莎士比亚悲剧中的“疯癫”

On Madness in Shakespeare’s Tragedies

“疯癫”是莎士比亚在悲剧创作中经常使用的一种戏剧手法,但如果严格遵照文本的标准,莎剧中真正疯癫的人物只有三个,即李尔、泰门和奥菲利娅,此外还有三个装疯的人物——哈姆莱特、爱德伽、泰特斯。莎士比亚对于“疯癫”的使用有着很强的个性和风格,他笔下的“疯癫”往往是一种变化,是一种权势失落的隐喻,并通过疯癫及其背后权势的失落和恢复,实现对主人公的惩罚和教育。而对于唯一的女性疯癫者奥菲利娅,则通过其疯癫表达了作者的同情和女性的反抗。装疯在莎剧中主要是一种展现复仇的装置。莎士比亚在悲剧创作中使用疯癫,主要是为了增加波折,引发观众的怜悯和恐惧,或是为作家代言。其目的主要是为了戏剧效果,而非情节的必需。

“Madness”,as a dramatic technique,has been frequently employed in Shakespeare’s tragedies.But in a literal sense,there are only three characters—Lear,Timon and Ophelia—who are really mad.In addition to them,there are three more characters who are faking madness,namely Hamlet,Edgar and Titus Andronicus.Shakespeare’s“madness”is often a sort of change and a metaphor for the loss of power.The mad protagonists get punishment and learn lessons through a process of losing and recovering power.The madness manifested in Ophelia,the only mad female character,represents the resistance of the oppressed women and sympathy from the author,while“pretending to be mad”has been used as a means for revenge.Therefore,the madness in Shakespeare’s tragedies is mainly used not for the need of plot development but for dramatic effects,that is to say,for enriching the details of plot,for arousing the pity and fear from audience and for speaking for the playwright.