Madness In Macbeth and Hamlet Madness seems to be a common theme in William Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth and Hamlet. The questions I ask myself are; 1. What brings about madness in these plays, and 2. How can one tell madness when he/she sees it in a Shakespearean play? The signs of madness are visible in both of these plays by William Shakespeare, After Hamlet has discovered the truth about his father, he goes through a very traumatic period, which is interpreted as madness by readers and characters. With the death of his father and the hasty, incestuous remarriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet is thrown into a suicidal fr