Innocent Love Leading to Madness Essay

Within Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and in Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the authors show how the themes love and madness, as in good and evil, can intersect. Toni Morrison shows that through the relationship between Hagar and Milkman, while Shakespeare uses the innocent Ophelia, who is deeply in love with Hamlet. In the book Song of Solomon and the play Hamlet, Tony Morrison and Shakespeare respectively, portray the kind of love that eventually leads to madness. The love between Ophelia and Hamlet, as well as between Hagar and Milkman is from the beginning pure love. The letter, which Hamlet writes to Ophelia, shows that he really loves her: â€Å"the most beautified Ophelia† (II, iii). He used the word beautified to display a sincere tribute and it is obvious that he loves her. In Song of Solomon, feeling starts to arise between Milkman and Hagar very early. Already when Hagar was to take in two baskets from the porch, it seemed to Milkman that she was â€Å"as pretty a girl as he’d ever seen† (p. 45). This attraction that later led to a relationship between them was one of the reason for Hagar’s incurable madness. As stated so far, the roots for madness was love. Although what it arose from, was the rejection from a beloved. In Hamlet, Hamlet himself rejects Ophelia as a result of his faked madness. This, together with happenings such as her father’s death, leads to a true madness. When Ophelia talks about Valentine’s Day, she is referring to the events of romance that she was denied. The madness caused by Hamlet’s faked rejection, lead to her suicide later in the play. In Song of Solomon, Milkman grows tired of Hagar, and puts an end to their relationship. It leads to insanity, here also caused by rejection from a beloved. When she realises that she will not get what she asks for, she makes several attempts of murdering him instead, with a frightened Milkman as a result. The authors characterise the devastating, but to the works important side effects that may arise when madness originates from love. In Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison combines love and madness to form a single image in the figure of the jilted lover Hagar, who ritualistically attempts to murder the object of her adoration, Milkman. The enormous passion for Milkman is shown when Guitar tries to speak with Hagar: â€Å"You think because he doesn’t love you that you are worthless† (p. 305), but with a taciturn response. Hagar’s death toward the end of the novel, caused by a fever symbolises and seems to stem from the heart that Milkman broke. In Hamlet, Shakespeare leaves Ophelia with her fatal madness caused by Hamlet’s rejection. Hamlet managed to rise above insanity and feelings of suicide, but Ophelia’s weaker spirit could not hold the burden. Conflicts between good and evil are often portrayed in literature, since the subject is so timeless. This conflict is a part of people’s lives constantly, no matter what century. It exists just as much in Hamlet, which was written in the 16th century, as it does in Song of Solomon, written in the 1970’s. The conflict between good and evil, love and madness; who can really draw the lines? Good and evil, in this work portrayed by love and madness, are constantly reoccurring themes that affect the reader. The madness often is a result of rejection from a beloved. Hamlet and Ophelia in Hamlet portray the themes, where Ophelia later becomes mad, due to Hamlet’s rejection. In Song of Solomon, Milkman’s rejection leads to the grave madness of Hagar. Both cases show how love can lead to something as terrible as death.