Marcus Andronicus: The Steady Centre

Marcus is Titus's brother and a Roman tribune. He is the play's most restrained character: consistently calm where Titus is extreme, consistently political where Titus is personal.

His speech when he finds Lavinia after the attack is famous and controversial. He delivers a long, elaborately metaphorical speech about her wounds while she stands in front of him. Some productions play this as shock-induced dissociation; others as a kind of formal elegy.

He survives the play and helps Lucius reassemble Rome in the final scene. He is a function as much as a character, but a necessary one.