Beliefs and Their Limitations in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet

Abstract

This paper was originally written for Dr. Torsten Kehler's English 210 course, Reading and Writing Identities. The assignment asked students to compare the revenge acts of two characters from different plays by William Shakespeare, specifically in Titus Andronicus and Hamlet. The paper uses MLA citation style.

In this paper, I argue that both plays use their respective revenge plots to emphasize the limiting effects that commitments to external beliefs can have on one’s ability to reach personal fulfillment. More precisely, I argue that the protagonists, Titus and Hamlet, find themselves on roads to inevitable tragedy due to the fact that their beliefs in tradition and religion, respectively, impede on their abilities to explore deviations from their expected courses of actions.