Madness in Drama
Dr Iain McClure,
Consultant child and adolescent
psychiatrist, NHS Lothian.
Writer.
imcclure@nhs.net
Talk about…
• Introduction
• Definitions
• Basic themes
• Neurotic madness
• Psychotic madness
• Summary
INTRODUCTION
Definitions
‘Mad’ comes from O.E. gemaed(e)d
and O.Sax. Gimed, ‘foolish’.
Disordered in intellect; insane;
extremely and recklessly foolish;
infatuated; frantic with pain, violent
passion or appetite; furious with
anger; extravagantly playful or
exuberant; rabid.
[Chambers 20th Century Dictionary.]
Definitions - 2
Drama; Latin, Greek:
drama, dramatos—draein =‘to do’
A story of life and action for
representation by actors; a composition
intended to be represented on the stage;
theatrical entertainment; a dramatic
situation, or series of absorbing events
[Chambers 20th Century Dictionary.]
In drama something has to happen!
Definitions - 3
• So…
 Macbeth kills Duncan...
 Lear splits his kingdom into 3 and becomes an
outcast...
 Othello becomes jealous...
 Hamlet is told to kill his uncle by his father’s
ghost...
 Malvolio develops the belief that his mistress
loves him and wears yellow stockings (crossgartered) for her...
 Wozzeck eats too many peas, becomes
psychotically jealous and murders his
unfaithful girlfriend...
 Prior Walter develops AIDS and sees an angel.
Some basic themes...
•
Madness / mental illness affects 10%
of the population.
•
It has always been a subject of shame
and stigma, as it continues to be
today, despite 100 recent years of
active scientific progress in uncovering
secrets of the brain.
Some basic themes - 2
•
Madness defines the boundaries of what it
means to be human – this is the source of
its stigma – if madness can threaten a
person’s humanity, their soul, it is
something to be feared. It is inherently
dramatic.
•
Madness is, in itself, a calamity to befall any
human being and as such, is a proper
subject for a dramatist to explore. Mostly
this exploration takes a tragic route, but
comedy has also featured.
Some basic themes - 3
In drama, madness is a vehicle for
change; either for better or worse.
When mad, the protagonist often
sees things as they really are.
Some basic themes - 4
Some basic themes - 5
Madness can exist not just within a
character but within a dramatic setting
and within a dramatic mood, permeating
the audiences’ unconscious perception.
Madness can be a reaction to events
within the drama, or a cause of those
events.
Some basic themes - 6
•
Because madness defines the boundaries of
what it means to be human – playwrights
and theatre keep returning to it.
•
Insanity pushes the protagonist to the limits
of recognisable humanity.
•
Uniquely in any of the arts, drama provides
the audience with an opportunity to
vicariously experience madness – in real
time, in real space and then, as the play
ends, to return to reality ‘cured’ and,
perhaps, enlightened.
Neurotic madness
Neurosis is essentially, mental disturbance that
only partially compromises function.
The subject has full or near-full, insight into their
condition.
As such, they know that what they are thinking
is not their normal way of perceiving or
comprehending the world.
Their subjective feelings and perceptions are
often distressing, as they cannot see a way out
of them.
Neurotic madness - 2
Examples of this kind of madness are:
•
•
•
Hysteria
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Mild depression (sometimes called
reactive depression).
Drama has explored these types of
madness in various ways….
Neurotic madness - 3
Obsessional disorder - Lady MacBeth
(compulsive hand washing).
Obsessive jealousy - Othello (the specific
condition of the obsessively jealous husband is
known in psychiatry as ‘Othello Syndrome’)
Hysteria - dramatically prominent in
The Crucible
Mild depression - a common feature of Chekov’s
protagonists, notably in Ivanov
Neurotic madness - 4
In Renaissance times, being ‘melancholic’
was a particular form of social behaviour.
The melancholic wore black and was
irascible and anti-social. He frequently
appeared in drama, usually on the
rebound from rebuttal in love, as with
Romeo.
Neurotic madness - 5
Neurotic madness is also found in terms of
dramatic setting and mood.
In this sense, it is the audience who experience,
first hand, something of the experience of this
kind of madness.
For
•
•
•
example:
the depressed clarity of Beckett
the obsessive menace of Pinter
the surreal ambience of Strindberg’s Ghost
Sonata
Neurotic madness - 6
STUDENT. Drive her out of the house!
DAUGHTER. We can’t.
STUDENT. Why not?
DAUGHTER. We don’t know. She won’t go. No one has any
control over her. She has drained the strength from us.
STUDENT. Can I send her away?
DAUGHTER. No. It is ordained. She must stay with us. She
asks what we will have for dinner. I reply. She objects.
And, in the end, she does as she pleases.
[The Ghost Sonata. Methuen World Dramatists, p185.]
Psychotic madness
Psychosis is pure madness.
It is the experience of having altered
thoughts and perception, varying to a
partial or full extent, from the subject’s
‘normal’ cognitive and perceptive state
and usually occurs within a state of
normal consciousness.
It can be either acute or chronic.
Psychotic madness - 2
Drama has featured psychotic
breakdown from earliest times.
Almost two and a half thousand
years ago, around 450 BC, Sophocles
(496-406 B.C.) presented his tragedy
Ajax with the message – madness is
shameful, a punishment from the gods, a
tragedy for the sufferer and their family.
Psychotic madness - 3
The effect of prolonged anguish on the mind was
a subject that greatly occupied Euripides.
In Heracles Madness appears (according to the
Chorus) as a ‘horrible figure standing over the
palace’ sent by divine agency to cause the
protagonist to murder his wife and sons in a
psychotic frenzy.
The resulting tragedy stems from Heracles’
recovery and realisation of what he has done
(a clinical challenge experienced regularly in
modern forensic psychiatry).
Psychotic madness - 4
MESSENGER
....He pushed him back; handled his bow
And quiver, ready to shoot his own sons, thinking they
Were children of Eurystheus. Terrified, they rushed
This way and that; one hid behind his mother’s dress,
One in the shadow of a pillar, one behind
The altar cowered like a bird. Megara shrieked,
‘What are you doing? They’re your children!’ Amphitryon
And all the servants shrieked. Nimbly and swiftly he
Spun round the pillar, faced the child, and shot him dead.
....He’s sleeping now. Sleep is a blessing –
But not to one who has killed his wife and his three sons.
Indeed, I know of no man more unblest than he.
[Penguin Classics, trans. Philip Vellacott; pp.183-84.]
Psychotic madness - 5
Shakespeare has explored the dramatic
potential of madness more than any other
playwright.
Hamlet – his bipolar swings from
depression to mania. The duel at the end
is fuelled by his manic intensity, as he
seeks flight from his depressive insight
into the rottenness of the world.
Psychotic madness - 6
Lear – he is cleansed of pride and
stubbornness by his madness.
Twelfth Night - Malvolio is punished by a
consciously false attribution of madness,
for his comic inflexibility and pomposity.
Psychotic madness - 7
MALVOLIO. Sir Topas, never was man thus
wronged. Good Sir Topas, do not think I am
mad. They have laid me here in hideous
darkness.
FESTE. Fie, thou dishonest Satan – I call thee by
the most modest terms, for I am one of
those gentle ones that will use the devil
himself with courtesy. Sayst thou that the
house is dark?
MALVOLIO. As hell, Sir Topas.
Psychotic madness - 8
FESTE. Why it hath bay windows transparent as
barricadoes, and the celestories toward the southnorth are as lustrous as ebony, and yet complainest
thou of obstruction?
MALVOLIO. I am not mad, Sir Topas; I say to you this
house is dark.
FESTE. Madman, thou errest. I say there is no darkness
but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than
the Egyptians in their fog.
MALVOLIO. I say this house is as dark as ignorance,
though ignorance were as dark as hell; and I say
there was never man thus abused. I am no more mad
than you are...
[Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 2.]
Psychotic madness - 9
The modern era of drama was
kick-started by the protagonist’s
psychotic collapse in Buchner’s Wozzek.
Wozzek’s madness is the causative
powerhouse of this terrifying insight into
human baseness and human goodness.
Psychotic madness - 10
WOYZECK
On and on! For ever! On, on, on!
Stop the music. – Shh.
(Throws himself down.) What’s that? – What’s that you
say?
What’re you saying?
..Stab. ..Stab the she-wolf, dead.
Shall I?
Must I?
Is it there, too? In the wind even.
(Stands up.) It’s all round me. Everywhere. Round, round,
on and on and on...
Stab her. Dead, dead – dead!! (Runs out.)
[Woyzeck; Scene 13; Methuen Theatre Classics, trans. John Mackendrick; p.26.]
Psychotic madness - 11
In The Father - Strindberg explores the frightening
otherworld of paranoia, in a bourgeois setting.
The paranoid Captain suspects his beautiful young wife,
Laura, of having been unfaithful and that he is not the
biological father of their daughter. His suspicion destroys
his marriage, his status in society and, at the end of the
play, he is admitted to an insane asylum in a straitjacket.
However, all through the play, the dramatic tension is
maintained by the fact that we never finally discover if the
Captain has imagined Laura’s unfaithfulness or if he is, in
fact, correct to suspect her.
We the audience vicariously share the paranoia of the
protagonist.
Psychotic madness - 12
LAURA
Those suspicions of yours about the child are
completely unfounded.
CAPTAIN
That’s just what’s so horrible. If they were real, at least
one would have something to grip on, something to cling
to. Now there are only shadows, hiding in the bushes and
poking out their heads to laugh – it’s like fighting with air,
a mock battle with blank cartridges. A real betrayal would
have acted as a challenge, roused my soul to action. But
now my thoughts dissolve in twilight, my brain grinds
emptiness until it catches fire! Give me a pillow under my
head! And put something over me, I’m cold. I’m so terribly
cold!
[The Father, Act 3, Sc.7; Methuen World Dramatists, trans. Michael Meyer; p75.]
Psychotic madness - 13
The Dwarfs - Pinter’s character, Len, has schizophrenia. He
is tolerated by his two, apparently normal, companions,
Pete and Mark.
But at the end of the play, we suddenly realise that Pete
and Mark may have been figments of Len’s psychotic
imagination, dwarves of powerful visual and auditory
hallucinations.
Pinter’s exposure of the unknowableness of reality is
chilling. In being in the audience, watching Len, we are
dramatically involved in his psychotic world. In being in
the audience, perhaps we become, for the duration of the
play only, as, or more mad, than Len.
Psychotic madness - 14
MARK: You’ve been wasting my time. For years.
PETE: Don’t push me boy.
MARK: You think I’m a fool.
PETE: Is that what I think?
MARK: That’s what you think. You think I’m a fool.
PETE: You are a fool.
MARK: You’ve always thought that.
PETE: From the beginning.
MARK: You’ve been leading me up the garden.
PETE: And you.
MARK: You know what you are? You’re an infection.
PETE: Don’t believe it. All I’ve got to do to destroy you is to
leave you as you wish to be.
He walks out of the room. MARK stares, slowly goes off as
lights fade. Lights come up on down centre area. Enter
LEN.
[The Dwarfs; Harold Pinter: Plays 2; Faber and Faber, p. 104]
Psychotic madness - 15
In Angels In America –
Kushner’s exploration of AIDS shows
various characters experiencing
apparent visual and auditory
hallucinations that are powerfully
dramatic – notably when a great
angel unapologetically crashes into
Prior Walter’s flat causing
apocalyptic devastation.
Psychotic madness - 16
The ANGEL and PRIOR in PRIOR’s bedroom, three weeks
earlier: the wrecked ceiling, PRIOR in the bed (he
changes into his PJ’s as he moves to it), the ANGEL in
the air. BELIZE watches from the street.
ANGEL. Greetings, Prophet!
The Great Work Begins:
The Messenger has arrived.
PRIOR. Go away.
ANGEL. Attend:
PRIOR. Oh God there’s a thing in the air, a thing, a thing.
Psychotic madness - 17
ANGEL. I I I I
Am the Bird of America, The Bald Eagle,
Continental Principality,
LUMEN PHOSPHOR FLUOR CANDLE!
I unfold my leaves, Bright steel,
In salutation open sharp before you:
PRIOR WALTER
Long-descended, well-prepared...
PRIOR. No, I’m not prepared, for anything, I have lots to
do, I ...
Psychotic madness - 18
ANGEL (with a gust of music).
American Prophet tonight you become,
American Eye that pierceth Dark,
American Heart all Hot for Truth,
The True Great Vocalist, the Knowing Mind
Tongue-of-the-Land, Seer-Head!
PRIOR. Oh shoo! You’re scaring the shit out of
me, get the fuck out of my room. Please, oh
please...
[Angels In America; Act 2, Scene 2.]
Summary
•
Madness is a strong theme – the
driving force- (?) – within great
drama, throughout the ages
•
All kinds of madness have been
explored
•
Madness defines the boundaries of
what it means to be human – which is
the source of its stigma and which is
why drama and theatre keep returning
to it.
Questions...?