"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw."
-Hamlet, Hamlet, Act II, scene ii

What is it that makes a man mad? Is it simply an illness, or is it the result of an action? A choice, or a misfortune? In labelling and writing his characters as 'mad', Shakespeare also gives us a glimpse into the Elizabethan mind, and their ideas on what, exactly, a madness was made of.

Shakespeare, as a writer, seems to have been quite fond of using madness as a way to communicate information and viewpoints to the audience. Whether this inclination comes from personal experience with the 'mad' in his life cannot be said for certain, but it is a technique that he uses often, and in many plays.

Hamlet is perhaps the best known of Shakespeare's mad characters, but the question that must always be asked remains: is Hamlet mad by choice, or mad by nature? Hamlet himself, in the quote above, admits that he is artfully mad, choosing to keep those around him off-balance and guessing while he ferrets out the truth of his father's murder and his uncle-stepfather's intentions.

But what of Ophelia, the woman that he claims to love? Can pretended madness cause 'real' insanity in another person? Is it Hamlet who drives Ophelia mad by loving her one moment, and ranting at her the next? Or is Ophelia responsible for Hamlet's constantly changing nature? Ophelia's speech, songs, and mannerisms certainly lead us to believe that her mind has been affected.

It seems clear that Shakespeare believes that one man's, or woman's, actions can drive another man mad. King Lear, he tells us, is driven mad by the deceits and deceptions of those who should love him most, his daughters and their husbands. Even when his youngest daughter, Cordelia, is returned to him and recognized, we learn that his madness has progressed to far, that his mind has been destroyed already and that what might have been his salvation only drives him deeper.

Lear, though, is also driven mad by his own realization that his confidence in his own authority, his own 'rightness' has hardened him to hearing others, and accepting change and opinion. He chooses to banish those most loyal to him, and pays the penalty with his own strength of mind. Another lesson for the reader and audience: Pride is a madness of its own.

"This disease is beyond my practice," the doctor reports in Act Five, Scene 1 of Shakspeare's _Macbeth_ after seeing Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and wringing her hands. The guilt of murder, Shakespeare tells us, leads this woman first into madness, and then to take her own life, much like Ophelia. So perhaps guilt, too, is a disease.

Rage, too, must be a reason for madness. Othello, we learn, suffers from fits of epilepsy, brought on by fits of rage. We know now that epilepsy is a disease, and not simply a 'fit' or a 'tantrum', but Iago himself labels Othello's spells a madness, and Cassio and those around him seem to agree.

Madness may be a curse, or a blessing, depending on the character afflicted, but you can be sure that when Shakespeare makes a character 'mad', he's got something more important to say.