Rosencrantz and Guildenstern too, try to test Hamlet's madness. He plays mind games with his friends and reveals his madness by stating " I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw."(Act II, scene ii, pg 79) Knowingly admitting to his madness, he knows that reality is based upon his behavior.
Hamlet, in the end of act two, has seen a play performed by this player that has him deeply moved. He explains by saying, "Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must like a whore unpack my heart with words and fall a-cursing like a very drab.( Act II, scene ii, pg 86) Hamlet knows that playing mad won't receive revenge for his father's death. So, what he must do in order to find proof is to add a section to the play that portrays the very actions of Claudius killing the king. He concludes by saying, "The play's the thing wherein I"ll catch the conscience of the king."(Act II, scene ii, pg 86).
Afterwards, in act three Ophelia is set out as bait to find the truth in Hamlet's madness. Hamlet, however, knows the plan and enjoys mocking Ophelia because they believe it's a part of his madness. However, Hamlet's true madness comes out while threatening Ophelia, "Go to, I"ll no more on't, it hath made me mad." Hamlet realizes that he spends too much time with words not actions, and that by not fulfilling these actions it seems to make him brink almost to insanity. After watching this rather unpleasant scene the king begins to be suspicious with Hamlet's actions, "Love? His affections do not that way tend, nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, was not like madness. There's something in his soul o"er which his melancholy sits on brood." (Act III, scene I, pg 92) The king knows that Hamlet is not in this state of mind because of love, but rather the death of his father.