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 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 layered with meaning; lik....

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