Apparently Madness is Contagious... (Act IV)

In Act IV of Hamlet, one thing that the audience can't help but notice is that Ophelia has snapped and very quickly slid down the slope of sanity into madness. Madness, lunacy, "ecstasy" and insanity in all forms seems to be a consistent theme throughout this play - and this Act is where it is first witnessed in Ophelia. Despite the fact that Hamlet claims to be sane and simply "pretending" to be mad in order to divert attention, I also believe he is quite obviously "off his rocker" as well. The first topic regarding madness in the play is how Shakespeare portrays it in his chosen subjects. The audience sees it in Ophelia in the form of incessant singing, somewhat incoherent speech and a strange fixation with flowers and death, while in Hamlet it is portrayed as showing some suicidal thoughts (To be, or not to be...), as well as potential signs of near-schizophrenia - including hallucinations (the Ghost), delusions (info provided by Ghost), and paranoia (not trusting many other people). It is obvious that Shakespeare was looking to mix it up a bit when it came to his crazy characters, as these two forms of madness are almost completely different. However, what I personally found interesting is that it appears as if Shakespeare - either intentionally or by accident - displayed this madness as a contagious illness. It seems as if, like the flu, Ophelia simply "caught" the madness-bug from Hamlet because of their relationship and how much she was hanging around him and being in physical contact with him. Just like the flu, she caught it and rapidly deteriorated into severe symptoms - except in this case it was lunacy instead of a cough. In my mind, I found this very interesting that it seemed that Hamlet "went mad," and subsequently Ophelia digressed as well - suggesting that maybe, just maybe, madness is contagious - and that was what Shakespeare was trying to tell us all along.

Final Word Count (Not including this footer): 330 Words.