Violence In Titus And Lavilleus

Humans are drawn to acts of a primal nature. Raw, passionate, and vastly entertaining; primal instincts have always been at the root of human behavior. Archeologists say that the first humans were found with spearheads embedded in their ribcage. Mankind’s curiosity will always be sparked by the thought of bloodshed. Just look at the entertainment we as a species hold most dear; violent action films, movies about war, videogames based solely on the concept of killing the opponent, the list in never-ending. The fascination around violent acts is understandable. Since the invention of society, the act of killing another human has been frowned upon by the rest of society. The contrast of the acts of violence to the norms of everyday life are hard

From prehistory to 21st century, violence and warfare permeate human existence. Tribes, cities, and nations have pitted their youth against one another in hopes improving their position. However, these Soldiers regularly fall short of maximizing their killing potential. In the book On Killing, Dave Grossman scrupulously examines war throughout recent history; specifically the human element in killing. His thorough assessment of the psychological factors associated with homicide is vitally important to individuals who wish to successfully lead their Soldiers during and after combat. Its ultimate value clearly visible in light of four major facets: the background of the writer, the general points of the book, analysis of essential concepts, and the insight provided.

Homicide always will be an aspect of life, whether it is in the 16th century, 21st century or in the future. At times of extreme stress, people may turn to murder as an outlet of a greater problem they cannot fix or control. Presently, homicide has a greater value in society due to popular culture references through the media such as television, film and writing; society constantly has homicide and murder in the subconscious. In David M. Buss’ findings in The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill,

Everyday an individual encounters an act of cruelty, whether it is physically, emotionally, or verbally. On the other hand, there are those who inflict harm intentionally or unintentionally on others as a result of being dissatisfied emotionally or psychologically. Such individuals become labeled either to be good or bad by society. However, a person as a whole cannot be good or bad; it is their actions that are vile. Similarly, in “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth reveals her cruelty through writing letters while, in “The Snake” by Ervin D Krause, the uncle shows his cruelty through his behaviour towards the boy. Thus, all individuals expose their cruelty through their immoral actions.

The book Titus Andronicus is a famous play which displays horrific violence, the book is described as a horror genre. Lavinia is Titus’s daughter which has been brutally raped by Demetrius and Chiron who are Tamora’s sons. The sons have cut off Lavinia hands and tongue so she is unable to identify the rapists, verbally or communicate in writing. The scene starts off with a disturbing entrance: “Enter Demetrius and Chiron with Lavinia, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out.” The word ravished is an oxymoron. It has two definitions, fill with joy and delight or to rape. The audience picks up the word ‘ravished’ as two different meanings. One of them is Demetrius and Chiron are enjoying the rape of Lavinia, while Lavinia is seen

The double revenge cycle of the play portrays an escalation in violence, creating an environment where the perpetrator seeks to act out something worse than they themselves experienced; thus, the sexual nature of the crimes committed against Lavinia are seized upon by Titus. Tamora says to Lavinia before her rape: ‘Shall I rob my sweet sons of their fee. | No, let them satisfy their lust on thee’ (2.2.179-80). This is an act of symbolic violence later echoed by Titus, as he says to Chiron and Demetrius that he will ‘bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam, | Like to the earth to swallow her own increase’ (5.2.190-1). The escalation in symbolic violence correlates to the increase in subjective violence; threats are fulfilled by violent acts,

Throughout this course we have learned that all people, no matter where they live in the world, are capable of committing acts of evil. We have seen an increase in this evilness since the beginning of the postindustrial society due to a variety of different factors. The ones that I find the most critical are caricature of the nervous system, evolution of legal systems, depersonalization, essentializing, restorative justice and resilience. Caricature of the nervous system plays a large role in how people think and act in today’s society. Our caricature emphasizes the dramatic features of events and how our brain sees them.

There is such a considerable amount of violence in Titus, varying in intensity and degree that it might seem hard to draw any firm conclusions about its impact. One can, however, obtain the idea that the violence within the play has a far greater impact on both the audience and the on-stage characters when accompanied by a rhetoric or language that either juxtaposes or reinforces the brutality. The way in which characters react to violence, evident through their speech and imagery, can manipulate our responses to them and instil either an affinity or indifference to their personalities. Titus' first appearance in Act I Scene I is an example of this manipulation. His cold, calculating rejection of Tamora's plea for her son's life, juxtaposed with the solemn, funeral rhetoric give us the impression of a character who can flit between brutality and normality very easily, and who demonstrates little compassion when doing so.

In an article, Dave Grossman argues that “Operant conditioning teaches you to kill, but classical conditioning is a subtle, but powerful mechanism that teaches you to like it” (qtd. in Lavers). Countless observations of the killer’s actions paired with some positive emotions toward the character, leads to an association of acceptance of the crime. This is marked in how, during the segments of vicious brutality in movie houses, Lavers asserts that “the young people laugh and cheer and keep right on eating popcorn and drinking soda” (3). Lavers also claims that violent behavior becomes linked with pleasure that results in a correlation between earlier exposure [to violence] and later aggressiveness (4). The outcomes of these situations effect are the rise of vicious moves, especially when after the television was presented in America, the amounts of brutality proliferated. Also, the arrival of greater numbers of vicious feminine idols as well as male killers like Sylar and Bateman in broadcast programming has corresponded with an increase in a destructive amount of crimes for females and males particularly from 1992 and 2002. The ever-growing predominance of brutality in the media exclusively delivers to persist this course, which will not stop to occur, if personalities like Bateman and Sylar stay well-known in current

Natural Violence in Human Nature Violence is often seen as a negative trait that is present in people who are considered “evil” and who commit violent acts in order to satiate their sadistic desire for others to feel pain. Despite of this, The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden, and A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki, are novels in which violence is depicted as an innate characteristic of humans. These novels don’t consider violence to be a negative trait of antagonists, and instead embrace the fact that it is present in ordinary people as well as others. The detailed passages of physical and psychological violence in both novels express how people are attracted to violent actions and show how people are mentally affected by living in constant

An exemplification of this is; in 2012 alone some 437 thousand people were murdered, and nearly one-third of the 5.8 million deaths in 2004 were caused by acts of violence Murders of that great of numbers are unjustifiable and violence like that is unacceptable. It completely proves that people are bad at heart and the reason some people may act good is because there is repercussions by by nature they crave being bad. With no reason to kill, it is because deep down humans are savages and some are held in the restraints of society.

Violence is a tool. Humans have possessed this tool since before stones were used to alter the natural world around them, and have employed it in every way imaginable. Mighty uses of violence throughout humanity’s stay on earth eventually called for the profound reflection upon our ancient tool, and many philosophers and thinkers rose to the challenge. Perhaps the greatest among them were Socrates and Machiavelli, whose ideas regarding violence and its ideal usage to us inspired countless other prominent figures after their respective times. Socrates believed humans are imperfect and fallible, and should therefore avoid using violence. Machiavelli on the on the other hand considered violence a useful tool in achieving one’s goals.

The history of human nature has been bloody, painful, and even destructive. Nonetheless, before understanding their environments humans used to kill each other based on their own mindset on the ideal of violence, and what it actually meant. Pinker describes narratives of violent acts from the past, that today are foreign to us. He gives us a tour of the historical human violence and how the violence in human nature has changed throughout time. The main idea from Pinker’s book,“The Better Angels of Our Nature ', is “for all the dangers we face today, the dangers of yesterday were even worse.” He provides its readers with explicit violent stories beginning from 8000 BCE to now, and describes how violence has evolved from a blood lost to more of a peaceful existence.

Inside of human’s brain, there are necessary neural circuits of violence and rage. As a species, violence was an imperative to obtain food, as well as protecting oneself and the group it belonged to. Opposers may argue that such violence is no longer required because today’s society is well organized and there are minimal threats to human survival, hence there is no longer a need for brutality. However, according to a 2016 article in Psychology Today, a psychologist reiterates that it is still necessary because “order in society is maintained through violence, meted out methodically by police and nations according to laws” consequently violence is enforced by the government to get their way (Fields). The psychologist also emphasized the importance of the significance that “aggression wired into the human brain” (Fields).

Pinker challenges the misconception about the amount of violence in the current period compared to previous periods in human history. Pinker goes on to utilize a background of historical evidence such as historical wars and the severity of punishments for crimes committed. In the past, minor crimes such as theft could result in a death punishment. Pinker demonstrates how punishments have become less violent for the crimes committed. Additionally, there appears to be more signs of human empathy towards others, aside from inner circle members such as family and friends. Pinker demonstrates how the reduction of violence levels could have attributed to media reporting, international trade, global communications and large central governments. Furthermore, Pinker’s theorizes plausible explanations attributed to Thomas Hobbes’s “Leviathan”, a wide spread sentiment that ‘life is cheap’, Robert Wright’s “Nonzero-sum Games”, and the “Expanding Circle” by Peter Singer.