"Now, madam, are you prisoner to an emperor;
To him that, for your honour and your state,
Will use you nobly and your followers."
At the beginning of the play, Titus hands Tamora over to the emperor Saturninus as his prisoner, announcing that she will be subject to the emperor's will and demand. However, moments earlier, Titus had also "handed over" his own daughter, Lavinia, to Saturninus as his future wife. This quotation recalls that moment and draws a parallel between the two women – one a wife, and one a prisoner – who are both being treated as property among men.
"I'll find a day to massacre them all
And raze their faction and their family,
The cruel father and his traitorous sons,
To whom I sued for my dear son's life,
And make them know what 'tis to let a queen
Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain."
Early on in the play, Tamora vows to get revenge on Titus and the rest of his family. This quotation emphasizes her commitment to vengeance, but it also emphasizes her despair over having lost her own son. Tamora was embarrassed by the Andronicus family – having begged for her son's life on her hands and knees, only to see him killed – and this quotation raises the question of whether the audience should pity Tamora even as she remains a central antagonist.
"Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian
Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
Spotted, detested, and abominable."
When Tamora is discovered alone in the woods with Aaron, Bassianus makes this comment about the state of her body's "hue." Here, Bassianus implies that Tamora has degraded herself and her white skin by having a sexual relationship with Aaron the Moor. The notion that a white woman would be "contaminated" by a black man was a common anxiety expressed in early modern England, along with miscegenation – the interbreeding of people of different races.
"O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;
The milk thou suck'dst from her did turn to marble;
Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.
Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:
Do thou entreat her show a woman's pity."
Lavinia, in one of the rare instances in the play where she speaks, begs Chiron and Demetrius not to rape her by asking them not to behave like their mother, Tamora. Here, Lavinia associates pity and righteousness with femininity by asking the brothers to "show a woman's pity." Thus, Lavinia also implies that Tamora does not behave as a woman should, and instead acts more like a man for her cruelty and commitment to revenge.
"Why dost not speak to me?
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,
Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,
Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
Coming and going with thy honey breath."
When Marcus encounters Lavinia after she is brutally raped and mutilated, he launches into an elaborate speech about the state of her body. Here, he describes blood coming from Lavinia's mouth (after having her tongue cut out), but does so in a way that is markedly similar to blazons in Petrarchan love poetry. He therefore eroticizes Lavinia's wounds rather than providing any solace or support for her, showcasing how Lavinia continues to be a victim of male desire even after her traumatic experience.
"What shall we do? let us, that have our tongues,
Plot some deuce of further misery,
To make us wonder'd at in time to come."
When Titus discovers his daughter, Lavinia, has been raped and mutilated, he is overwhelmed and heartbroken. However, his sadness and despair are soon translated into a desire for revenge. In this quotation, Titus's response to seeing Lavinia emphasizes his own ego as the father of a victim of sexual violence rather than offering true care and support for his traumatized daughter.
"Ay, now begin our sorrows to approach:
'Tis he the common people love so much;
Myself hath often over-heard them say,
When I have walked like a private man,
That Lucius' banishment was wrongfully,
And they have wish'd that Lucius were their emperor."
Here, Saturninus reveals that the common people of Rome support Lucius, Titus's son, as their emperor rather than himself. He also reveals that he will frequently disguise himself as a commoner in order to walk the streets of Rome to hear what they are saying about him. This is one of the rare instances in the play where the general population of Rome is treated as a significant force, and the common people's perception of their leader as an important perspective for those leaders to know.
"O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee;
And, if one arm's embracement will content thee,
I will embrace thee in it by and by."
When Tamora comes to Titus disguised as the embodiment of Revenge, Titus embraces her with open arms, playing along with her charade. This is a significant moment in the play because the fact that Titus knows Revenge is really Tamora also means he is willingly embracing his enemy, thereby showcasing how much they actually have in common.
"Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour,
And now I find it; therefore bind them sure,
And stop their mouths, if they begin to cry."
Before murdering Tamora's sons, Titus instructs his men to bind and gag Chiron and Demetrius, all while Lavinia watches. The imposed silence on the two men is its own form of revenge, especially for Lavinia, as they were the ones who raped and mutilated her, depriving her of her own ability to speak.
"O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body."
After the deaths of nearly every character in the play, Marcus speaks about unity and healing Rome. Here, he compares Rome to a body that must be mended – a significant metaphor given, of course, all the brutality that already occurred in the play. Furthermore, Marcus echoes a common early modern English conception that a city (or kingdom, in the case of England) was a physical body, with the king at its head.
