Articulāte

Volume 1 Article 6

1996

Women in Madness: Ophelia and Lady Macbeth

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Bostrom, Melissa (1996) "Women in Madness: Ophelia and Lady Macbeth," Articulāte: Vol. 1 , Article 6.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.denison.edu/articulate/vol1/iss1/6

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 insinuations finally build until she is entirely uncomfortable and can say nothing but "You are merry, my
lord" (116). He is having fun at the expense of her confusion, it seems to her. She never realizes that

Women in Madness: Ophelia and Lady Macbeth Hamlet has projected his mother's perverted sexuality onto her and that this is the reason for his attack
by Melissa Bostrom, '96 (Traub219).
In fact, Valerie Traub has argued that the only expression of Ophelia's sexuality is in her death
The Renaissance marked a turning point in the popular perception of insanity. Some people
(225-27). Hamlet has told the audience earlier that death is "A consummation / Devoutly to be wished"
adhered to a belief in supernatural causes of madness while others were beginning to think that it might
(3.1.63-64). Traub argues that the same is true for Ophelia, for it is her only consummation in the course
have other origins (Neely 315). In the Elizabethan era, witchcraft or sin was still widely suspected to be
of the tragedy. It is only after her death that Hamlet can express his feelings for Ophelia: "I loved
at the root of madness (Vey-Miller and Miller 81). Carol Thomas Neely points out that some people,
Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum" (5.1.256-
such as Edward Joden, were already trying to separate madness from a divine or supernatural cause. In A
58). Traub likens this consummation to the tomb scene of Romeo and Juliet in which the lovers die in an
Brief Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother, one of the first works to provide a
embrace of consummation. Yet Ophelia dies before she ever has the opportunity to enjoy the
rational explanation for madness, Joden attempts to sharpen the distinction between bewitchment and
consummation of her love for Hamlet. At her grave, her brother cries: "From her fair and unpolluted
insanity. His theory, also held by many of his contemporaries, was that madness was the result of
flesh / May violets spring!" (5.1.26-27). With such textual emphasis on her chastity, the explanation of
biological irregularities such as retention of menstrual blood or a "wandering womb" (although this
Ophelia's madness as the result of impurity can no longer hold true.
theory was somehow supposed to apply to both sexes). The cure for this insanity, according to Joden,
Elaine Showalter presents R.D. Laing's clinical view of Ophelia's madness as schizophrenia in
was marriage and the regular sexual activity that accompanied it, which would bring the woman's
response to her environment of conflict (77). David Leverenz supports this theory in pointing out that
reproductive system under her husband's control (Neely 317-18). Although such a theory is somewhat
Ophelia is torn between conflicting voices: her desire to obey her father's wishes and her love for Hamlet
physiological in nature, the power differential between the sexes is also an integral element. In analyzing
(299-301). Polonius wants her to make a good match, yet he tells her to break off her interaction with
the possible reasons behind the madness of Shakespeare's characters such as Ophelia in Hamlet and Lady
the future king: "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth / Have you so slander any moment
Macbeth in Macbeth, such inter-gender power differentials take on great importance.
leisure / As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet" (1.3.132-34). Just a few scenes later, though,
A variety of theories abound to explain Ophelia's madness. Marguerite Vey-Miller and Ronald
Polonius has changed his mind again and orders Ophelia to meet with Hamlet to test the extent of
Miller propose that Ophelia and Hamlet have, in anticipation of their marriage, already enjoyed each
Hamlet's love-melancholy. In addition to such conflicting messages from Polonius, Ophelia must also
other sexually (82). Vey-Miller and Miller argue that the familiarity of the characters' language stems
deal with Hamlet, who exhibits a destructive power in his very speech, according to Inga-Stina Eubank
from a sexual familiarity. When Ophelia loses Hamlet despite her acquiescence to intimacy, she must
(87). The conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet in act three, scene one is a particularly powerful
face not only the emotional loss but also the continual praises of her purity. The hypocrisy of her
example of this type of speech. Hamlet at first tells Ophelia, "I did love you once" (115). Yet in his next
situation and the secret which she must keep within her finally drive her to madness, according to Vey-
speech he proclaims, "I loved you not" (119). The conflicting messages from Hamlet and Polonius seem
Miller and Miller (82-83). Yet the text does not support their view of Ophelia's madness. Why should
a plausible explanation for Ophelia's madness.
Hamlet ask Ophelia "Are you honest?" (3.1.103) if he already knows that he has compromised her
It is important to note, however, that Polonius and Hamlet create her very identity. If Ophelia
chastity? Similarly, Ophelia's confusion at Hamlet's behavior in act three, scene two hardly paints her as
had a sense of self-worth not derived from these men, perhaps she would have not have been so
a woman familiar with sexual matters. When Hamlet asks if he may lie in her lap, for example, her
vulnerable to the mental disturbance caused by Polonius and Hamlet. Showalter points out that it is
answer is not a teasing "Maybe later"" or a concerned "Not here, my lord." Instead, she says "No, my
impossible to construct a biography of Ophelia from the text of the tragedy alone-she has no history that
lord" (108)—a response that indicates her bewilderment and sexual innocence in the situation. Hamlet's
is not connected with Hamlet (87). When compared to the characterization of Hamlet, Ophelia is a

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"creature of lack" (78). This idea, Showalter says, is emphasized when Hamlet tells Ophelia that possession (Krabbe 147). Her interpretation of the character envisioned Lady Macbeth as a young
"nothing" is "a fair thought to lie between maids' legs" (3.1.112-13). A few lines further into the scene, woman driven by passion and ambition rather than possessed by evil (Krabbe 147-48).
the image of nothingness is reinforced when Ophelia tells Hamlet, "You are naught, you are naught" Although Henning Krabbe uses the character's childlessness as support for Huberg's youthful
(139). Ironically, it is Ophelia herself who is "naught." A.C. Bradley describes her as beautiful, sweet, interpretation (145), other writers have construed the childlessness as a possible source of Lady
pathetic, and dismissable (Neely 316). To Bradley-and perhaps to the audience as well-she is not a Macbeth's madness. Sigmund Freud proposes that she goes mad as a reaction to her childlessness (40).
fully characterized woman suffering from intense emotional conflict. She is merely a tragic element. In her society, Lady Macbeth's only means of gaining power is through childbearing. Because she either
As a figure without an identity of her own, Ophelia is not a thinking being. Rather, as Samuel cannot bear children or has raised none to maturity (the text is not clear as to the precise reasons that she
Taylor Coleridge proposes, she feels too much where Hamlet thinks too much (Showalter 80). In fact, and her husband are childless), her only access to control is blocked (40-43). Marilyn French also
Carol Thomas Neely and Margaret Ferguson both propose that Ophelia is a double to Hamlet. Neely envisions Lady Macbeth as thwarted in seeking the means to power, but she suggests that power itself is
points out that Ophelia becomes mad while Hamlet is absent, in England (325). Not only is her physical accessible only to males (17-18). As a woman and a wife, Lady Macbeth's chief duty is to bring her
presence a parallel to Hamlet's absence, but Shakespeare has set up a number of counterparts between the errant husband to virtue, French decrees, and in failing that duty she violates her womanly identity as
two characters. Ophelia's true madness is the complement to Hamlet's feigned insanity; Hamlet's well as her duty to God (18). In seeking power, Lady Macbeth goes against her feminine nature; the
madness takes the form of political, thoughtful speech where hers is somatized and eroticized (325-26). natural outcome of such action is madness (18-19).
The two characters even share associations of imagery, according to Ferguson (298). For example, Other authors have focused on Lady Macbeth's attempts to "unsex" herself as the reason behind
Hamlet tells Claudius at the beginning of the tragedy that he is "too much in the sun" (1.2.67), and later her insanity. Robert Kimbrough argues that she knows that she cannot commit Duncan's murder as a
warns Polonius regarding Ophelia, "Let her not walk I' th' sun" (2.3.184). woman (178). Murder is an action of masculinity, and Lady Macbeth asks the gods to remove her
Karin Coddon alludes to the Renaissance view of madness as feminine in discussing Hamlet's womanly nature so that she may fulfill her purpose:
feigned insanity (52). Hamlet himself seems to share this view, Showalter asserts, in his disgust with his
womanly feelings (90). According to her, Hamlet suppresses intense emotions of fear and betrayal. Yet Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
these emotions must be expressed somehow, and Ophelia becomes the character who displays them (90- And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
92). Shakespeare presents an image of madness as womanly in an Ophelia draped in garlands, singing Of direst cruelty.
and speaking in lyrics. Hamlet's masculinity is thus preserved and Ophelia suffers the insanity that is the Come to my woman's breasts
expected outcome of such powerful emotions (93). Ophelia even fulfills Hamlet's wish for death. His And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
"To be or not to be" soliloquy (3.1.56-88) reveals his inner turmoil concerning his situation and his You wait on nature's mischief (1.5.38-41,45-48).
thoughts of suicide. Yet it is Ophelia, who never delivers such an introspective speech, who kills herself,
thus again carrying through Hamlet's emotions where it would be womanly for him to do so. Kimbrough further suggests that Lady Macbeth's attempt to eliminate her femininity is unsuccessful; her

Lady Macbeth is a natural counterpart to this characterization of Ophelia as a woman who cruelty cannot be maintained, and she goes mad (178-80). Helen Faucit's interpretation of Lady Macbeth
possesses no integral identity without men. Writers even through the end of the nineteenth century presents the character as possessing human affections but suppressing them, a pattern of behavior
adhered to an interpretation of Lady Macbeth's madness as a progression through the stages of demonic exemplified by the "Unsex me" speech (Carlisle 211-12). Such a suppression of emotions could lead to
possession (i.e., Corson 245-47). Other writers of that century disagreed with this conception of Lady madness. Joan Larsen Klein's argument follows a similar path in assessing Lady Macbeth as maintaining
Macbeth's character, however. Johanne Luise Huberg, a Danish actress of the nineteenth century, her femininity because she never realizes her murderous intent (246-47). Indeed, Lady Macbeth does
proposed that Lady Macbeth suffered from a "demonic intoxication" of power rather than a full-fledged make an attempt on the life of Duncan, but she reveals that a weakness stops her: "Had he not resembled

40 41
/ My father as he slept, I had done't" (2.2.12-13). This comment shows her weakness for the structures Macbeth's sleep which is disturbed into sleepwalking. It is Macbeth who speaks of his fear that he will
of patriarchal society and provides a glimpse into theories of madness through male constructions that never be able to wash Duncan's blood from his hands: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood /
will be presented later. Clean from my hand?" (2.2.59-60), but Lady Macbeth is the character who even in sleep cannot escape
Still other writers have centered on the influence Lady Macbeth has on her husband in initiating the bloodstains: "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (5.1.32). Finally, it is Lady Macbeth who must pay the
the string of murders which occur in the course of the tragedy. French argues that Lady Macbeth has the price of madness for her husband's unnatural deeds. When she is no longer needed by him as either wife
opportunity to dissuade her husband from the initial murder, but she chooses to support Macbeth instead or hostess, when she no longer has an identity, she loses her sanity as well.
(20). Although she does encourage him into action before Duncan's murder ("But screw your courage to Ultimately these many theories of madness converge. Both Ophelia and Lady Macbeth's
the sticking place / And we'll not fail" (1.7.60-61), she can hardly be held responsible for the later madness results from the construction of their identity by men. For Ophelia, it is the identity of the
murders, as Klein asserts (249). In fact, it appears that the initial assassination (that of Duncan) is dutiful daughter and chaste lover that tears her apart. With her father dead and Hamlet shipped away to
Macbeth's own idea. Shakespeare makes it clear in act one, scene three that Macbeth is startled by the England, she no longer exists in relation to these men. In fact, she barely exists at all; she dies within a
weird sisters' proclamation of his impending Kingship in Banquo's question: "Good sir, why do you start short time of her father's death and Hamlet's expulsion. Her madness is the logical result of the loss of
and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair?" (51 -52). This visible start implies that Macbeth has her identity through the absence of the men who constructed it. Lady Macbeth suffers a similar fate. As
already thought about taking the throne, even without the encouragement of his wife. a hostess and a wife, her identity has been constructed by men. Once she is no longer needed by her
Klein states that Lady Macbeth cannot be held responsible for the subsequent murders of Banquo husband, she exists without a purpose. Her madness, like Ophelia's, is the logical result of losing her
and Lady Macduff and her children because Macbeth decides on these murders by himself (249). Lady identity, constructed by men. These women are doomed to insanity and death because they subvert their
Macbeth is increasingly left out of the decision-making process. Before Banquo's murder, she is aware individuality to become the male construction of themselves. When they are no longer defined by those
that her husband has plans to secure his throne, but he refuses to give her more precise information in the men, the women lose themselves to madness.
matter: "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed" (3.2.45-46). Lady
Works Cited
Macbeth seems to have even less information about the murders of Lady Macduff and her children; Lady
Macduff is only mentioned for a moment in Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking: "The Thane of Fife had a Carlisle, Carol J. "Helen Faucit's Lady Macbeth." Shakespeare Studies 16 (1983): 205-33.
wife. Where is she now?" (5.1.39). As Macbeth's "dearest partner of greatness" (1.5.10), she does not Coddon, Karin S. "'Suche Strange Desygns': Madness, Subjectivity and Treason in Hamlet and
seem to be allowed to fulfill her role. Her other major role, according to Klein, is that of the hostess Elizabethan Culture." Renaissance Drama 20 (1989): 51 -75.
(252). When Duncan arrives at Inverness, Lady Macbeth busies herself with the entertainment of the
Corson, Hiram. "Lady Macbeth's Relations to Macbeth." An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare.
guests as almost her sole occupation. By the coronation banquet, however, Macbeth has taken over her Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., Publishers, 1896. 244-51.
duties in inviting the guests and supervising the preparation of the feast (253). Without a role to play as
Eubank, Inga-Stina. "'Hamlet' and the Power of Words." Shakespeare Survey 30 (1979): 85-102.
either the wife-partner of great Macbeth or the proud hostess, Lady Macbeth's only power and identity in
Ferguson, Margaret W. "Hamlet: Letters and Spirits." Shakespeare and the Question of Theory. Ed.
patriarchal society have been eliminated. Her sense of individuality has been stripped away, and she is
Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman. New York: Methuen, 1985. 292-309.
left to madness and suicide.
French, Marilyn. "Macbeth and Masculine Values." Macbeth. New Casebooks Series. Ed. Alan
Freud discusses this loss of individuality in a few fleeting comments concerning Ludwig Jekels's
Sinfield. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. 14-24.
theory that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are halves of one whole (45). Jekels's argument uses evidence
Freud, Sigmund. "The Character of Lady Macbeth." Macbeth. New Casebooks Series. Ed. Alan
from the text to reveal that the natural outcomes of Macbeth's thoughts appear in Lady Macbeth. For
Sinfield. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. 39-45.
example, he points out that Macbeth proclaims that he "does murder sleep" (2.2.35), but it is Lady

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Kimbrough, Robert. "Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender." Shakespeare Studies 16(1983): 175-90.

Klein, Joan Larsen. "Lady Macbeth: 'Infirm of Purpose.'" The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of
Shakespeare. Ed. Carolyn R. S. Lenz, Gayle Greene, and Carol Thomas Neely. Urbana: Madonna's Postmodern Eroticism
University of Illinois Press, 1980. 240-255. by James Smith, '97

Krabbe, Henning. "A Danish Actress and Her Conception of the Part of Lady Macbeth." Shakespeare
Survey 29 (1978): 145-9. Madonna has been called "the most provocative artist in popular music today." The public

Leverenz, David. "The Woman in Hamlet: An Interpersonal View." Signs 4 (1978): 291-308. controversy surrounding virtually every project she has undertaken from "Like a Virgin" in 1984 to her
starring role as Eva Peron in the forthcoming Andrew Lloyd Weber version ofEvita attests to her ability
Neely, Carol Thomas. '"Documents in Madness': Reading Madness and Gender in Shakespeare's
Tragedies and Early Modern Culture." Shakespeare Quarterly 42 (1991): 315-38. to push people's cultural buttons. Madonna has not only grabbed the attention of the general public, as
any person who has had her 15 minutes of fame might do, but has also made her way into the realm of
Showalter, Elaine. "Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist
Criticism." Shakespeare and the Question of Theory. Ed. Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman. serious academia, arguably a more respectable accomplishment. In this essay, I will discuss academic
New York: Methuen, 1985. 77-94. arguments both criticizing and applauding the uses of the erotic. Finally, I will illustrate how Madonna

Traub, Valerie. "Jewels, Statues, and Corpses: Containment of Female Erotic Power in Shakespeare's embodies the ideologies of postmodernity in her representations of eroticism.
Plays." Shakespeare Studies 20 (1988): 215-38. One criticism of Madonna's portrayals of sexuality is that they are not erotic but, in fact,

Vey-Miller, Marguerite M. and Ronald J. Miller. "Degrees of Psychopathology in Hamlet." Hamlet pornographic. This criticism surfaced in 1990 with the production of her Justify My Love video, which
Studies 1 (1985): 81-87. MTV refused to air in any time slot—even evening rotations. In "Madonna's Postmodern Feminism,"
Cathy Schwichtenberg says that "Justify My Love has been characterized with a moralistic litany of
charges against nudity, bisexuality, sadomasochism, and multiple partners (group sex). The video opens
up a Pandora's box of sexual prohibitions, which are judged as such through the maintenance of a single
sexual standard" (137). Schwichtenberg illustrates how this "single sexual standard" may be utilized by
two very different camps:
Perhaps most alarming is the tactical alliance between antiporn feminists and the right
wing, of which Rubin notes that, "stripped of their feminist content, much of the
language and many of the tactics of persuasion developed by the feminist anti-porn
movement have been assimilated by the right-wing" (Stamps 1990, 9). Thus, feminists
concerned with violence against women find themselves strange compatriots with the
Moral Majority in a coalition that will not necessarily deter male-perpetrated violence,
but is likely to place sexual minorities under siege by the state (137).

The coalition of these two groups in the fight against "pornography" illustrates how "one's body (and
what one chooses to do with it) may be the last bastion of freedom against those discourses that try to
restrict it" (Schwichtenberg 137), for not only is the right wing suppressing sexual minorities in its
typical form, but liberal feminists are assisting them in the effort. Schwichtenberg asserts that this
feminist position demonstrates how "even those discourses associated with the progressive agendas of
liberalism, socialism, and feminism, which supposedly pride themselves on a politics of cultural

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