TREATING MADNESS IN "GREAT ONES": SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET AND KING LEAR

Tatjana Dumitrašković

Abstract


In the Renaissance, the state of madness was associated with a state of uncontrolled and hysterical behaviour or prolonged inexplicable sadness. It was believed that the cause for such mental disorder was great suffering or sin. The theme of madness was popular in Shakespeare's plays. It had different importance depending on context. The theatre of Shakespeare's time showed the social strategies that started to be used in the treatment of the mad. Some scholars like Mackay and Salkeld argue that the madness of the powerful characters in Shakespeare's tragedies results from their conflict with political conditions in which they found themselves and explore special attempts the society made to take care of the mad. Analysing Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear, the paper shows disastrous effects of madness in "great ones" and explains how it is treated by the surrounding society. The madness of the powerful is interpreted as very much dangerous and able to cause great disaster in both inner-self and society in general. Shakespeare's Hamlet deals with the methods of closely observing and restricting the madness of the powerful. In King Lear, madness in people in power is unnoticed by the society around him. The mentally ill are not understood either through old symbolic ways of thought or through new scientific ways. Social institutions are presented as self-sufficient and greedy existing not to protect, but to exploit and destroy..

 

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Shakespeare, mental disorder, Hamlet, King Lear

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v6i3.417

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