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

In the foreword to Folie et draison, Michel Foucault unmistakably locates madness at thelimen of heathenish identityEuropean man, since the beginning 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, but rather theshared assumption that a subject is not right, does not conform to the prevailing ideologicnorm. Written in the late twentieth century, his work is a treatise intimately the wider cultural effectsproduced by a policy of confinement of the well-disposed outsider. Three centuries earlier, WilliamShakespeare completed and staged what are now considered the greatest and some evil ofall his tragedies, the tragedy of Macbeth. Themes of witchcraft, inf anticide, suicide and deathpervade the material of the play, which possibly contributes to the theatrical superstition 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 corruptcharacters in all of Shakespeare.1It seems curious to me that Shakespeares tragedies so a lot revolve around commonthemes of Madness, Dementia, Insanity, and there is much scholarship as to how this discourseof madness should be interpreted1, but less with particular quotation to Macbeth. Curiouserstill is that Shakespeares Renaissance understanding of madness, as demonstrated inhis portrayal of this madness is... ...ephen, et al. 2nd ed. New York W.W. Norton,2008. Print.Somerville, Henry. Madness in Shakespearean tragedy. London The Richards Press Ltd.,1929. Print.Styan, J. L. The Drama Reason in Madness. Theatre ledger 32 3 (1980) 371-85. Print.---. Perspectives on Sha kespeare in performance. Studies in Shakespeare vol. 11. New YorkP. Lang, 1999. Print.Weimann, Robert. Shakespeare and the normal tradition in the theater studies in the socialdimension of salient form and function. Ed. Schwartz, Robert. Baltimore Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 1978. Print.iiWheelwright, Philip. Philosophy of the Threshold. The Sewanee Review 61 1 (1953) 56-75.Print.Wilson Knight, G. The wander of fire interpretations of Shakespearian tragedy, with three newessays. University paperbacks, U. P. 12. 4th rev. and enl. ed. London Methuen, 1965.Print.iii