Method in the Madness: Hamlet's Sanity Supported Through His Relation to Ophelia and Edgar's Relation to Lear In both Hamlet and King Lear, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness with two characters: one truly mad, and one only acting mad to serve a motive. The madness of Hamlet is frequently disputed. This paper argues that the contrapuntal character in each play, namely Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear, acts as a balancing argument to the other character's madness or sanity. King Lear's more decisive distinction between Lear's frailty of mind and Edgar's contrived ma....

Number Of Words: 1761

Number Of Pages: 7

Join today and get unlimited access to our vast database of student-written essays and term papers. This paper along with over 45,000 other papers are available in our member's area right now. Full instant access is just seconds away! Membership Options Price 1 month  subscription $18.95 recurring        3 months subscription $34.95 recurring        6 months subscription $59.95 non-recurring