Violence Entertains

As we discussed how violent and gory Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus is today I was reminded of my visit to the Tower of London over the weekend. In Shakespeare's time, violence was part of the culture. Bloody Mary had wreaked havoc on the Protestants and killed thousands in horrific ways. I made the connection in class today about our readings from Spenser as well and what I discussed in my last post. The people of London at the time were living in basically hell on Earth and wanted to escape somehow. Not by dying necessarily but to take their minds off their problems by maybe watching a public execution at the Tower or as I discussed yesterday, looking to God. The second option is better in my opinion but what I'm getting at is I see how Shakespeare's bloody plays were so popular. People had the mind set of "yeah my life is bad but at least it's not that bad." They wanted to identify with the tragic character and learn from his mistakes rather than make their own. Living in this time, Shakespeare had plenty of inspiration for his plays even though some were set in the Roman Era. Queen Elizabeth was ruling England and did not have a successor to take over when she died. The same theme runs throughout Shakespeare's plays and that is how Titus begins. Another form of inspiration was the culture of violence I discussed earlier. When we went to the Tower of London we could see the massive lawn where people were executed and the people of London could grab a seat in the grand stand and watch the whole thing. There were many different forms of capital and corporal punishment and various ways to torture someone. The people ate it up and prayed that it would never happen to them. While we may not boil people alive today we certainly still enjoy violence in our culture. Sports are bloody and painful but I would pick a football game over public hanging any day of the week. I often have to change the channel to avoid seeing too much violence and and harsh themes because I would rather not fill my head with that, except for the occasional episode of Law and Order. It's interesting, it attracts, and I believe it is just human nature. Maybe the animal inside of us comes out or maybe we aren't much different from the people of Rome or Shakespeare's peers. Times have changed and the types of violence have evolved but have we as a human race? I sure hope so.