12/9 Hamlet #14

Ophelia's Madness
There is no doubt that Ophelia is quite mad at the end of her life. The last scene that Ophelia appears in her dialogue is almost completely composed of nonsensical little songs. These songs are focused on death, love, and betrayal. Laertes says in line 170, "This nothing's more than matter," about his sister's ramblings. Indeed, her obsession with death and love reveal the cause of her insanity: the death of her father. The death of her beloved father, who she was shown to follow blindly, by none other than her lover broke the last straw. The stress of the last few days events, her brother's departure, the suspicious air at court, Hamlet's crumbling mental state, and finally her father's death were too much to handle and Ophelia cracked. She, like the rarely mentioned Denmark, was just a pitiful, innocent, but very intimately connected bystander.

Hamlet's Madness 2
The beginning of Act V opens with a slight break all the tragedy and seriousness by introducing two comical gravediggers. Hamlet comes across one cheerily digging up to grave of poor Yorik for Ophelia's fresh corpse. Hamlet and Horatio come across this sight and Hamlet's response is telling. While he seems to have the reaction of any sane person, somewhat horrified, his response when compared to Horatio's is telling. Hamlet's dialogue is long winded and a tiny bit comical as he makes legal puns about what one should lose and keep during death. Even when he finds out that the bones being carelessly tossed about by the clown are that of his old friend Yorik, Hamlet's reaction is more amused than sad and upset while he rambles on and on. Horatio's only response are short, unemotional statements. Horatio, who surely would comfort his friend or help him in some way, has no reaction at all. Therefore, the mood and length of Hamlet's speech imply that he is still mad.
However, Hamlet's madness is different from Ophelia's madness. Ophelia insanity was born instantaneously by natural human forces. She had lost all powers of comprehension and reason, and even her own identity in her madness. Hamlet, on the other hand, still was essentially Hamlet even when he became insane. He was still aware of his surroundings, had his reason, and his personality. His madness was born out of obsession, revenge, and supernatural forces (the ghost that was supposedly the "spirit of [his] father).