Rubén Darío Tineo Sánchez November 2nd 2005

Target audience: Pat

“Method in my madness”

William Shakespeare is one of the most controversial authors that has ever

exited, not because of the content of what he wrote, but for many other factors such us

what did he really write, were did he born or even whether he existed, because there are

people who agree with the theory that says that the figure of Shakespeare was formed

by not only a person.

Regardless of these issues, something there is no doubt about is the

extraordinary legate Shakespeare has led the English language. For example, there are

quotations that were included in Shakespeare’s plays which have survived until

nowadays probably because of they were written by Shakespeare. One of these

quotations is “method in my madness”.

“Method in my madness” appeared in Hamlet, one of the most well-known

Shakespeare’s plays. To understand this quotation, it is necessary to make an analysis of

the context it was said. Hamlet is mainly a revenge story. Hamlet is the prince of

Denmark. When his father is murdered, his uncle Claudius marries Gertrude (Hamlet’s

mother and queen of Denmark), and becomes king of Denmark, when even not two

months had been spent since the king’s murder. Then, the ghost of the murdered king

appears to ask for revenge. So, Hamlet realizes who his uncle is. That is why he

pretends being crazy, even with his girlfriend (Ofelia) and friends (Horatio). Polonius,

the councillor of the king, is the person who says “there is a method in his madness”,

referring to princess Hamlet, because Polonius realized that the madness that Hamlet

pretended was not real at all.

 Nowadays, this sentence has evolved and changed. Though this be madness

yet there is method in it is the form it has adopted. In spite of its change, the idea is the

same: when people say this sentence, they refer for example, that when a person has

done something and it seems that he or she did not mean to do it, actually he or she did

it deliberately; also it can be used in the same way Polonius did: when someone is

pretending.

Finally, the main reason why this Shakespeare’s quotation seems to have

survived until nowadays is because it is in one of the Shakespeare’s play, and people are

still using it.

REFERENCES

• http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/

• http://www.dlhoffman.com/publiclibrary/Shakespeare

• http://www.allshakespeare.com/hamlet/

• http://shakespeare.about.com/

• http://www.shakespeare-online.com/

• http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/