La tragedia della betise: il

Abstract

Tragic hero is a noble character, who however commits one serious error. The Greek term amartia oscillates between an ethic and an intellectual meaning. The following reading of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus is guided by this duplicity in order to individuate in this tragedy a double device: on the one hand the ethic device, the one related to the Law (so, Good and Evil); on the other hand the strategic device, the one based on flexible intellect.
 How can we judge the terrible errors made by Titus? He has shown for long his blindness confining with bêtise; but is it possible to talk about bêtise in reference to a tragic hero? And how can we deal with the evil, which is embodied here by Aaron? Shakespeare’s tragedy underlines the relationship between politics and intelligence, even for what regarding the issue of hybridization.