Love and Madness in Renaissance Tragicomedies – The Two Noble Kinsmen and The Winter’s Tale

Abstract

Madness is a topic often dealt with on the Renaissance stage. The article’s main interest is to analyze how the concept of madness is negotiated in tragicomedies. Before elaborating on how madness is constructed in two selected tragicomedies, The Winter’s Tale and The Two Noble Kinsmen, the genre will be defined. The complex relations of gender, love and madness are subsequently examined in the two plays. Madness not only sets conflicts in motion but also involves notions of gender and social criticism in both tragicomedies. The paper further analyzes how madness evolves in the protagonists and how it is treated throughout the play.