The inclusion of the term “madness” or the phrase “gone mad” plays a relevant role in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Not only does the main character, Hamlet, show signs of “madness,” but his love interest, Ophelia, “goes mad.” Although the plot of the play allows us to understand what is meant by mad, but what is madness really? The Merriam Webster Dictionary lists two definitions of this term: A state of serious mental illness and/or very foolish or dangerous behavior or thinking. Based on these definitions, we can conclude that Ophelia, Hamlet's lover, daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, has in fact gone mad, but the question remains why. Ophelia has gone mad because her body cannot handle all the grief and stress she has been subjected to during the events of the play. As far as we know, until recent events, Ophelia had a comfortable life. His father, an advisor to King Claudius, placed the family in an elevated part of society, free from the effects of poverty. She's beautiful, rich and has the boy, well only for a little while. When King Hamlet dies, Polonius forbids his daughter Ophelia from seeing her one and only lover, the man she thought she would marry, she sings: “Before you overthrow me, you promised me. get married. He replies: So would I have done, by that sun, If you had not come to my bed. » (Shakespeare IV.V) She gave herself entirely to Hamlet, but by order of her father, she must break all ties. It makes her cry, cry for lost love, true lost love. She is still in love with Hamlet, but must obey her father despite his grief; This puts a lot of stress on poor Ophélie. She is torn between her family, ...... middle of paper ...... mark and his people should have helped her instead of letting the poor girl suffer. She suffered alone from this mental illness until her untimely death, which it is still unclear whether it was a suicide, an accident or a murder, but according to what this girl had to endure; it wasn't unlikely that she simply couldn't take it anymore. She had to put an end to the madness. So, what is the real cause of Ophelia's madness? It was the lack of empathy and care that all the characters in the play felt towards the poor crazy girl. She wasn't crazy until she couldn't take it anymore. This madness could have been stopped, perhaps a few days ago, but no one bothered to ask a teenager the simple question: “Ophelia, is everything okay?” Is there something you need to talk about? Maybe next time these people will think twice before letting one of their own go crazy..