Throughout Titus Andronicus, a play written by William Shakespeare, hands and tongues are reappearing topics that represent the action and speech of each character-hands representing action and tongues representing speech, respectively. Action and speech play vital roles when it comes to considering the concepts of gender and power and their relationship to the characters Titus, Lavinia, and Aaron. These characters in Titus Andronicus have an affect on the outcome of the play by using hands and tongues, and, therefore, Shakespeare shows how strong words and actions can be, even when used in remarkably different situations. .
Women play a significant role in, but not in the way that we want them to be played. Women are looked at as an object in Titus Andronicus, so when they do use their hands or tongue it does impact the reader. Shakespeare uses hands and action towards the beginning of the play. Lavinia kneels down to Titus saying, "O bless me here with thy victorious hand whose fortunes Rome's best citizens applaud" (1.1.16-164). This is important because Titus has the power to bless Lavinia with his hands. I would think that although Lavinia may be his daughter, it did not matter because Titus still had the mentality that he is in power. By doing this, Lavinia is showing that Titus is in power. She is showing her feminine side by kneeling down and staying silent although she is his daughter. Even so, this does not give her any more power than just being a woman in the play. She has no say in what happens because she has no power as a female. She is just considered an object, as well as every female role in Titus Andronicus. Sometimes this happens in today's society where the female is looked at as just a pretty thing to be played with. In other words, she does not have the power that a man might have in this play. We later see that hands and action continue to play an important role with gender and power.
