Insanity In Shakespeare’s Great Tragedies

Abstract

This paper deals with the theme of insanity in the four major tragedies of Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Its main purpose is to show that the heroesof these tragedies display very individual characteristics which are adaptable to the modern ideas of R. D. Laing about madness. Departing from the Medieval and Renaissance theories on the subject, these work analyses mainly three aspects in each tragedy: the therapeutic function of insanity, the fact that the heroes are always able to recover from it, and the idea that the society where madness appears is itself usually "mad" and corrupt. The whole body of this paper aims at pointing out the universality of Shakespeare's genius, since the themes which he had so skillfully treated in his tragedies are still being discussed today in the light of contemporary theories.