"Though this be madness,
yet there is method in't."
"They say the owl was a bakers
daughter" "To be your
valentine"
"There's fennel for you, and
columbines...rue for you" "There's a
daisy" "I would give you some violets, but
they withered all when my father died"
"As if he had been loosed out
of hell to speak of horrors"
Unnatural behaviour,
his appearance reflects
his grief.
In disorder. Not
conforming to the roles
of a prince, his
outburst of grief and
anger.
"Mad for thy love? My lord I
do not know, but truly I do
fear it. "
Suggests that Hamlet had
gone mad because of the
actions of Polonius in
keeping him and Ophelia
apart.
Associating his behaviour
with hell suggests that he
was 'controlled by the
devil'- Elizabethan belief.
Links to the idea
that madness is
caused by
possession.
Hamlet was so wild and
incomprehensible that Ophelia
could only compare his
behaviour to a demon escaped
from hell to deliver some evil
message.
Ophelia and Polonius interpret Hamlet's
wild behaviour as a symptom of his love
for her. The audience, however, is privy
to a more likely explanation: Hamlet
does have horrors from hell to speak off-
his fathers murder and his ghost coming
to earth asking for revenge.