Shakespeare\u27s Madwomen: How Elizabethan Theatre Challenged the Perception of Mental Afflictions

I would like to write about the perception of madness in Elizabethan England. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet will serve as my primary text and I will carefully examine Ophelia. However, it is my intent to use other works from the same era, perhaps even more examples from Shakespeare, to support my points. Currently my research questions are as follows: How did the theatrical representations of mad characters – particularly young women – in Elizabethan England reflect the perception of mental diseases and disorders at the time? To what extent were those representations serving as political comments? Were they typically in women characters? What does that say about the society