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Individuals´ struggle to establish their sense of identity in relation to the family is explicitly demonstrated in Byron´s plays. The state can be regarded as a family on a large scale, and hence the dramatic protagonists´ struggle within a family frame directly reflects on their relation to society. The family in Byron´s plays is invariably fractured, and broken relationships among characters emphasize their individual dispositions, and tensions between them are so strong that it is impossible to reach reconciliation with these situations. This work approaches Byron´s plays from a sociological point of view as well as historical, in order to shed light on closely intertwined relationships, both human and familial, and thus it should suggest a new reading of Byron´s drama for not only scholars and students of Byron and British Romanticism but also readers of poetical plays.

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YOSHIE KIMURA obtained her doctrate from the University of Liverpool and is currently working for the Japan Centre North West, the University of Manchester

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