The Tragedies Of Shakespeare
"Your noble son is mad —
‘Mad' call I it, for to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?"
(Wells and Taylor, 665)
In Act two, scene two of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Polonius
uses these words to inform Hamlet's parents of their son's insanity. He then
continues on, telling Gertrude and Claudius that the cause of this madness is
lovesickness over his own daughter Ophelia (665). From the privileged
perspective of the audience, we know that Polonius is mistaken and that Hamlet
is far from insane, but rather, "playing mad" for a purpose of his own. Madness
in Shakespearean plays, and in tragedies in particular, is rarely what it seems
on the surface. Instead, ...
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say his apparent madness is an act when he says "I am but mad
north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw"(667).
Shakespeare often used madness, either feigned or actual, as a teaching
tool or vehicle to advance his plot. Sometimes this madness was feigned, as
evidenced by Hamlet and Edgar (the legitimate son of Gloucester in The Tragedy
of King Lear), but other times it was genuine insanity. Ophelia and Lady
MacBeth are obvious examples of Shakespearean characters that have slipped into
madness—Ophelia due to the loss of all those dear to her, and Lady MacBeth from
guilt over the part she played in King Duncan's murder. In Hamlet, Ophelia's
madness ultimately leads to her demise, and this, in turn, plays a part in
Hamlet's willingness to engage in what will be his final battle. In this sense,
it helps advance the play towards its climax.
While Lady MacBeth's madness also leads to death, its focus is more on
teaching than propelling the story to ...
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and personal insight hitherto undeveloped. The
very privilege of his position as king had sheltered him from the real world
around him, and stunted any growth that might have normally occurred. In his
case, madness served a positive function rather than a destructive one. I
believe it also served to protect him, psychologically if not physically, from
the horrors going on around him—at least until he was capable of dealing with
them.
These instances of actual madness differ markedly from characters such
as Hamlet and Edgar, both of whom use madness as a cover to suit their own
purposes. Hamlet, mentioned earlier, affects madness as a ploy to distract
those around him from his ...
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