Titus Andronicus, Act V, Scene 1

Lucius, leading an army of Goths against Rome, encounters Aaron the Moor who has been captured with his infant child. A Goth soldier brings Aaron before Lucius, revealing that Aaron attempted to hide the baby in a ruinous monastery. When the soldier threatens to hang the child, Aaron fiercely defends his son and offers to confess everything in exchange for the baby’s life. Lucius agrees to spare the child if Aaron tells the truth, and Aaron proceeds to boast proudly of his villainous deeds, confessing to orchestrating Bassianus’s murder, framing Titus’s sons Quintus and Martius for the crime, and devising the plot that resulted in Titus losing his hand. He reveals his affair with Tamora and acknowledges the child as his own, expressing no remorse for his actions but rather taking pride in his wickedness.

A trumpet sounds, and an Aemilian enters bringing a scroll from the Roman Emperor. The message invites Lucius to parley with the Emperor at Titus’s house, offering hostages as surety for safe conduct. Lucius agrees to the meeting and instructs his men to bring Aaron as prisoner, ordering him gagged to prevent further speech. Before departing for his father’s house, Lucius threatens Aaron with torture and death, declaring that the Moor will witness further horrors. Aaron remains defiant, expressing regret only that he cannot commit ten thousand more wicked acts, wishing he had done more evil deeds in his lifetime.

Titus Andronicus opens with the Roman general Titus returning victorious from war against the Goths, bringing with him prisoners including Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her three sons. Despite Tamora’s pleas, Titus sacrifices her eldest son Alarbus in revenge for his own sons killed in battle. The Emperor Saturninus chooses Tamora as his bride, and she secretly plots revenge against Titus. Meanwhile, Titus’s daughter Lavinia is betrothed to Bassianus, the Emperor’s brother, though Saturninus had wanted to marry her himself.

Tamora’s sons Demetrius and Chiron, aided by the villainous Aaron the Moor, murder Bassianus and brutally assault Lavinia, cutting off her hands and tongue to prevent her from identifying them. Aaron tricks two of Titus’s sons, Quintus and Martius, into falling into the pit where Bassianus’s body lies, and they are arrested for his murder. Aaron then deceives Titus into believing that if he cuts off his own hand and sends it to the Emperor, his sons will be spared. Titus complies, but receives back his severed hand along with the heads of his executed sons.

Lavinia manages to reveal her attackers’ identities by writing in the dirt with a stick held in her mouth. Titus feigns madness while plotting revenge and sends weapons with threatening messages to Tamora’s sons. When Tamora gives birth to Aaron’s child, Aaron flees with the baby but is eventually captured. In the final act, Titus kills Tamora’s sons and serves them to her baked in a pie at a banquet. He then kills Lavinia to end her suffering, murders Tamora, and is immediately killed by Saturninus. Titus’s surviving son Lucius kills Saturninus and is proclaimed the new Emperor, ordering Aaron to be buried alive and vowing to restore order to Rome.