ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Titus Andronicus dramatizes an inherent ambivalence in the use of pity in rhetorical situations, where images of suffering are powerful rhetorical tools for arousing pity, even as they are also used facilitate motives of cruelty and revenge. Pity in the play is key element in the dramatic and rhetorical contexts of the play's aesthetic of blood, and it is also an emotion that is tied closely to the play's interest in vengeance and clemency as contrary shaping motives in the construction of Roman piety.
