Hamlet goes through some very troubling situations which he seems to act in an insane manner. He is convincing though that he was "…not in madness, but mad in craft"(3.4.108). Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. King Hamlet, his father, died recently. Shortly following King Hamlet’s death, Gertrude, the mother of Hamlet, married the brother of her dead husband. Claudius, the brother of Old King Hamlet is now the King and husband of Gertrude. Hamlet returned home to for both the celebration of his mother’s wedding to his uncle and for the funeral of his father. Hamlet was bombarded by many situations at the start of the play which his psyche had to deal with. The quick marriage of his mother was upsetting and disgusting, he best expressed as: "Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes, she married. O, most wicked speed,

Hamlet was never truly mad to begin with, he would not have waited so long to kill Claudius, because it would be the opposite of self government and regicide would not matter to him. As for poor Ophelia, the same could not be said about her. Her fate proved to show that she was truly driven mad. A series of events constrained her to eventually go crazy. First, Polonius, her father, demands that she tell Hamlet at once that she can no longer be with him and tells her "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways" (1.3.46). It is clear that Polonius makes decisions for his daughter, regardless if she really loves Hamlet or not. She feels very unimportant, and because of this develops a lack of emotional confidence and strength. All she can reply is "I do not know, my lord, what I should think" (1.3.45). She is use to relying on her father’s direction and has been brought up to be very obedient. As well, her brother Laertes agrees with what their father is saying.

Following the play, Hamlet meets with his mother. There he lunges at Polonius, thinking that the person behind the curtain might have been Claudius. Although in front of his mother he does not ‘know’ who is behind the curtain and thus, had he killed Claudius, he could not have done so deliberately. Although Hamlet feigns insanity in order to throw off suspicion of his true, hostile intentions to kill Claudius, there is one person who sees through them, namely Claudius. This proves that Hamlet is sane because Claudius knows the truth and becomes worried.

In theory, Hamlet could have killed Claudius while feigning insanity. Thus, he would escape estrangement, because his people would blame his action on his insanity, not on malicious intent. He does not do this, however, because he is subconsciously inhibited from deliberately killing Claudius for two reasons. Religion was the first reason; more importantly not having enough facts that Claudius truly killed his father. Only having the word of a g

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