Paper #3 assignment: The Role of Madness, due Nov.11th

English 3213

Paper #3: The Role of Madness

“We do and are done to, endlessly, neither pure agents nor victims. We live in the active and passive ‘voice,’ to use the grammatical term. There are other kinds of doubleness to the ways we live in time, in several tenses and moods all at once, in our sense of what was and will be, what should be and might have been, as well as what is” (Poole 99).

In both Hamlet and King Lear, people are constantly ‘playing mad’ or ‘playing the fool,’ or otherwise acting roles that are outside their normal (or society’s) character. However, we only see this in upper-class characters such as Hamlet, King Lear, Kent, Edgar, and Ophelia. While each one of these characters is clearly a victim and nursing some private hurt, they also lash out at others through their madness, becoming perpetrators themselves. Indeed, they often threaten, wound, and even kill in this new identity. So why is madness the only way in Shakespeare’s plays to usurp your given role in society? Why can’t Hamlet act, for example, without going mad?

Some things to consider:

• When do characters go ‘mad’ in the play? Is it sudden? A process? Is it announced? Does everyone do it the same way?
• What happens when two ‘mad’ characters confront one another?
• How does language determine who is mad and who is acting?
• Is madness itself active or passive? How do we know?
• Is madness the ‘real’ person inside the mask? Which one is the alter ego, the original character or the mad one? Which one seems more natural?
• Are the Fools in these plays ‘mad’? Is madness a way to speak secret wisdom? Is it a code?
• Is anyone cured of their madness? Is it permanent or temporary? Are the characters in command of this role—or does it command them?

REQUIREMENTS

• Discuss at least TWO characters, though you can focus more on one than another. But you’ll need more than one to really establish some of your ideas about madness.
• QUOTE from the plays and examine the language, since character is a performance, and the performance occurs through language.
• Be sure to cite all quotations with the page number or the act/scene number.
• No page limit, but please double space! I also prefer Word docs, even pasted in the e-mail, rather than a PDF if possible.
• DUE Friday, November 11^th by 5pm [no class that day]