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Family by Death: Stage Images in Titus Andronicus and The Winter's Tale Randal Robinson Trained by productions and informed by dreams, we can find, in the images of Shakespeare's stage, emphases, patterns, and connections that reside deeper than words. Reading the stage images of Titus Andronicus and The Winter's Tale, for example, we realize that these plays are strange but not distant relations, works born of the selfsame psychic issues. Consider, first, these visual patterns. In Titus Andronicus, act 4, scene 2, a black man and two white men relax onstage, laughing. To them enters a nurse with an infant. The nurse, a woman alone among men, shows the infant's face to the black man, with loathing. The black man touches the infant tenderly, but the white men move against the infant, and one draws his sword. The black man, protecting the infant, draws a scimitar, takes the infant from the nurse, forces the nurse and the white men to sit, and suddenly stabs the nurse, delighting as she collapses. Moments later the black man sends the white men away and, alone onstage, he cradles the infant lovingly. In The Winter's Tale, act 2, scene 3, a king sits apart onstage, talking. He summons and dismisses an attendant. Then enters a lone woman with an infant. Male protectors try to shield the king from the woman, but the woman moves to the king and presents the infant affectionately. The king looks at the infant with loathing. The woman defiantly puts the infant down, and the king angrily motions that it be taken away. When the king's supporters move, the woman threatens them, goes to the infant, and shows its face. She looks from the infant's face to the king's, as if comparing them. The king rages. The attending men pressure the woman to leave, and she reluctantly disappears . The king makes threatening motions against the infant and gestures to his chief supporter to remove it. The man, after hesitating , takes up the infant and leaves. The king orders the remaining 221 222 Randal Robinson men away, and they depart through one upstage door as the king, alone, exits through the other. In Titus Andronicus, in the final scene, an emperor and a middleaged woman enter. Then an old man in cook's dress appears and, with him, a woman whose face is curtained by a veil. The old man presents a dish of food to the emperor and middle-aged woman, and as the guests eat, others onstage are still. Then the old man and the veiled woman, collaborating, orchestrate the removal of her veil and the penetration of her body by his sword. As they harmonize their movements, they resemble each other onstage. The old man is missing one of his hands, and the woman, now seen to be young, is missing both of hers. Mter the old man and young woman have finished their movements, the old man stabs the middle-aged woman furiously , only to be stabbed in turn by the emperor. Moments later, after a controlling figure has gestured toward an infant that is either dead or under threat of death, a young boy kisses the corpse of the old man. Others then place the old man and young woman together in death, as if preparing their bodies for a common grave. The body of the middle-aged woman lies apart and alone. Attendants treat it roughly, with disrespect. No woman remains alive onstage. In The Winter's Tale, in the final scene, a king and a young woman enter together, directed by an older woman. Onstage, hidden behind a curtain, is a third woman, in statue form. The older woman draws the curtain and shows the statue. In their responses to this statue, the king and young woman resemble one another. Each of them, strongly impassioned, starts to touch the statue, and the older woman prevents each of them from doing so. The older woman then moves nearer the statue and all others stand still. Under the older woman's direction , the statue moves with life, descends, embraces the king, and then embraces the young woman. The king joins the hand of the older woman and the hand of an older man, making a marriage. Three women remain alive onstage. The movements of the men harmonize with those of the women as all leave in unity. These visual sequences show that Titus Andronicus and The Winter's...

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