Essay Archive - The Tragedies Of Shakespeare
The Tragedies Of Shakespeare
"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 on, telling Gertrude and Claudius that the cause of this madness is
lovesickness over his own daughter Ophelia (665). From the privileged
perspective of the audience, we know that Polonius is mistaken and that Hamlet
is far from insane, but rather, "playing mad" for a purpose o....
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