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Julia Mach

English 36000: Shakespeare

Dr. Mardy Philippians

16 October 2017

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in William Shakespeares Titus Andronicus

In act blank, scene blank, titus mind is weird, wrong. Give the signs and symptoms

before the diagnosis. What type of man offers a mother her own sons in the form of a meat pie?

It is such a man a five-year war veteran with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder

described in William Shakespeares Titus Andronicus. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is

a mental disease that not only affects the person who has it, but affects all the people around

them. It affects not only ones mind, but ones thoughts and actions as well. Although the term

"post-traumatic stress disorder" (PTSD) was not part of the medical discourse in the late

sixteenth century when Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus, the play nonetheless accurately

portrays how war affects a soldiers psychological equilibrium, even the most senior of soldiers,

causing them to act irrationally and violently at times.

While the term post-traumatic stress disorder was not used during the late sixteenth

century, early attempts at a medical diagnosis did occur causing for signs and symptoms to be

recorded along with an equivalent term for PTSD. While the term PTSD was not added to

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1980, recordings of

psychological symptoms date all the way back to ancient times (Friedman). This includes text

such as The Bible, where there is reference to soldiers being removed from the frontline due to

nervous breakdown in Deuteronomy 20:1-9; the first major epic, the tale of Gilgamesh, where

Gilgamesh experiences posttraumatic symptoms due to losing his friend; and in the battle of
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Marathon by Herodotus written in 440 BC, where the first case of chronic mental symptoms is

recorded on the battlefield (M. A. Crocq and L. Crocq). Recordings of attempted treatments of

this psychological disorder, however, would not occur until The American Civil War in 1861-

1865 and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871, which is why Shakespeare only writes about

certain signs and symptoms in his works but does not talk about treatment. Yet, one should not

claim that Shakespeare invented PTSD as Deborah Willis warns saying, But rather than claim

that Shakespeare invented PTSD four hundred years before DSM-III, I will argue that the honor-

driven retaliatory practices which Shakespeare assumes to be pervasive in Roman and Goth

cultures allow his characters an alternative way to cope with the overwhelming emotions and

shattering of self-structures generated by traumatic events (Willis 32). Shakespeare had no

special understanding of what PTSD was; instead, he was only able to observe the reactions

people had when dealing with overwhelming emotions and tragedy. Even in terms of a name

given to this psychological disorder, one cannot seem to find a single word or phrase used

constantly in scholarly writings until the publishing of Robert Burtons The Anatomy of

Melancholy in 1651. Burton defines the natural causes of being melancholy with the word

perturbations which he defines as, A cruel torture of the soul, inexplicable grief, poisoned

worm, consuming body and soul, and gnawing at the very heart, a perpetual executioner,

perpetual night, heating worse than fire and a battle that has no end. It crucifies worse than any

tyrant; no torture, no strappado, no bodily punishment is like unto it (Burton 299). While this

may seem like an odd way to describe PTSD due to its poetic imagery, it is an accurate definition

of some of the signs and symptoms that military personnel have to deal with after coming home

from war. The word melancholy was used before perturbations but it did not define the

complete psychological disorder, instead it only focused on a person feeling perpetually sad. In
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todays psychological world, PTSD is defined as, the development of characteristic symptoms

following exposure to traumatic events (American Psychiatric Association 274). The

characteristic symptoms of PTSD include having recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive

recollections of an event, distressing dreams, dissociative states that could last for a few minutes

or days which are referred to as flashbacks, intense psychological distress, dissociative amnesia,

exaggerated negative expectations, a persistent negative attitude, feeling detached/estranged

from the others, no longer being able to feel happy emotions, diminished interest in previous

enjoyable activities, quick temper, verbal and physical aggression, participation in reckless

behavior, heightened sensitivity to threats, being very reactive to unexpected stimuli,

concentration difficulties, problems with sleeping, and dissociative symptoms with ones body

(American Psychiatric Association 275-6). Even without a fixed term or possible treatments,

Shakespeare was still able to create accurate portrayals of soldiers damaged psyche and the

repercussions of it such as in his play Titus Andronicus.

While not all of the detrimental, psychological effects of PTSD were distinctly known in

Shakespeares time, Shakespeares representation of them in Titus Andronicus helps people

understand how war affects a soldiers psyche, which can cause them to act irrationally and

violently. The play introduces readers to Titus through a dramatic entrance on a chariot with his

captives in tow coming back from war. Ms. Willis describes Titus backstory of war saying,

Titus and his son Lucius return as combat survivors, carrying coffins and haunted by ghosts.

Their experience of loss is notably extreme. In the course of five wars with the Goths, twenty-

one Andronicus sons have been killed on the battlefield (Willis 35). While Titus is seen as this

very successful warrior, his psyche and mindset have become damaged by five years of war and

the extreme loss of his twenty-one sons. However, he seems to be of sound mind as he gives this
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very passionate speech about his experiences in war including the many losses he had to endure

during it. During his speech, however, he falters when he states, Titus, unkind and careless of

thine own,/Why sufferst thou thy sons unburied yet/To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?

(I.I.89-91). Here Titus longer talks to his audience, but rather is now talking to himself about

needing to bury his son. Yet, in the next line, he goes back to directly addressing his audience.

He also addresses himself in the first person, which draws concern for his mental stability. When

seeing the play live or recorded, often these few lines will be said in a different tone of voice and

with different instrumental music showing that something is not right with Titus. In seeing this

abrupt change, one wonders why it happens, yet Titus does not address or chooses not to

recognize it, none of the other characters seem to notice the sudden change, and the reader can

even skip it if they are not paying close attention to the text, live reenactment, or film. One could

even speculate that in that moment, after having brought up all those he has lost in war, Titus is

having a flashback to his many sons dying on the battlefield. Many veterans often have

flashbacks due to some type of trigger such as an image, a word/phrase, movement, a noise, etc.

Flashbacks, as defined by the most current edition of DSM, DSM-IV, are dissociative reactions

in which the individual feels or acts as if these traumatic event(s) were recurring. (Such reactions

may occur on continuum, with the most extreme expression being a complete loss of awareness

of present surroundings) (American Psychiatric Association 271). These flashbacks cause the

soldier to relieve a very traumatic event and can often make them feel like they are actually there

in that moment psychologically and physically. Ms. Willis describes Titus mindset explaining,

Traumatic experience irrevocably alters the survivor's perception of the world. It produces

wounds, physical and mental, that by their very nature cannot heal, losses that cannot be

recovered (Willis 52). No matter how strong of a warrior Titus is, he has suffered lots of
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emotional trauma causing him to become mentally unstable and most likely be suffering from

flashbacks caused by PTSD. This portrayal of a flashback remains accurate to the signs and

symptoms of PTSD, while also showing how a soldiers psyche can easily become unstable

leading to irrational acts of violence and quick tempers.

Titus mental instability is only made worse when he is required to fulfill a religious

ritual by giving his twenty-one lost sons one more brutal death in penance for their own deaths.

Willis describes the ritual saying, They require not only proper burial but also an extra death:

neither victory on the battlefield nor the capture of the enemy's royal family has been enough to

pay them back for their own loss of life. The survivors owe them another killing: the ghosts

would take out their rage on their own family if not allowed one further opportunity to humiliate

the enemy. Moreover, this killing must be extravagantly bloody, recapitulating through the

lopping of limbs and hewing of flesh the conditions of death on the battlefield (Willis 35). This

penance act is extremely violent and bloody which does not help Titus who may already be

psychologically stricken with flashbacks. This is why some people argue that Titus has his sons,

Lucius, Puer, Quintus, Martius, Mutius, do the sacrifice for him because he cannot bear to be a

part of the ritual. Yet, he is still the one who condemns Tamoras oldest son, Alarbus, in saying,

Patient yourself, madm, and pardon me. / These are their brethren whom your Goths

beheld/Alive and dead, and for their brethren slain/religiously they ask a sacrifice. / To this your

son is marked, and die he must / Tappease their groaning shadows that are gone (1.1.124-9).

He cannot go against the religious ritual because his morals and honor as a soldier tell him that

he must do this final act for his sons. Current research being done by Jeffery R. Wilson describes

in his abstract the importance of a soldiers honor and why Titus had to kill Tamoras son saying,

The culture of honor in the military can condition soldiers such that demilitarized veterans feel
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compelled to seek violent revenge when they think someone has slighted their integrity. This

argument has its origin in an unconventional source: William Shakespeare's play Titus

Andronicus, which opens with the title character returning from war and ritually slaughtering the

eldest son of his enemy's empress (Wilson 1). While Titus honor as a soldier defends his

actions, his morals that have allowed him to remain sane during war do not agree with his

decision to kill an innocent life, causing Titus mental instability to worsen substantially. It also

does not help Titus mentally that Tamora is there to condemn his decision in the moment saying,

O cruel irreligious piety (1.1.133) and is a symbolic reminder to Titus of his wrongdoing, in

terms of his morals, throughout the rest of the play. Titus must also endure seeing bloody swords

once more and hearing graphic details about the bloody death from Lucius, his son. In seeing and

hearing about all this violence, Titus may become triggered either by seeing the blood on the

swords or hearing about the violent act of killing Alarbus. Soldiers with PTSD often have

triggers, which can cause them to have more flashbacks and become even more mentally

unstable. As Titus psychological equilibrium becomes even more unstable, his decision-making

becomes irrational leading to his actions being more violent which is seen with some soldiers

who have been diagnosed with PTSD.

As Titus psyche is further devolving along with a dwindling rationale for his actions, he

begins to lose control over these actions causing him to lash out and kill his son, Mutius. Before

Titus stabs his son, one can notice Titus becoming upset when he shouts, Traitors, avaunt!

Where is the Emperors guard? / Treason, my lord! Lavinia is surprised (1.1.285-6). Titus is

threatened by the fact that Saturninus, the king, allows for his sons murderers to leave due to the

King picking Tamora, as his queen - after Lavinia, Tituss daughter, would not have him. In

being threatened, Titus is put on high alert, as anyone would be, but since he has been at war for
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so long, he could see this as a threat to his life. He is threatened even further when Mutius blocks

Titus path and Titus says, What, villain boy, / Barrst me my way to Rome? (1.1.292). Titus

does not address Mutius as his son and instead only sees someone blocking his way. He is not

thinking rationally and his psyche has devolved so much, that like many other PTSD veterans,

Titus strikes without consciously realizing what he is doing and kills his son. Most likely, in

blocking Titus path, Mutius causes Titus to have another flashback, which is why he calls his

son a villain boy and does not register when his son cries out for help. Lucius, another son to

Titus, then tries to rationalize with Titus about what he has just done to his son when Lucius

says, My lord, you are unjust, and more than so. / In a wrongful quarrel you have slain your

son (1.1.294-5). Yet, Titus cannot rationalize this information due to him having PTSD causing

him to reply, Nor thou, nor he, are any son of mine. / My sons would never dishonor me. /

Traitor, restore Lavinia to the Emperor (1.1.296-8). Titus again does not recognize one of his

sons and instead calls him a traitor. While Titus may have some understanding that he is

talking to his son, he cannot rationalize the information due to not being in the correct state of

mind. However, within the next couple of lines, Titus is brought back to reality and once again

seems to function normally. Titus continues to have these highs and lows caused by his PTSD

and he is not fully aware of his instability because he himself does not fully comprehend what is

happening to him nor does anyone else. When two of Tamoras sons horribly rape Titus

daughter, Lavinia, Titus grip on reality is completely shattered, causing him to no longer be able

to function as a normal member of society. He is once again at war and is willing to sacrifice

anything or do anything to win including chopping off his own hand, feeding his enemies their

own sons, killing his own daughters, and dying in order for balance to be restored once again,

which in this case means getting revenge for Lavinias rape and having a new king on the throne.
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This revenge act for Lavinia acts as a container for traumatic emotion, enabling characters to

bypass or transmute major PTSD symptoms such as intrusive recollection or psychic numbing,

while also helping them recover a sense of agency, cohesion, and meaningful action (Willis 32).

While Titus appears to be acting coherently in creating his elaborate plan of revenge, he is still

unstable and is experiencing his PTSD in different ways that allow him to achieve his goal of

getting revenge. Titus himself recognizes his own madness to an extent saying, I knew them all,

though they supposed me mad (5.2.1412). However, he believes it to be part of the role he is

playing to get his revenge instead of realizing he is experiencing actual madness. This is a

struggle that many soldiers who have PTSD have due to not being able to fully understand their

mental instability, ironically because of the fact that they are mentally unstable. While Titus may

not fully understand what is happening to him, others do see it, such as Tamora, who describes

Titus state of mind saying, This closing with him fits his / lunacy. / Whatever I forge to feed

his brain-sick humours (5.2.70-1). Those around him know something is wrong with him, but

unfortunately, those who notice do not care enough about Titus to actually say anything or help

him. Those who do care about Titus lean on him for help instead of being his support system

causing him to sink deeper into his PTSD in order to get his revenge. All of this explains why

Titus has to die at the end of the play because unfortunately, he would no longer be able to

function normally in society, even with Lavinias rape being avenged. Like many soldiers who

battle against PTSD, it can be a losing battle, if not treated correctly and with proper medication,

because without it they are essentially a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.

Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeares earlier works causing for this theme of trauma

to ones psyche and post-traumatic stress disorder to be shown in some of his later works as

well. In Henry IV, Part 1, Hotspurs wife, Kate, is complaining about her husbands regular
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involvement in mortal combat and his odd behavior due to all of the physical fighting when she

says:

O, my good lord, why are you thus alone? / For what offence have I this fortnight been /

A banishd woman from my Harrys bed? / Tell me, sweet lord, what ist that takes from

thee / Thy stomach, pleasure and thy golden sleep? / Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon

the earth, / And start so often when thou sitst alone? / Why hast thou lost the fresh blood

in thy cheeks; / And given my treasures and my rights of thee / To thick-eyed musing and

curst melancholy? / In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watchd, / And heard thee

murmur tales of iron wars; / Speak terms of manage [horsemanship] to thy bounding

steed; / Cry Courage! to the field! And thou hast talkd / Of sallies and retires, of

trenches, tents, / Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets, / Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, /

Of prisoners ransom and of soldiers slain, / And all the currents of a heady fight. / Thy

spirit within thee hath been so at war, / And thus hath so bestirrd thee in thy sleep, / That

beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow / Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream; / And

in thy face strange motions have appeard, / Such as we see when men restrain their

breath / On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these? / Some heavy business

hath my lord in hand, / And I must know it, else he loves me not (2.4.28-55).

These lines describe different parts of a PTSD diagnosis for Hotspur, including experiencing

traumatic events over and over, re-experiencing those traumatic events in his sleep, difficulty

sleeping, becoming more agitated, a general lack of interest in sex, isolating himself, distancing

himself from Kate, not wanting to discuss his feelings, hints at Hotspur having these symptoms

for a long time, and him not faring well in civilian life but still doing well in combat (Bennet).

Kates account is highlighting the main features of PTSD, showing off Shakespeares awareness
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of PTSD during his time even without an official name for it. This also shows that Titus

Andronicus not only suffered from PTSD, but that it was done purposefully by Shakespeare to

bring awareness to what is happening to soldiers out on the battlefield. Other references to PSTD

can be seen in Midsummer Nights Dream when Theseus gives an example of how anxiety can

distort the accuracy of perception, and in Macbeth where Macbeth experiences several different

signs and symptoms of PSTD such as hallucinations and desensitization to violence. While

coming to understand how or why Shakespeare makes so many references to post-traumatic

stress disorder is difficult, learning how to make a meat pie made up of your enemys sons is

significantly less difficult.

Add signs and symptoms to the end to loop back to the beginning of the play. Even

though the term post-traumatic stress disorder was not a part of William Shakespeares

vocabulary when he wrote plays like Titus Andronicus, the play does accurately portray how war

affects a soldiers psyche, even for the most senior soldiers, causing them to act violently and

irrationally at times. Titus goes through different stages of PTSD while also showing off

flashbacks and the breakdown of ones psyche. In doing this, people in todays society are able

to come to a somewhat better understanding of what their loved ones are going through in

suffering from PTSD. While many people may not look to Shakespeare for a better

understanding of PTSD, it is just one format in which people can come to better understand

mental illnesses of the like. These formats also give a voice to those suffering from PTSD who

cannot give a voice to themselves.

-titus not the only one suffering from PTSD

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Work Cited

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth

Edition. American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013.

Bennet, Glin. Shakespeare and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Extra. The British Journal of

Psychiatry, vol. 198, no. 4, 2011, pp. 255. Ovid, doi: 10.1192/bjp.198.4.255.

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. London: G. Bell, 1920.

Crocq, Marc-Antoine, and Louis Crocq. From Shell Shock and War Neurosis to Posttraumatic

Stress Disorder: A History of Psychotraumatology. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience

2.1, vol. 2, no. 1, 1 March. 2000, pp. 4755. PubMed. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

articles/PMC3181586/.

Friedman, Matthew J. History of PTSD in Veterans: Civil War to DSM-5. U.S. Department of

Veterans Affairs. (2017): n. pag. Print. www.ptsd.va.gov/public/ptsd-

overview/basics/history-of-ptsd-vets.asp.

Willis, Deborah. The Gnawing Vulture: Revenge, Trauma Theory, and Titus Andronicus.

Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 1, 2002, pp. 2152. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/

3844038.

Wilson, Jeffrey R. Righteous Slaughter: Honor and Revenge in Titus Andronicus. Abstract.

Harvard College Writing Program n. d., n. pag. Harvey University. Web. 11 Oct. 2017.