Lavinia and Mogan's Connection to Outside Characters

Early on in our discuss of The Sport of Kings, it was noted in class that one of the characters in the book had the name Lavinia. This name has many connections to other characters or figures, for example if you search the name, the first thing that comes up is how there is a figure in Roman mythology called Lavinia. After reading more about Morgan's character, there is an obvious connection to another Lavinia in literature, the one from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. First, I will give a small summary of her character arch in this play, in the beginning of the play, her father forces her to marry on character who is then kill later. After her husband is killed, she is then raped and has he tongue and hands cut off, thus making completely silent. She then later gets some revenge when she helps her father kill here rapists, but in the end her own father kills her because her honor is ruined. This is a gruesome tale and this Lavinia just has a very tragic life.

Right off the bat, when we are first introduced to Lavinia in The Sport of Kings, she is Deaf and cannot speak with her voice, only her hands. She doesn't seem to have much social interactions with people because not many characters can sign, except for Henry, "Talk with Father if you want to talk,' he whined, and his aim was true. Her face slightly of expression, a white cloth ironed. But when Henry saw the sudden stony and monkish reserve that marred her face, he conceded. His father had only learned the simplest signs." (12-13 Morgan) She is basically silenced by her own husband, like how the other Lavinia is always ignored.

Also like in the Shakespeare play, Lavinia is raped. Unlike the play, it was not two strange men, but here own husband who raped her, "John Henry following her with her suitcase and pointing her upstairs, as though she were a child.......The high heat of rage flooded him instantaneously. He rushed the stairs like a bull, and for a moment Lavinia could only stare in alarm," (69 Morgan) Although these are only a few connections to Shakespeare, it is still important to note it. It can help inform us more about the character as well as give us a little insight into what Morgan's thought process could have been.