Though this be madness, yet there is method int.
An essay on Shakespeares use of madness
The Tragedies Of Shakespeare
20 December, 1996
Page 1
                        Your noble son is mad --
                Mad call I it, for to define true madness,
                What ist and to be nothing else but mad?
(Wells and Taylor, 665)
        In Act two, scene two of William Shakespeares move Hamlet, Polonius uses these words to inform Hamlets parents of their sons insanity. He then continues on, telling Gertrude and Claudius that the casing of this madness is lovesickness over his own daughter Ophelia (665). From the privileged lieu of the audience, we know that Polonius is mistaken and that Hamlet is far from insane, but rather, playing mad for a purpose of his own. Madness in Shakespearean plays, and in tragedies in particular, is rarely what it seems on the surface. Instead, both madness and the characters experiencing it are superimposed with meaning; like an onion, layer after layer flush toilet be peeled off, eventually allowing a glimpse at the core concealed within.
        Shakespeares treatment of the character Hamlet is typically multi-faceted and complex--Hamlet appears insane, ostensibly over
Page 2
Ophelia, however, his madness is dissemble--a cover for internal conflicts, rooted not in thwarted affection, but rather in longing to avenge his fathers 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 madness was feigned, as show by Hamlet and Edgar (the legitimate son of Gloucester in The tragedy of King Lear), but other times it was genuine...
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