Madness in Hamlet

Madness is a grand theme in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. After he sees his fathers ghost, Hamlet decides to feign madness so he can disguise his motive for avenging his father's death. He starts to fake his madness shortly after his run in with his father's ghost, this is very apparent in his talks with Pollonius. Hamlet continues to fake madness for a good amount of time, until the rage he feels actually starts to make him crazy, as is shown when he blindly kills polonius on accident thinking it is the king. The further the play goes on, the more real madness becomes apparent in hamlet's character as well as central theme in the play. Ophelia is another character who becomes crazy as the play goes on, she is driven crazy by the madness of hamlet, which is made far worse by the death of her father, as she eventually ends up killing herself. Ophelia's madness is far more genuine than Hamlet's overall, but the madness in both of them, provoked by tragedy, causes them both to act extremely irrationally and makes the play take a huge twist in plot.