Locating Macbeth at the Thresholds of Time, Space and Spiritualism Ess

In the preface to Folie et draison, Michel Foucault remarkably locates madness at thelimen of cultural identityEuropean man, since the radical of the Middle Ages has had a relation to somethinghe calls, indiscriminately, Madness, Dementia, Insanity. It is a realm, nodoubt, where what is in question is the limits rather than the identity of a culture.(Foucault xi)By describing madness in this way, he demonstrates his understanding of madness as acultural phenomenon, defined not by the analysis of a subjects symptoms, just rather theshared assumption that a subject is not mature, does not conform to the prevailing ideologicalnorm. Written in the juvenile twentieth century, his work is a treatise about the wider cultural effectsproduced by a policy of confinement of the social outsider. Three centuries earlier, WilliamShakespeare completed and present what are now considered the greatest and most evil ofall his tragedies, the cataclysm of Macbeth. Themes of witchcraft, infantici de, suicide and deathpervade the fabric of the play, which possibly contributes to the theatrical credulity thatsurrounds its production to this day. Nevertheless, it seems curious to me the play is seldomdiscussed as one that focuses on madness, when it deals with two of the most insane and depravedcharacters in all of Shakespeare.1It seems curious to me that Shakespeares tragedies so often revolve around uncouththemes of Madness, Dementia, Insanity, and there is much scholarship as to how this discourseof madness should be interpreted1, but less with particular reference to Macbeth. Curiouserstill is that Shakespeares rebirth understanding of madness, as demonstrated inhis portrayal of this madness is... ...ephen, et al. second ed. New York W.W. Norton,2008. Print.Somerville, Henry. Madness in Shakespearian tragedy. London The Richards Press Ltd.,1929. Print.Styan, J. L. The dramatic play Reason in Madness. Theatre Journal 32 3 (1980) 371-85. Print.---. Perspectives on Shakes peare in performance. Studies in Shakespeare vol. 11. New YorkP. Lang, 1999. Print.Weimann, Robert. Shakespeare and the popular tradition in the arena studies in the socialdimension of dramatic form and function. Ed. Schwartz, Robert. Baltimore Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 1978. Print.iiWheelwright, Philip. ism of the Threshold. The Sewanee Review 61 1 (1953) 56-75.Print.Wilson Knight, G. The wheel of fire interpretations of Shakespearian tragedy, with ternary newessays. University paperbacks, U. P. 12. 4th rev. and enl. ed. London Methuen, 1965.Print.iii