Madness in Macbeth and Hamlet

A detailed Summary of Madness in Macbeth and Hamlet

Did you ever ask yourself, have we all gone mad? It seems that in our time confusion, disorder, and madness seem to reign chaotically throughout the world. Then, we seem to look at ourselves and wonder, who really is mad? The people around us are so diverse that we sometimes forget what normal is and we falsely accuse others of being insane. The presence of madness is also a very integral part of some great literary works. Shakespeare, for example, used several "mad" characters in his brilliant plays Hamlet and Macbeth. In the writings, the reader has to decide who really is mad and how far "off the deep end" did they go. The use of madness illustrates to the reader that even in earlier times people were considered to be "sick in the mind." As further illustrated, the presence of madness is quite evident and plays a strong role in the formation of the plot in Shakespeare's writings of Hamlet and Macbeth.

It is evident that in both Hamlet and Macbeth, there is proof of madness in some of the minor characters. The issue of madness in any form of writing shows the reader that there must be something plaguing the characters to make them act so foolishly. In Hamlet, this foolish person would be the

many would say, "mad". She enters into the room and begins to sing and respond to everyone with a different verse. Then she sings, "You must sing "A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a." O' how the wheel becomes it!" (H4.5.170-171) This display of childish singing shows that Ophilia is distressed because of her fathers death and she can not handle the shock. She leaves the scene and the play by saying, "And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God bye you." (H4.5.198) Then Ophilia makes her way to a brook where she commits suicide. Another situation of madness is in the play of Macbeth. The once stable and bossy Lady Macbeth starts to "loose her cookies" when she is distressed over a death similar to Ophilia. Only this death was a murder that her husband Macbeth committed. The reader finds that she has become mad when the Doctor says, "Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds/.../More needs she the divine than the physician." (M5.1.62-64) Though Lady Macbeth may not have been as insane as Ophilia, it did show the reader that she was still affected by it. This proves that even the minor characters experience some madness.

Since Hamlet didn't have witches and a wife to drive him insane, he had to deal with himself and a ghost. This could probably drive anybody crazy if they had to consider the significance of life and death so many times and deal with a spirit. As Shakespeare famously wrote it, "

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Approximate Word count = 961
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English