Another solution to avoid symbolic references would be to make the string "simpsons" one of the hash keys:

%family = ( simpsons=>{
 father   => "homer",
 mother   => "marge",
 son      => "bart",
 daughter => "lisa",
}); #deprecated maggie
$string = "simpsons";
@array = ("simpsons");
%hash = ("family" => "simpsons");

print("$family{$array[0]}{son}\n");
print("$family{$hash{family}}{daughter}\n");
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