Children That Pay for Family Duty in Hamlet and Titus Andronicus

External Forces Explored in Hamlet and Titus Andronicus

Children often become casualties when they find themselves pulled into two different directions when it comes to family. Often faced with the responsibility of upholding honor in the name of family, they face challenging conflicts that hurt them. Two plays demonstrating this contradiction are Hamlet and Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. The perils associated with following one's duty to family can be deadly. Both of these plays illustrate how children "pay" for family duty.

In Hamlet, Hamlet's duty is to defend Denmark is interrupted by an incessant ghost. After grieving his father's death, the ghost tells Hamlet to seek retribution on his father's "foul and most unnatural murder" (Shakespeare Hamlet I.v.1). This conflict trumps any duty from this moment forward, becoming a proverbial albatross around Hamlet's neck. The ghost and his...
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