O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me in temper; I would not be mad!
William Shakespeare, King Lear
For this writing project, we observed characters from our two plays, Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro and Shakespeare’s King Lear from the perspective of researchers interested in the psychology and sociology of madness or mental/emotional distress. We investigated how the character’s madness presented, how it unfolded, what its effects were, and what it indicated about the human condition. Click on the links below to see a few of our case studies!