Hamlet

Scene 2,And truly, in my youth, I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I?ll speak to him again.? In a previous scene, Act 2.Scene 1, Ophelia enters with a rather amusing story of Hamlet's actions to which Polonius answers Mad for thy love?? At the end of Act 2.Scene 1, Polonius and Ophelia have discovered why Hamlet is mad. Ophelia says,. . .but as you did command I did repel his letters and denied his access to me.? Polonius replies,That hath made him mad.? The characters are trying to find a reason that Hamlet could be mad and this love for Ophelia is the best possible answer.
             Another incident of Hamlet's convincingmadness? deals with Ophelia in Act 2.Scene 1. Judging from Ophelia's statement, Hamlet is crazy. My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced, no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle, pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors - he comes before me.? This description certainly paints the picture of a distorted Hamlet. This scene, again, provides the audience with humor, for they are aware of Hamlet's scheme. This scene also shows, again, the attitudes the characters have toward Hamlet.
             Perhaps the most effective proof of Hamlet's sanity lies in his soliloquies. The first soliloquy, Act 1. Scene 5, occurs directly after Hamlet's conversation with his father's ghost. The tone of this soliloquy is not that of madness as in crazy, but that of an angry young man who feels betrayal from his family members. He begins his speech with angry curses,O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? And shall I couple hell? O fie! Hold, hold my heart, . . . He ends with more curses directed at the queen, his mother, and the king, his uncle. O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain.? These words are not jumbled and senseless.