Titus Andronicus’ portrays natural landscapes as facilitators to humanity’s return to primal or ‘dark’ urges. The forest, rather than an idyllic contrast to Rome’s constructed city, enables ultraviolence and furthers moral ambiguity. Invocations of trees specifically coincide with a character’s lack of agency or helplessness. Tree’s coalesce into the greater aspect of nature, with tree’s being stationary and inseparable from the ‘moral wilderness’ setting which allows such violence. Shakespeare’s moral wilderness, however, is not limited to the actual forest, but rather uses the tree/forest comparison to deconstruct other examples of agents and superstructures, such as the Roman city.
	
This censors Lavinia’s expression completely, leaving her without any agency whatsoever; she cannot even speak of her rape, nevermind act against her attackers. Lavinia’s subjugation is treelike due to her being a stationary, unwillful participant in a power structure beyond herself. Marcus’ statement, however indicates that her treelike characteristics do not originate wholly from he rape, but rather precede this action too. In Rome, Lavinia was a bartering chip for marriage without agency -- her arms were already branches, they only recently have been severed.
	Likewise, Aaron’s child’s description as a “fruit of bastardy” to be hung upon a tree as punishment demonstrates the sacrificial, hopeless characteristics of those likened to trees. The child is a negotiating tool used to get Aaron to reveal Chiron and Demetrius as Lavinia’s assaulters, being merely a useful tool in a grander scheme. This indirectly refers to Aaron as a tree, by associating his kin as “fruits” which stem from him, the father. Aaron, while an orchestrator of Titus’ downfall, is a dualistic prisoner of both Rome’s conquering of the goths, and human nature’s darker vices. 
The tree metaphor expands from characters brutalized by others, to characters which suffer from immoral impulses. Shakespeare goes as far as letting Aaron’s execution be a live burial, planting him in the ground to connect him further to his treelike qualities. Aaron’s metaphorical ‘planting’ entrenches him twofold; he no longer can attempt redemption, and becomes immobile to the corrupt moral structure beyond the constraints of Titus.
Additionally, the “dead trunk” upon which Lavinia is raped, Bassianus, furthers the connection between helpless characters and stationary trees. The raping of one’s future wife atop their dead body is a graphic scene to imagine. It suggests the most sexually submissive position possible for both characters, and the inability for either to defend against it. Rather than just being ‘dead,’ Bassianus becomes another submissive tree victim to those with power. Bassianus’ death and the subsequent raping of Lavinia expresses the ultimate form of subservience to a more dominant force. 
The setting of the latter action, however, introduces the wider metaphor which trees, or humans merely are a component of. While the rape directly takes place upon Bassianus’ dead body, it occurs while within a forest on a royal hunt. A hunt implies man’s domination over nature, suggesting the forest’s savagery is controlled, accessible, and detachable at will. The dichotomy between nature and civilization traditionally expresses distinct favor towards the former, with society being a corrupting influence. Shakespeare, however turns this association on its head; humanity believes it can freely leave its worst impulses at the door, and routinely engage in acts of perpetual warfare while remaining morally coherent. 
