Hamlet’s Sanity
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Compare the copious evidence against Hamlet's madness with the complete lack of evidence for Ophelia's sanity after her father's murder. Her unquestionable insanity puts Hamlet's very questionable madness in a more favorable light. In IV.v. she is quite obviously mad, and unlike Hamlet there seems to be no method to her madness. All Ophelia can do after learning of her father's death is sing. Indeed, Hamlet's utter rejection of her combined with this is too much for her, and she doesn't sing a mourning song at the beginning of IV.v, but rather a happy love song.
Later, when she meets with Leartes, she says to him:
There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
Leartes: A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
Thought and afflictions, passion, hell itself, She turns to favor and to prettiness. (IV.v.179-89)
While th ...
