Theme Comparison in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet by Shakespeare

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Vengeance is the common attribute of both the heroes where one is perceived to be right and moral while the other is regarded as barbaric and unethical.
Titus Andronicus is a war hero and a devoted Roman general who returned home after fighting a battle against the Goths for a decade. Willbern has expressed that this Shakespeare’s hero eventually evolved the act of cannibalism after indulging into a vicious cycle of vengeance and revenge with the Goths Queen, Tamora. Titus is barbarian in nature and his chaotic orders in the name of Roman goodwill had been too bad for his Roman empire . The sacrifice of Alarbus for appeasing the Roman deaths, breaking of his own daughter’s formal engagement and killing his own son are some of the actions of Titus, a coldhearted murderer that makes it almost unattainable to sympathize with his zealous and absence of humanitarianism and almost ludicrous loyalty for Rome. Titus character is barbaric, prejudiced and powerful and believes in Roman culture and customs that despite of Saturninus’ threatening to Titus, he advocated the crowning of Saturninus as the king since he was the late Roman emperor’s oldest son. Titus has been made a revenge hero by Shakespeare. The hero started out as a rule abiding and Roman’s most committed general who was on a quest to set right all the wrong happenings and injustice done and that set him on a destructive trail leaving him at the end questioning his own morality.
Prince Hamlet on the other hand is one of the most dramatic Shakespeare heroes in literature. Initially, prince Hamlet is characterized as a satisfied and happy man who is reflective, thoughtful and is very contented with his friendship and love of his life (Davies). He soon becomes a grie...

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...Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras are the other two important characters that show their love for their respective families (Chedgzoy). These children are the ones that have sworn to take revenge for the sake of their family honor causing extreme destruction and indulging great numbers of people in the devastating circle of revenge in this play by Shakespeare. In the beginning of the play, one could see Fortinbras to take revenge from King Hamlet as he defeated Fortinbras’ father. This revenge is an indication of honoring and avenging his father. Hamlet is again an example of the fact that to honor his father and to take revenge of his father’s killing by Claudius, he decided to make killing of Claudius as his own destiny. Also, the play demonstrates the father son love relationship. Laertes again revenged to kill Hamlet to take revenge of his father Polonius’ death.

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