Madness And Power

Shakespeare is one of the most brilliant stars in world literature,and he is acclaimed as one of the greatest geniuses of mankind by Marx.Shakespeare5s works are always the focuses of critics,and his four well-known tragedies are recognized as the peak of his creation.Shakespeare portrays a lot of different mad images in his great four tragedies.By using madness,Shakespeare probes into the good and evil of human nature,exposes ugliness of the dark society,satirizes the foolishness of rational men,eulogizes the wisdom of madmen,and subverts the authority of reason.It can at least be said that madness occupies an indispensable position in Shakespeare's tragedies.Michel Foucault is a great French philosopher,who not only has a unique view of madness,but also inherits and improves Nietzsche's view of power,and forms his own unique view of power.For the limited space,this paper only takes Shakespeare's two great tragedies King Lear and Macbeth as the study objects.On the one hand,the number of mad images in these two tragedies is quite high,and on the other hand,because these two tragedies also cover almost all types of madness in the four great tragedies.This paper interprets Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth as well as King Lear,the fool and Edgar in King Lear by using Foucault's view of madness and power,as well as analyzes reasons behind their madness.Study finds that although the five mad characters have different reasons of madness and performances,there are tight connections between their madness and power.Macbeth is mad for he is tempted by power;Lady Macbeth is mad for she is silenced by power;King Lear is mad for he is abandoned by power;the fool is mad for he is defined by power;Edgar is mad for he is oppressed by power.By analyzing madness in King Lear and Macbeth,this paper reveals that madness actually is defined by the discourse of reason,and power is the root cause of madness.This study aims to arouse people's rethinking on madness and power,and help people to break stereotype and encourage them to take a new look on Shakespeare's works.