Macbeth And Hamlet Analysis

Madness is a state of wild, chaotic behaviour and loss of reality, a theme that is common amongst the characters of Shakespeare’s plays. It lends a distinctive suffering of inevitable self-destruction in tragedies, some form of downfall or breaking point reaction such as traits of madness is essentially what is used to develop the storyline and show the contrast between the many personas in the story. He adequately explores many roots that lead towards madness as well as various forms of it, two plays that exhibit this issue perfectly are Hamlet and Macbeth.
In order to achieve a greater understanding of William Shakespeare’s timeless Hamlet, the roots of the madness that Hamlet and Ophelia endure must be understood. Whether feigned or real, …show more content…
Erin Campbell suggests that “Ophelia suffers from hysteria, a malady often described to upper class women who bide their time in their fathers' homes while awaiting fulfillment of their culturally mandated roles as wives and mothers”. During the time frame of the Renaissance it was commonly believed that women resulted in hysteria due to the movement of the womb in their bodies. Common symptoms included chocking, loss of speech and sensibility. He follows to declare that Ophelia’s muteness, or inability to speak her mind, stems from her repressed desires and wandering womb. Wandering womb was the belief that a displaced uterus was the cuase of varius medical pathologies of women. Marriage was diagnosed as the cure for this pathological condition because it was believed that the womb wandered as a result of the termination of menstruation due to sexual inactivity. Thus if Ophelia truly was suffering with hysteria it would mean that she and Hamlet did not engage in any sexual relations. The wandering womb was also a way to assert power over women, who needed to be protected from their own desires. Doctor perscriptions consisted of suggestions such as for women to be pregnant as often as possible to keep the womb occupied, and therefore it would be in its rightful place as the female would …show more content…
She is a character that began the play with "no hesitation, no sign of any internal conflict in her", though we observe that “she who had seemed so remorseless, seems to have been borne down by remorse.” Her mind becomes infected and consumed by her own sins, she descends to insanity. Ironically, she repeatedly reassures the absent Macbeth that he has nothing to fear because "Banquo's buried, he cannot come out on's grave". She hallucinates that she has blood on her hands that will not disappear “Out, damn spot! Out I say!” She is noticed to be excessively rubbing her hands in a washing manner which recalls and juxtaposes when she deludes herself into believing that "A little water clears us of this deed", although this was not the case for Lady Macbeth. Centuries after Shakespeare produced his play, scientists have found that physical and moral cleanliness are just as inextricably linked as he more dramatically suggested. Sufferers of the mental illness known as OCD are just as likely to scrub away “dirty thoughts” as actual dirt, feeling as if actual cleansing might alleviate some of these obsessive thoughts that bring up feelings of shame and disgust. In the scene where the Doctor visits to evaluate her, it is revealed that the gentlewoman has seen her “rise from her bed throw her nightgown upon