mad·ness
/ˈmadnəs/
noun
-
the state of being mentally ill, especially severely.
synonyms
-
extremely foolish behavior
-
a state of frenzied or chaotic activity.
The definition of madness shows three possible explanations, in this blog, I focus on the second explanation the most, which is: extremely foolish behavior.
Books and stories have many themes, we can compare the connections between books through themes. Especially with the three texts: Hamlet, Death of a Salesman, and Araby, we can connect these stories through the theme of madness.
Starting with Hamlet, I think that madness is the most present out of all these texts in this play. Hamlet's madness starts off after his father dies and his heart is broken by Ophelia. Other characters start to notice that he is going mad and start to treat him like a lab rat in the case that they watch his every move to see why he has become mad. It is very irritating having people watch you 24/7, look at celebrities, for example, paparazzi is so annoying to them to the point where they can't even go on a walk to have some fresh air without being asked questions with a camera pointed in their face. Hamlet is like a celebrity to everyone else, he is being watched everywhere he goes because people want to know why he is mad even though it shouldn't be any of their business. Hamlet's madness eventually goes overboard and he gets carried away and becomes someone he is not, his foolish behavior leads him to think that murder is the answer. He takes the route of murder thinking it will solve all his problems but when instead he dies as well.
Hamlet's Madness: Is Hamlet Really Mad?
The second text that we can compare through madness in this blog is Death of a Salesman. Willy, the protagonist, goes through lots of stress in his life from trying to be the best and ends up going mad because of it. Willy's main goal in the book is to achieve the American Dream, the ideal life that any businessman would want. Willy interprets the dream wrong in my opinion, he thinks that being good looking and "well known" is living the American Dream but what it actually is, is working hard to earn money and build a great family. I think that his madness builds up from working to achieve something that won't actually bring him happiness. The saying money won't bring you happiness is very true, no one could be happy with having a lot of moving over having a beautiful loving family. It is like Willy is looking for something but every time he misses the spot where that something is because he isn't looking in the right places. Willy gets an opportunity to work with family in a good job yet he doesn't think it will get him to his end goal so he continues to look elsewhere for an answer. Willy's madness builds up from his stress and failures in life, only if he took the right path to his goal, could he have lived the American Dream.
Finally, we have Araby, the protagonist in this story is obsessed with a girl who doesn't even know him. The madness brought out by him is a little different, I would say it is more of an obsessive type of madness than a crazy type. The man watches the girl every day through his window, he finds out that she is going to a Bazaar and begs his parents to let him go. When he goes he tries to get her something but can't find anything and he realizes that this affection he thought was "love" is actually lust. This madness could be a little creepy in a way because he is basically stocking this girl, by watching her every day he knows her daily schedule and thinks something is wrong once it has changed. His madness is understood by the character himself when he realizes his feelings have been lust this whole time.
