We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

Titus Andronicus Act 5, Scene 3 Summary

Read the full text of Titus Andronicus Act 5 Scene 3 with a side-by-side translation HERE.


  • At Titus's house, everyone has gathered for the much-anticipated dinner banquet.
  • Lucius, who knows Saturninus's promise of a peace treaty is probably a setup, tells his men to tie Aaron up and starve him until Tamora can be confronted.
  • Saturninus shows up. He and Lucius proceed to insult each other until Marcus steps in and tries to make peace.
  • Titus enters in a chef's get-up and places the tasty entrees on the banquet table.
  • Over dinner, Titus chit-chats with his guests, asking them what they think about the story of Virginius. (FYI – Virginius, a Roman centurion, killed his daughter in order to prevent her rape. But in the play, the characters seem to think that Virginius killed his daughter after she was raped.)
  • Saturninus says Virginius was right to kill his daughter because the girl wouldn't "survive her shame" (whatever that means). Plus, he says, if she lived, she would be a burden on her father, who would feel bad every time he looked at her. (We wouldn't want that, now would we?)
  • Titus says he couldn't agree more, then shocks everyone by killing Lavinia.
  • Tamora is all, "what'd you do that for?" Titus says it's Demetrius's and Chiron's fault because they raped her and then cut out her tongue.
  • Saturninus demands that Chiron and Demetrius be brought forward – they have some serious explaining to do.
  • Titus says "Why, there they are, both baked in this pie, / Whereof their mother daintily hath fed, / Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred."
  • (Check out how Julie Taymor adapts this scene in her film Titus. A word of caution – the clip contains graphic violence.)
  • Titus leaps up and stabs Tamora.
  • Saturninus leaps up and stabs Titus.
  • Lucius doesn't want to be left out, so he leaps up and stabs Saturninus.
  • With all the dead bodies littering the stage, Marcus makes a big speech about how Rome is an absolute mess and needs to be restored. First, though, Lucius should tell everyone about what Tamora and Aaron have been up to.
  • Lucius obliges, and Marcus holds up Aaron and Tamora's love child as proof that they are bad people and that the Andronici have been completely justified in their recent actions.
  • Everyone begins to shout that Lucius is awesome and should be Rome's new emperor.
  • Lucius promises to "heal Rome's harms," starting with Aaron's punishment, which involves being buried alive and left to starve. (Oh, of course. Let the "healing" begin!)
  • Lucius announces that Titus and Lavinia will be placed in the family tomb. Tamora, on the other hand, doesn't get a burial. Instead, her body will be left for the animals to devour.
  • The End.