Family Relationships

Family relationships, or perhaps more properly, bad family relationships is a theme in this novel. These bad family relationships first surface when it appears that Gareth is going crazy not only because of his opium addiction but also because he keeps having hallucinations of his dead and decomposing father. It can be assumed that Gareth and his father were not close when his father was alive as Gareth is so consumed with a hatred for his father that it makes him want to destroy everything that his father loved. Gareth not only hated his father, but he obviously also hates Gwen as well. He believes that it is more important to kill Gwen because she has been given the rule, than it is to prepare the people in his land to face Andronicus’ army. Not only did Gareth not like his sister or his father...