Titus Andronicus (ca. 1593-94), Shakespeare’s early tragedy, is known among literary critics as the goriest of his plays. They attribute this feature to the spectacle of mutilation and murder that beset its characters. This paper suggests that the violence of the play is situated subtly in its language, and not primarily in the actions. The illocutionary nature of language makes the violence possible through the use of animal imagery and intertexuality. The case of Lavinia as the site of a disrupted homosocial relation exemplifies this violence.