Love and Madness

Hamlet, hmmm...where to start. Although, the play was hard to understand at first throughout the play the development of the madness in the character caught my greatest attention.  Lets face it, Hamlet is a crazy person who I would run away from if I saw him.  The cause of all of the madness through Ophelia and Hamlet is a result of loss of love and compassion from someone.  Hamlet starts to go mad after the death of his father and the discovery of how the King murdered his father.  Shakespeare shows the value of love and the impact of broken trust through the deterioration of Hamlet's relationships which caused him to go mad.  The strongest and most psychotic breakdown of Hamlet was after he killed Polonius and after the altercation he partakes in with Ophelia.  Shakespeare creates the split-personality of Hamlet to show the dimension and true impact and value of love.  With the love of family and that "special person" life seems to have more meaning, Shakespeare had the loss of his father affect Hamlet so greatly to show his point.  The destruction of Ophelia and Hamlet's relationship was a result of Hamlet's mental breakdown. The result of the lack of intimacy and love that Hamlet provides for Ophelia drives her literally insane.  Ophelia and Hamlet are put in the same mental state as they have both experienced the grave sorrow of the loss of a father.  Why does Shakespeare have them both lose a father and then go crazy? To attract more influence on the importance of family relations and the impact of love.  I will admit that I had a hard time keeping my attention toward Hamlet.  With all of the crazy nonsense of Hamlet's tantrums and the unpredictable deaths written in Shakespearian ways, it was hard for me to follow at times.  There is a lot of crazy behavior, which  Shakespeare intended to draw attention to the lack of love and the drive for power in a corrupt system.