Marissa Coe EN 360 Shakespeare I Major Paper 04/20/14 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 …show more content…
Coddon’s idea of ambition being related to the psychosis in Shakespeare’s characters also becomes evident in his play Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife is determined to kill the king so her husband can come to power and she can become queen (“Macbeth”). All of Lady Macbeth’s logical reasoning disappears and she slips slowly into insanity just as Hamlet does while attempting to prove Claudius is his father’s murderer. Coddon’s reference to Essex’s madness in her article gives an in-depth understanding of Hamlet’s insanity; it also allows insight for other Shakespeare characters, like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Essex did not have respect for authority and often failed to honor Queen Elizabeth during the Elizabethan era in England. He eventually led a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth and attempted to seize control of the City of London. He was then arrested and convicted of treason. Essex’s rebellion against authority contributing to his later insanity correlates to Lady Macbeth’s disrespect to authority in various ways. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth does everything in her power to manipulate her husband to kill the King of Scotland so she can become queen. She goes against authority, like Essex, and fools her king by inviting him into her home and having Macbeth kill him (“Macbeth”). In Coddon’s article she uses Sir Jon Harrington’s description of Essex to argue, “Essex’s madness, whatever its precise pathological nature, was profoundly
Finally, Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s shortest and bloodiest works, is near infamous for its main characters, the Lord and Lady Macbeth, both of whom happen to be insane. The first instinence of Macbeth
Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ is a character who suffers greatly in because of her human weakness, which is her vaulting ambition. This ambition is not for her, but for her husband. This woman, who seemed so in control at the beginning of the okay, only cared for her husband and his success, later becomes so consumed with guilt and remorse that it results in her tragic death. Through the discussion of characterisation and lkey scenes, I shall reveal that Lady Macbeth’s human flaw is not only a major contributor to the ruthlessness of her husband but creates a huge influence in how the play unfolds.
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.
The writer, Shakespeare, illustrates to the audience that the consequences do not just affect the person who have the ambitions, but it also affects the people around them. He does this by expressing the ambition through the characters of Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown to be ambitious and their ambition feeds off of each other. Macbeth is initially shown to the audience as a brave and selfless soldier who is loyal to his king till the day he dies. But, once Macbeth hears the prophecy of the three witches’, (that he will become the King of Scotland), Macbeth changes. He develops a deep, dark and horrible ambition of ruthlessly murdering the king and taking his place. Macbeth then writes to Lady Macbeth telling her of his ambitions. This leads to Lady Macbeth provoking Macbeth’s ambitions instead of telling him to forget about it. As she provokes Macbeth the audience can clearly see that this woman is bad news. “Was the hope drunk?Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?... and wakes it now, to look so green and pale which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I
Hamlet’s sanity has made many people question him. “Hamlet certainly displays a high degree of mania and instability throughout much of the play, but his “madness” is perhaps too purposeful and pointed
The insanity of a person can be contributed through the trauma that is caused by a few events in a person’s life, but in the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare wrote the main character prince Hamlet experiences a few dramatic events from the play which his attitude changes throughout. In order to figure out whether hamlet is insane is by figuring out what the characteristics of his insanity. Characters see Hamlet in different shades of gray, each side more or less sane than others. His sanity can be his truth or his lie.
Macbeth: Macbeth is a prime example of ambition leading someone down the path of corruption and making a complete fool of himself. “From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand. And even now, to crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise, Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword, his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line.” Act 4.2 Macbeth starts off by saying that he will immediately act on his thoughts which is a terrible idea. He then makes macduff is enemy by killing macduff's family. Every Time macbeth acts on his thoughts he seals his fate and makes his situation worse. This is a common occurrence in the play, this idea of fate is challenged because the audience must determine if his fate is set or created by uncontrollable ambition.
William Shakespeare, a renowned poet and playwright, wrote the play Hamlet at the turn of the 16th century– which has become known and enjoyed around nearly the entire world. Ever since it was written more than four centuries ago, there has been a decently large amount of debate between Shakespearean scholars, casual readers, literary critics, and sometimes even psychologists and psychoanalysts about whether or not Hamlet ever truly went insane at any time during the play. The controversy lies within the array of seemingly strange behavior acted out by Hamlet himself – many claim no sane person could commit such acts. Hamlet 's activity may seem outlandish to some, and truly it may be, but it was acted out by a rational, sane, and conscious man. Hamlet indeed does not go insane at any point; he simply feigns madness in order to achieve revenge for his father.
When speaking on the topic of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” one of the most brought up topics is whether Hamlet is mad or sane. This is partly due to Hamlet’s decision to put on an antic disposition. Through Hamlet’s Antic disposition and his other decisions, the reader begins to see certain characteristics developing in Hamlet. Most notably, the character exhibits many symptoms found in mental illness’ common in the Elizabethan era. These characteristics show that Hamlet’s insanity is no longer just a mask. Hamlet has developed actual madness. The character, in reference to the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of madness, is in “The state of being mentally ill.”
In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, it is clearly evident Prince Hamlet is overcome with “madness” due to his father’s murder and other malicious actions taken against him. Throughout the play, there are many examples of how Hamlet displays his insanity due to certain situations he experiences and how he handles them. Hamlet shows his madness through the killing of Polonius, his treatment of Ophelia, his thoughts of suicide, and the treatment of his mother Gertrude.
William Shakespeare can be argued as one of the most important people in human history. Born in 1564 in a small town in England named Stratford-upon-Avon, he lived an ordinary life and not much was known about his early years. In 1582, he married his wife with whom they bore 3 children, and moved to London 10 years later to pursue a career as a poet and playwright. He went to write over 194 pieces of writing, including 37 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems, and other assorted uncredited writing. By the end of his career, Shakespeare was considered one of the most important figures of the Renaissance, and eventually the greatest writer in the English language, writing many timeless works that are still read, observed, and acted out today.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy told of a man on the edge of madness. Macbeth finds out he will be king and becomes consumed with power. He descends deeper into insanity, killing anyone who will take his throne. Soon he starts to hallucinate seeing apparitions, hearing voices in his head and ultimately becomes insane. Insanity can come in different forms, some are born with dysfunctions that causes insanity. Some develop it through a variety of things such as; drugs, traumatic experience and in Macbeth’s case guilt. Macbeth’s guilt, hunger for power and paranoia maybe what cause him to kill.
“Hamlet’s madness is less than madness and more than feigned”. What is madness? Mad is a word with such uncertainty that it can be stretched to mean an abundance of things more than just pure psychological instability: a weariness of life; a suicidal impulse; a plotting charisma. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, a wild disagreement has been consequent for a series of years in the case of the madness of Hamlet, the play 's central narrative, was justifiable or feigned. As in any decision, one must be given both sides of the controversy before making an impartial conclusion. The case of Hamlet 's madness is no exclusion. It is appropriate to say that Hamlet may have remained sensible throughout the performance, especially in consideration of his rag flashes of what seems to be psychological discipline and stability. However, Hamlet is perceived as disoriented by overwhelming burst of hysteria after acquiring knowledge of his father’s death, news of Gertrude’s quick remarriage, and Claudius becoming the new King. In the butt end it is up to the scholar to determine for him or herself the psychological nature of Hamlet’s madness, as it may have been the motive of William Shakespeare, taking into review how open-ended this subject continued throughout the play.
In a New Historic analyzation, it is important to note Hamlet’s madness that leads him to paranoia, revenge, and murder. In Shakespeare’s Elizabethan era, madness was defined as “internalization of disobedience”. Using this definition, it can be interpreted that Shakespeare derives Hamlet’s lunacy from the plea for vengeance made by his father’s spirit. Hamlet feels blameworthy and that
In perhaps the most pivotal scene in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s motives are truly revealed in her manipulation of Macbeth to show how humans have a desire for power and once they get a taste of it, they will go through any lengths to have it, no matter the effect on others. Her lust for power is showcased through how she persuades Macbeth by insulting his masculinity and using emotive language to counter his logical reasoning. This section of the play illustrates the tipping point of each character’s morality with Macbeth having second thoughts about the planned murder and Lady Macbeth diving straight in.