealousy and paranoia, is visibly disapproved on all fronts. The chauvinistic king is ultimately repentant - his nature is disapproved of by all the surrounding characters and implicitly by the author himself - and an example of love in the form of Florizel and Perdita is considered as a counterpoint, providing an ideal standard for the purpose of contrasting underlining the defects of the old relationship. In this sense, the TA provides a problem (or set of problems) and the TWT provides a similar set, but with an approved solution. This distinction could be said to be the main component of their respective identities: a nihilistic tragedy and a romantic tragicomedy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The female protagonists of both works are ironically well-spoken and eloquent in expression. Lavinia is cultured, well-versed, and the paradigmatic example of a refined noblewoman. Hermione proves herself worthy and capable of making a valid argument against her influential husband. They are credible symbols of status. They are tall women to be demolished, knocked down and kept under control: the female equivalent of the tragic hero. The plays therefore proceed with dark, paranoid zeal. TA begins this process by opening with the conquest of both land and woman as booty; right from the start, it's a testosterone-driven action plot that emphasizes revenge and father-son relationships, with the women playing relative to the men in their lives. The plot is less concerned with enumerating any ideal definition of love; rather, it puts the story on the table without making any strong statements in any particular direction. Women are objectified without authorial judgment, and desire for both Tamora and Lavinia makes no distinction between the individual herself and what she represents as a status symbol. This blurred line in the concept - or acquisition - of "love" is seen in the conversation between Chiron, Aaron, and Demetrius (II.1.79-86):CHIRON Aaron, a thousand deaths I would propose to join the one I love. AARON To reach her! As? DEMETRIUS Why do you make it so strange? She's a woman, so she can be courted; She's a woman, so she can be conquered; She is Lavinia, so she must be loved. Demetrius' rhetoric and conclusion are presented in a matter-of-fact and self-explanatory manner; she doesn't miss a beat in bridging the connection between femininity and the corollary processes of courtship, victory and love. His tone is pedantic and the pacing creates the strange sensation that he is reciting something as logical and elementary as a catechism or a set of secondary school grammar rules; a syllogism. Aaron's response to Chiron is so full of pretense and naivety that it seems to mock the readers' thoughts. This patriarchal system is extended through Lavinia's plight, which chillingly illuminates the role and plight of women as perceived in the OT. Her passionate plea for death instead of rape and disfigurement elucidates several beliefs and value systems of her time (II.3.173-178): LAVINIA 'It is the present death I pray for, and anotherwhat femininity denies my tongue to sayO, prevent me from I am worse than to kill lust, and cast me into some abominable pit, where never the human eye may see my body. Do this, and be a charitable killer. In this passage, the princess's words reveal her dark awareness of the limited scope of her role as a woman in life. By his standards, real death is more welcome than the death sentence by mutilation and rape, which strongly affirms the value of a woman in the work. “…Their lust (or more accurately, the resulting rape),” he argues, is “worse than murder.” The oxymoron “charitable murderer” parallels the seemingly paradoxical choice of death over life, however diminished the quality of the latter. There is a strong indication that without her beauty and chastity, Lavinia loses all value to society, a concept of which she is all too painfully aware. Unmarried life is not worth living. In fact, Tito only keeps her alive for his own purposes, as the attack on her is an equivalent attack on his own honor, so for him she serves as a living memento mori; a human means to his vengeful end. Barring eventual marriage, there is no further function in her existence as a mutilated daughter, as a woman's usefulness does not extend beyond the roles of mother and wife. Lavinia symbolizes the extreme example of the woman who must be seen and not heard: she is literally deprived of her linguistic communication skills and physically robbed of body language (or at least of a significant component of it, hands being one of the most expressive tools) . after the face). As a result, Lavinia is promptly and dispassionately obliterated in cold blood once her father's vengeance is enacted on her behalf. TA thus shows the audience, without comment, a world of detached men and dehumanized women, the latter of whom are as valuable as their service in reproduction and status. In contrast to Lavinia's impersonal dismissal, TWT has more method behind its initial misogynistic madness. . Leontes and Hermione's marriage in TWT is directly contrasted with the ideal relationship between Perdita and Florizel to illustrate right and wrong. Where the former is lacking, the latter makes up for it with abundance. For starters, Leontes is written to be easily criticized due to the unsympathetic portrayal of his actions in the novel: the audience should quickly turn against him. His language is excessively harsh and, other than Paulina as his fiercest opponent, no male character will support his decisions. This lack of support from virtually the entire kingdom turns him into the play's scapegoat, albeit one placed on a social pedestal. One of Leontes' most biting and brilliant passages is bluntly misogynistic and obsessively convinced of Hermione's infidelity. He generalizes all women and proceeds to make pessimistic assumptions about the universal order: "If all should despair, those who have rebellious wives, the tenth of mankind would hang themselves... (1.2.198-200)" He self-pityingly complains about playing the role of a cuckold - "... your mother plays, and I play too - but such an unfortunate part, whose troubles will lead me to the grave... (1.2.186-187)" For Leontes, marriage is essentially a farce, an arrangement based on deception and lies to maintain social order for most of humanity, with men as the supposed victims of female cunning. Shakespeare bases this royal marriage on male possessiveness and the salient concept of property related to marriage. Male dominance is the mantra with which Leontes carries out the marriage convention and assumes it.