Unmasking the Mechanics of Brutality in Titus Andronicus: A Žižekian and Girardian Analysis

Abstract

This article examines William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus through the dual lenses of Slavoj Žižek’s theory of violence and René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire and the scapegoat mechanism. It argues that the play offers more than a conventional revenge tragedy; it explores how violence is ritualized, normalized, and concealed through ideology. Žižek’s tripartite model of violence (subjective, systemic, symbolic) helps explain how Roman rituals, imperial power, and patriarchal norms transform cruelty into civic virtue. Girard’s notion of sacrificial violence and mimetic rivalry complements this framework by showing that efforts to restore social order through scapegoating often fail and instead escalate conflict. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how Shakespeare’s play critiques the ideological and mimetic structures that sustain violence, using Žižekian and Girardian frameworks to uncover how Titus Andronicus exposes the political and psychological mechanisms that render such brutality both necessary and invisible within systems of power. By analyzing key moments such as Alarbus’s ritual death, Lavinia’s mutilation, and Titus’s grotesque revenge, the article demonstrates how violence is not a disruption of order but a structural force that upholds it.

Through this lens, Shakespeare interrogates the cultural and psychological forces that make violence appear acceptable and even virtuous. The article contends that Titus Andronicus offers no clear moral resolution. Instead, it challenges readers to reflect on how violence is not only normalized but also rendered invisible and ideologically justified, prompting a critical reconsideration of how such mechanisms function within their own social and political realities.