This chapter presents the central action of rape and the corresponding reaction of revenge in Titus Andronicus play. The play opens with a choreographed confrontation of opposites, which provides a highly formal structure to contain potential violence. Precisely attack in this play means sexual attack and these speeches glance at central event. The fantasy of rescuing a woman from various kinds of attack is central to the action of Titus Andronicus. Both Lavinia and Tamora may be seen as symbolic personifications of female Rome. They enact contrasting aspects, the pure and virtuous mother, threatened with attack and invasion, and the dangerous, seductive, threatening mother, from whom one needs protection. Revenge in Shakespeare's play is at its deepest level and oral vengeance. The defeat of evil Rome, under Saturninus and Tamora, and the reestablishment of virtuous Rome, under a new emperor, are the basic political and psychological goals of the play.
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