Ophelia is really mad as in she is truly insane; today she would be institutionalized.
Hamlet is mad, but not in the crazy sense. After hearing what the Ghost tells him, he is mad at Claudius and his Mother for betraying him and his father. To conceal the fact that he knows Claudius killed his father, he acts mad to everyone around him so that he doesn't seem like a threat to Claudius. His goal is to be mad enough that he isn't institutionalized, but still be able to get away with his weird behavior.
perspective.
Polonius is sure that Hamlet has gone mad with love for Ophelia. See these lines by Polonius in Act 2 scene 1: ~Polonius: Come, go with me! I will go seek the King;This is the very ecstasy of love,...Ophelia: ... I did repel his letters, and denied His access to me.Polonius: That hath made him mad;~ So Polonius thinks Hamlet is suffering from the "ecstasy of love" for Ophelia, which has driven him mad.
dream works
Ophelia is really mad as in she is truly insane; today she would be institutionalized. Hamlet is mad, but not in the crazy sense. After hearing what the Ghost tells him, he is mad at Claudius and his Mother for betraying him and his father. To conceal the fact that he knows Claudius killed his father, he acts mad to everyone around him so that he doesn't seem like a threat to Claudius. His goal is to be mad enough that he isn't institutionalized, but still be able to get away with his weird behavior.
To spy on him. First of all he wants to spy on him when interacting with Ophelia, and when this fails to support his theory, he wants to spy on him while interacting with Gertrude.
Polonius, Claudius, and Ophelia devise a plan to observe Hamlet's behavior and determine the cause of his apparent madness. They decide to use Ophelia as bait, encouraging her to interact with Hamlet while they secretly watch their encounter. This scheme aims to gather evidence about Hamlet's feelings and mental state, ultimately to confirm whether his madness is due to his love for Ophelia or if there are other underlying reasons.
Yes. He makes this instant diagnosis when Ophelia tells him about Hamlet bursting into her chamber half-undressed: "This is the very ecstasy of love"
Gertrude tells Claudius that it was out of madness. This means that Gertrude had not divulged the knowledge that Hamlet was faking his madness.
He shows them a love-letter Hamlet wrote to Ophelia.
Ophelia is, by Act 4, no longer a functional person. The king orders Horatio to "follow her close; give her good watch I pray you" because she cannot look after herself. Hamlet, on the other hand, although we do not see him very much in Act 4, is very much able to look after himself. In the scene immediately following Ophelia's last appearance, Horatio receives a letter in which Hamlet describes how he helped defend his ship against pirates, boarded the pirate ship and now has convinced them to return him to Denmark. He is still more than competent.
In Hamlet, Ophelia did not have a choice. Hamlet put on such a display of madness that Ophelia and everyone else believed him. If Ophelia revealed that the King and Polonius were behind the curtains, she would have lost favor with her father and become the shame of the family. In the male centric world, women like Ophelia could only accept the outrageous ideals set by men. In her situation, she choose her father because that was her only choice.
Ophelia goes mad, and in her madness she is brought to the Queen where she begins singing songs that appear to be senseless. However, if you consider her words carefully, you will notice that she is revealing some secrets of her story. We learn what went on between her and Hamlet and that she had lain with him. If you go over Act IV, scene v , you will see what I mean.