or both Lear and Titus the lack of a female presence in their lives immediately creates complications for the two and their children that play out through the rest of the plays. As was mentioned earlier the lack of a mothering influence turns Tamora into a very dangerous enemy. She swears that she will, “find a day to massacre them all,” (Shakespeare, I.i, 449) and does so. For later on in the play Lavina is raped and mutilated as Aaron confesses to Titus’ son Lucious “t’was her to sons, that cut thy sister’s tongue, ravished her, and cut her hands.” (Shakespeare, V.i, 91-93) For Titus the lack of a woman is life has caused many horrific act and drives him somewhat insane “without another tear to shed,” (Shakespeare, III.i, 266) and full of laughter. Titus' laughter is the culmination of his despair and the onset of his madness. Grief has so ravaged him that he cannot express his pain in words. His beloved Rome, for which he has fought and for which he has lost twenty-one sons in battle, has become "a wilderness of tigers" (Shakespeare, III.i, 54). Titus has slain his youngest son and foolishly backed Saturninus. These acts and the ills of Rome weigh heavily on him. So, too, do the rape and mutilation of his only daughter, the executions of two of his sons, the banishment of the sole surviving one, and the indignity of having to debase himself before an ungrateful populace. That words and tears cannot communicate adequately his distress is evident when he remains strangely still after being presented with his murdered sons' heads and his own severed hand. Significantly, the torrent of words he poured out when he first beheld his horribly disfigured daughter and the volume of tears he shed are missing here. As if to underscore the loss in numbers and stature of the Andronicus family, Titus asks only, "When will this fearful slumber have an end?" (Shakespeare, III.i, 252).With h...
