King Lear Variants

Madness is defined as the state of being mentally ill or having extremely foolish behavior. It is a condition in which is difficult to identify whether it is true or not. In William Shakespeare's masterpiece, Hamlet, there is confusion as to whether or not his madness is real. The ghost of his father asks Hamlet to avenge his death. While he tries to accomplish this, he puts on an antic disposition. The antic disposition reoccurs throughout the play, but is merely an act. Hamlet is mad in craft because he admits that he is not mad several times, he behaves irrational only in front of certain individuals, and he has many feigned actions.

Emily Dickinson, a highly coveted American poet, once wrote “Much madness is divinest Sense-To a discerning Eye-“. Our perception of viewing a circumstance in which insanity is present is heavily impacted on whether it is our own or another individual’s madness. Characters within the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, have expressed the true essence of madness in different levels by behaving a variety of ways which may or may not be reasonable for the situation at hand. Not only does the conduct of the characters provide a more in depth understanding of them, it further adds to the work as a whole.

Throughout many of Shakespeare’s plays, one of the central themes with which he provides his readers is the topic of madness and insanity. In Karin S. Coddon’s, “Such Strange Desygns”: Madness, Subjectivity, and Treason in Hamlet and Elizabethan Culture, the author depicts the reasons behind the psychosis of Shakespeare’s characters and what led to their insanity. The author expresses insight for not only the themes of madness in Hamlet but also helps explain the aspect of madness in one Shakespeare’s other plays, Macbeth. Through her analysis, Coddon successfully offers her readers a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s choice to portray his characters in this way and provides the

Lear's insanity increases throughout the play, demonstrated to the audience through more speeches, until his emotions overthrow his reason at the climax of the play. Lear randomly shouts in to the storm,

If the walls of judgement created by mankind were demolished, then ones’ individuality is what remains to define one as a person. The Shakespearian play, King Lear, delineates an underlying message through the relationship of clothing and ones’ identity. Several characters in King Lear depend on clothing to depict their identity. As the play goes on, the central character, King Lear’s state of mind in particular, changes and clothing is used as a median to reflect this change. Proving that characters are allowing materialistic items to represent their identity rather than allowing their personality to outshine their clothing.

What is madness? Madness to most appears like a complex double-cross between reality and fantasy of the mind. William Shakespeare creates the use of madness throughout his play Hamlet, he portrays the sense of it as the breakdown of the mind, but also the breakdown of society. Within the play, two main characters welcomed madness into their lives, one is fake for personal reasons, and the other is real. Hamlet, prince of Denmark, had a plan to act mad to confuse Claudius. On the other hand, Ophelia the daughter of Polonius, goes insane due to many factors, such as grief, isolation, and distrust.

Throughout Shakespeare?s play, Hamlet, the main character, young Hamlet, is faced with the responsibility of attaining vengeance for his father?s murder. He decides to feign madness as part of his plan to gain the opportunity to kill Claudius. As the play progresses, his depiction of a madman becomes increasingly believable, and the characters around him react accordingly. However, through his inner thoughts and the apparent reasons for his actions, it is clear that he is not really mad and is simply an actor simulating insanity in order to fulfill his duty to his father.

All the above reversals or incongruities are to be present, in a lesser or more degree, in King Lear. To begin with, the reversal of hierarchies strikes us first and foremost in the very opening of the play: here one is met with an earlier sign of authority being loosened, when the king decides to divide his own kingdom:

Madness is defined as “mental delusion and the eccentric behavior arising from it.” In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the delusional state that Hamlet embodies has to be seen with a “discerning Eye.” While Hamlet claims his insanity is simply an antic disposition, his awareness of his deteriorating mental state is questionable. This state of madness can be judged reasonable as it allows him to investigate and avenge the unexpected death of his father. Consequently, Hamlet’s insanity results in a ripple effect, causing madness to become a central theme in the play through its effect on both Laertes and Ophelia.

In a Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare there are many themes portrayed but the most prevalent was the topic of madness. The play Twelfth Night shows us that madness is merely a perception. This will be proved by three main proofs as seen in the play. These proofs are; Sebastian’s view of Olivia and himself, the household’s view of Malvolio, and Orsino’s descent into “madness”. Various paraphernalia from the play such as quotes and examples from the play will be used to demonstrate the perceived changes of madness towards these characters.

In the play “Hamlet”, Shakespeare portrays the series of unfortunate events that develops into tragic characters and illustrates the symptoms of madness through Prince Hamlet and Ophelia while identifying the difference between genuine madness and feigned madness.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of the most evident and important themes is the theme of madness. The theme is apparent throughout the play, mainly through the actions and thoughts of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes. Madness is defined as the quality or condition of mental illness or derangement (being insane). Madness is at the center of the conflicts and problems of the play and is conveyed through Shakespeare’s elaborate use of manipulation and parallels between Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes to contribute to Hamlet’s tragic character.

Very rarely is an individual born with madness; more often than not, madness is inherited from experiences they have had. Hamlet had walked into the forest after being informed by his friends about the ghost that they saw, and it had turned out to be hamlet's father. Along with it, dysfunction had overtaken the family because of Hamlet’s curiosity of his father’s death and his madness from it. The mystery of death has the power to change the appearance of a person; more primitively, Hamlet’s father informing his son about his death and the madness that followed from Hamlet’s curiosity.

When Shakespeare uses madness in these plays it deepens the drama and the plot. He usually has more than one character display madness. When this happens, those who tend to go mad may become characters that are much more interesting and thereby worthy of representation in drama because they help to develop the plot in an interesting way since mad people tend to act

Later in the play, during the storm scene, Lear’s madness becomes even more apparent. The chaos created by the storm parallels the chaos that is within Lear’s mind. Late in Act 3, Lear himself speaks on the effect that the storm has on his mental state. The King proclaims, “Thou’dst meet the bear i’the mouth. When the mind’s free, / The body’s delicate: this tempest in my mind” (3.4.11-12). The chaos that arises from the mental decay of Lear parallels the chaos that arises from the storm. It can be inferred that the chaos created by the storm parallels the chaos within the King’s mind, and the fact that King Lear says “this tempest in my mind” while is standing in the tempest, which means storm, proves that this parallel exists. This also further proves that authority is more powerful that chaos because as Lear’s mind decays, chaos consumes him, and as the storm rages on, the chaos from the storm consumes the country of England. The authority that Lear used to represent has been diminished by his decreasing mental capacity in the same way that the stable conditions of the country has been destroyed by the chaos that the storm has created. In the middle of the sixth scene of Act 4, Lear’s madness in conjunction with nature becomes evident again. The stage directions read, “Enter LEAR mad [crowned with wild flowers]” (332). First, the brackets around “crowned with wild flowers”