Character Analysis
Esther's son, Royal, is the unrecognized son of Gabriel. He grows up without a mother or father (Esther dies in childbirth and Gabriel, as we said, doesn't recognize him as his son) and soon falls into reckless living:
Gabriel watched him run headlong, like David's headlong son, towards the disaster that had been waiting for him from the moment he had been conceived. It seemed that he had scarcely begun to walk before he swaggered; he had scarcely begun to talk before he cursed. (2.2.293)
While we kind of love the idea of a swaggering, foul-mouthed baby we can see that it's not exactly the best way to bring up a kid. And, the curse turns out to be real. Royal dies in a knife fight in Chicago when he's only sixteen years old. The real tragedy, of course, is that all this could have been prevented if Gabriel had just taken care of his kid.