(no subject)

[pensnest]

Can anyone think of a character, fictional or real, who condemned his own son(s) to death or some lesser punishment? Or, famously ordered his son into an undesirable marriage?

Why? Because there is a line in The Mikado about "the Lucius Junius Brutus of his race". Victorian gentlefolk would have understood the reference, by our audience won't any more than I did until I consulted various online references (just now). I wonder if there is a more modern, more likely-to-be-understood, reference I might use instead?

Any suggestions would be most gratefully received.

Comments

[aralias]

i'm thinking... abraham (who was going to kill isaac... but... he was told to do it), or george iii forced the prince regent to dump his catholic wife for caroline of brunswick. but that's... not going to work very well probably.

maybe you'd do ok with generic bad dad - like vader. or lear.

[pensnest]

DARTH VADER!!!!!!

<3

[kaigou]

yeah, I think Darth Vader fits better than any other I can think of.

[kouredios]

Barty Crouch?

[pensnest]

He'd certainly fit... but I have to go with Darth Vader, because yes!

[mickeym.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of Abraham -- didn't he sacrifice his son, when God told him to? That's about the only one I can think of, off-hand. :(

[puszysty.livejournal.com]

He was going to, but then sacrifices a goat or sheep instead when the animal appears just before he's about to kill Isaac. That was the first thing I thought of too.

I think Oedipus' father also condemned him to die after he received a prophecy, or something like that. You probably can't use Oedipus though without the whole "sleeping with mom" implications that come with his story.

[pensnest]

I never much cared for Abraham. I hope his wife gave him a very hard time when he got home!

And yeah, Oedipus does bring up Other Matters, really.

[pensnest]

I thought of Abraham, but I suspect quite a lot of our audience won't be very up on their Old Testament stories.

I'm going with Darth Vader! Everyone knows who he is.

[fleurrochard]

Hm, Frederick I of Prussia - his soon, the later Frederick II of Prussia, wanted to flee to England with his friend Katte. They got caught/discovered and Frederick I forced his son to watch his best friend Katte be decapitated. He also threathened his son with the death penalty and put him into prison. (Not for very long, but he did and when the crown prince got released he got stripped of his military rank.)

[pensnest]

Not a nice chap, Frederick I. But I don't suppose he's very well known in Hemel Hempstead...

[hsb.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there someone who said that there was money available for anyone who could persuade his gay son into het marriage? I think it was someone Asian, or was that the chap who wanted to marry off his lesbian daughter to a man?

H

[pensnest]

Good grief. That horrifies but does not surprise me.

But I'm going with Darth Vader!