Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy in all sense of the word. Its most prominent characters, Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes, all of whom die, do not do so before going through the most tortuous and devastating of mishappenings. From the very beginning, we learn that Hamlet’s father, the king, has just died. And, only two months after, Hamlet’s mother marries his father’s brother. Hamlet is clearly distressed about his father’s death, but what brings about his suspicions is a visit from his father’s supposed ghost, who tells him that Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, poisoned him. From that point on, Hamlet plots and plots how to reveal his uncle’s guilt and get his revenge. But Hamlet is not a violent, murderous person. He is a scholar. And thus he decides to feign craziness -- or so he believes. Throughout the rest of the play, we see his relationship with the other characters crumble as he becomes increasingly overcome by his rage and suspicion. By the very end, Hamlet gets his revenge, but …show more content…
Furthermore, we haven’t seen Ophelia and Hamlet interact before this so we cannot know what their relationship was like, but we can make an educated guess that Hamlet never acted like this with her before based on the fact that she prays that he returns to his normal self in line 153. However, everything going through Hamlet’s mind is much more complex than what would be going through an insane person’s mind. To really understand Hamlet’s behaviour, it is necessary to look back at act one scene