The Tragedies Of Shakespeare
Beginning of paper
"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 ....
Middle of paper
.... appears insane, ostensibly over Ophelia, however,
his madness is feigned—a cover for internal conflicts, rooted not in thwarted
affection, but rather in desire to avenge his father's murder. Hamlet even goes
so far as to 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 mad ....
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Word count: 1824
Page count: 7 (approximately 250 words per page)
