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

In the preface to Folie et draison, Michel Foucault unmistakably locates madness at thelimen of ethnical 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 thesh ared assumption that a subject is not right, does not conform to the prevailing ideologicalnorm. Written in the after-hours 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 staged what are now considered the greatest and most evil ofall his tragedies, the tragedy of Macbeth. Themes of witchcraft, infanticide, suicide and deathpervade the fabric of the play, which possibly contributes to the theatrical superstition thatsurrounds its production to this day. Nevertheless, it seems inquiring 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 commonthemes of Madness, Dementia, Insanity, and there is much scholarship as to how this discourseof madness should be interpreted1, but less with particular interview 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 Shakespearian tragedy. capital of the United Kingdom The Richards Press Ltd.,1929. Print.Styan, J. L. The Drama Reason in Madness. Theatre Journal 32 3 (1980) 371-85. Print.---. Perspec tives on Shakespeare in performance. Studies in Shakespeare vol. 11. New YorkP. Lang, 1999. Print.Weimann, Robert. Shakespeare and the popular tradition in the theater studies in the socialdimension of dramatic 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 wheel of fire interpretations of Shakespearian tragedy, with one-third newessays. University paperbacks, U. P. 12. 4th rev. and enl. ed. London Methuen, 1965.Print.iii