Though This Be Madness, Yet There Be Mehod In & # 8217 ; t Essay, Research Paper
Though this be lunacy, yet there is method in T.
An essay on Shakespeare s usage of lunacy
The Tragedies Of Shakespeare
20 December, 1996
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& # 8220 ; Your baronial boy is huffy
Mad call I it, for to specify true lunacy,
What is t but to be nil else but mad? & # 8221 ;
( Wells and Taylor, 665 )
In Act two, scene two of William Shakespeare s drama Hamlet, Polonius uses these words to inform Hamlet s parents of their boy s insanity. He so continues on, stating Gertrude and Claudius that the cause of this lunacy is lovesickness over his ain girl Ophelia ( 665 ) . From the privileged position of the audience, we know that Polonius is mistaken and that Hamlet is far from insane, but instead, & # 8220 ; playing mad & # 8221 ; for a intent of his ain. Madness in Shakespearean dramas, and in calamities in peculiar, is seldom what it seems on the surface. Alternatively, both lunacy and the characters sing it are layered with significance ; like an onion, bed after bed can be peeled off, finally leting a glance at the nucleus concealed within.
Shakespeare s intervention of the character Hamlet is typically multi-faceted and complex Hamlet appears insane, apparently over
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Ophelia, nevertheless, his lunacy is feigned a screen for internal struggles, rooted non in defeated fondness, but instead in desire to revenge his male parent s slaying. Hamlet even goes so far as to state his evident lunacy is an act when he says & # 8220 ; I am but huffy north-north-west ; when the air current is southward, I know a hawk from a hand saw & # 8221 ; ( 667 ) .
Shakespeare frequently used lunacy, either feigned or existent, as a learning tool or vehicle to progress his secret plan. Sometimes this lunacy was feigned, as evidenced by Hamlet and Edgar ( the legitimate boy of Gloucester in The Tragedy of King Lear ) , but other times it was echt insanity. Ophelia and Lady MacBeth are obvious illustrations of Shakespearian characters that have slipped into lunacy Ophelia due to the loss of all those beloved to her, and Lady MacBeth from guilt over the portion she played in King Duncan s slaying. In Hamlet, Ophelia s lunacy finally leads to her death, and this, in bend, plays a portion in Hamlet s willingness to prosecute in what will be his concluding conflict. In this sense, it helps progress the drama towards its flood tide.
While Lady MacBeth s lunacy besides leads to decease, its focal point is more on learning than impeling the narrative to decision. While Lady MacBeth is ab initio seen as a cold, conscienceless, ciphering adult female,
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purpose on progressing her hubby politically ( by any agencies necessary ) , her character alterations as the drama progresses. Early on in the drama, she is full of aspiration ; so, upon reading MacBeth s missive, she complains about his nature and inactivity:
Yet do I fear thy nature,
It is excessively full O Thursday milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest manner. Thou wouldst be great,
Art non without aspiration, but without
The unwellness should go to it. What thou wouldst extremely,
That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst non play faithlessly,
And yet wouldst wrongly win. ( 980 )
The societal and moral lesson here isn T hard to acquire: excessively much aspiration leads to downfall, either through enemies or through one s ain scruples. Lady MacBeth s descent into guilt and subsequent lunacy illustrates this well.
King Lear, yet another Shakespearian character that goes mad, besides dies at the terminal of his drama, nevertheless, he differs from Lady MacBeth and Ophelia in that it is heartbreak that causes his decease, instead than suicide. Lear farther differs in that he, unlike Ophelia and Lady
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MacBeth, regains his saneness in the class of the drama. Unlike either of them, his lunacy is a accelerator for self realisation emotional growing and personal penetration hitherto undeveloped. The really privilege of his place as male monarch had sheltered him from the existent universe around him, and stunted any growing that might hold usually occurred. In his instance, lunacy served a positive map instead than a destructive 1. I believe it besides served to protect him, psychologically if non physically, from the horrors traveling on around him at least until he was capable of covering with them.
These cases of existent lunacy differ markedly from characters such as Hamlet and Edgar, both of whom usage lunacy as a screen to accommodate their ain intents. Hamlet, mentioned earlier, affects lunacy as a gambit to deflect those around him from his true purpose, viz. , revenging his male parent s slaying by killing Claudius. Edgar s motivations, on the other manus, are different ; by playing the portion of a chaos mendicant, he hopes to camouflage himself, and therefore continue his life from the fratricidal urges of his half brother, Edmond ( 955 ) .
The lunacy of these characters is presented in different ways: Ophelia wanders about, singing spots of off-color vocals and doing such
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irrelevant and absurd statements as & # 8220 ; They say the bird of Minerva was a baker s girl. Lord, we know what we are, but non what we may be. & # 8221 ; ( 679 ) , while Hamlet dresses insanely and plays with Polonius head, ab initio recognizing him as a fishwife ( 665 ) , and subsequently spurting insane sounding, yet carefully chosen pointed remarks. Polonius so, thinks Hamlet mad, yet at the same clip, notices the shot in his address: & # 8220 ; Yet he knew me non at first, . . . [ he ] is far gone, far gone. . . Though this be lunacy, yet there is method in t. . . How pregnant sometimes his answers are! & # 8221 ; ( 666 ) .
Lear s impermanent insanity manifests itself in odd
behavior talking to Canis familiariss non present in the room ( ”Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart see, they bark at me.” ( 962 ) ) , rolling about in the forests fending for himself, and doing flower Garlands. While this behaviour is utterly uncharacteristic of a dignified aged male monarch, it is this release, the freedom to fend for himself, that allows Lear to eventually achieve ego cognition.
Edgar, holding narrowly escaped the hunting parties sent out after him, realizes that every bit long as he is himself, he will ne’er be safe.
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To that terminal, he decides to impact the costume and demeanour of a chaos mendicant ( therefore get awaying sensing and about certain decease ) , stating:
& # 8220 ; I will continue myself, and. . . [ will ] take the basest and poorest form that of all time indigence in disdain of adult male
Brought near to beast. My face I ll grime with crud,
Blanket my pubess, elf all my hairs in knots,
And with presented nakedness outface the air currents and persecutions of the sky. & # 8221 ; ( 955 )
He noted that chaos mendicants throughout the state have provided him case in point, being by and large left entirely by townsfolk, though sometime pelted and driven out of town by those same people. All in all, it was a little monetary value to pay for the saving of his life.
Lady Macbeth s lunacy, about non a true lunacy, like those of Ophelia and Lear, but instead a nervous dislocation caused by guilt, manifests chiefly in somnambulating before finally stoping with her self-destruction. She wanders the hallways at dark, mumbling & # 8220 ; Out, darn 500 topographic point ; out, I say. . . . The Thane of Fife had a married woman. Where is she now?
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What, will these custodies ne er be clean? & # 8221 ; ( 996 ) . She farther sees visions during the twenty-four hours, ne’er at peace, get downing at the least small thing. Finally, she succumbs to the internal tortures and commits suicide by jumping from a edifice.
Whether existent or feigned, irrespective of the manifestation, all of these cases of lunacy serve a intent greater than simply being lunacy for the interest of lunacy. Each of these characters teaches us something, or, through their ain actions, causes us to look inside ourselves for some penetration. Victorian audiences expected every bit much, and the lessons and penetrations are, for the most portion, as valid today as they were when Shakespeare foremost put pen to paper.
Of the assorted devices Shakespeare used to convey these messages, lunacy is one of the more effectual. All these old ages subsequently, Ophelia s decease still wrings a tear, doing us to fume at it s futility. Lady MacBeth s self-destruction still seems a fitting penalty for her actions, while Lear s mental unsoundness, though impermanent, affectingly draws our attending to the inanity and grief of household feuds. Somehow, the great addresss made by other characters to beat up military personnels ( e.g. , the St. Crispin twenty-four hours address by Henry V ) merely don Ts have the
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same splanchnic impact as seeing a one time strong character in the clasps of insanity.
Frequently, Shakespeare uses the psychological facet of this to advantage non merely on the audience, but on other characters within the drama itself. Gertrude, for illustration, possibly more unfastened to Hamlet s words out of commiseration for his lunacy, shows compunction for her actions: & # 8220 ; Thou turn st mine eyes into my really soul, And at that place I see such black and grained musca volitanss As will non go forth their tinct & # 8221 ; ( 676 ) .
Shakespeare was consummate when it came to binding strands of the secret plan together utilizing insanity. Edgar s & # 8220 ; Poor Tom & # 8221 ; act non merely preserved his life, but in making so, it allowed him to compensate some of the wrongs caused by Edmond. Gloucester would non hold been unfastened to Edgar s attention after being blinded, but he was thankful to accept the company and counsel of & # 8220 ; Tom & # 8221 ; . As & # 8220 ; Tom & # 8221 ; , Edgar was able to non merely forestall his male parent s attempted self-destruction, but to snarl him out of the desperation and ego commiseration he was trapped in ( 966 ) . Furthermore, the character of & # 8220 ; Poor Tom & # 8221 ; allowed Edgar to be alive to duel with Edmond at the very terminal of the drama. Edmond admits his wrongs ( & # 8221 ; What you have charged me with,
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that have I done, And more much more. & # 8221 ; ( 972 ) ) , and efforts to halt Cordelia s hanging before he dies.
Ophelia s drowning, a calamity that would probably non hold occurred had she non gone huffy, profoundly affected both Hamlet and Laertes, doing them both to be eager to duel when a affaire d’honneur was proposed. This really affaire d’honneur was to reason with Hamlet eventually taking action and revenging his male parent s slaying.
In bend, Claudius would probably hold been more leery of Hamlet and have attempted to slay him more rapidly than he did had he non felt commiseration for Hamlet s apparent lunacy. Therefore, several strands of the narrative are interwoven, all taking to the climactic decease scene that ends the calamity.
In short, lunacy in Shakespeare, peculiarly in Shakespearean calamity, is ne’er what it appeared to be on the surface. It is ever a critical facet of the secret plan, interwoven throughout, holding layer upon bed of significance. Polonius was uncannily accurate when he stated of Hamlet & # 8220 ; Though this be madness, . . . there is method in T & # 8221 ; ; on a broader range, that really sentiment can be applied to all of Shakespeare s applications of lunacy, and non merely to the character Hamlet. There is a method
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and a significance for every incidence of insanity, and so, frequently more than one. Insights we might reap from an scrutiny of these significances are among Shakespeare s enduring gifts to us, even many 100s of old ages subsequently. This is a profound gift, and one to be treasured.
Work Cited
Wells and Taylor. William Shakespeare The Complete Works.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
