摘要
Ulysses, the towering mythological figure and the hero of the world＇s most famous epic The Odyssey, put on the pretence of madness to shirk the Trojan War. This is not mentioned in Homer, but in Fabulae by Gaius Julius Hyginus. Similarly, Hamlet put on an ＂antic disposition＂ after the ghost exhorted him to kill King Claudius. In these two cases taken from mythology and literature, and pertaining to the Classical period and the Elizabethan age respectively, intelligent characters put on the pretence of madness, in their battle with society though they are in control of their senses. It is the aim of this paper to examine the dynamics of reason and non-reason when combined and brought so close to one another, that they could be easily confounded, in light of Derrida＇s reading of Descartes＇ formulations about reason. Since the two examined works pertain to the Classical and Elizabethan ages respectively, the paper will shed light on the historical background of madness in these periods to give a broader perspective of reason and madness in these works.
