Madness: A Disease or an Act?
The prevalent theme in this act is madness, but more importantly the
accusations onto Hamlet.
At the end of Act 1, Hamlet is endowed with the secret that his father was murdered by his uncle, Claudius, in order to take over the throne. In Act 2, Hamlet pretends to be insane in order to buy himself time to prove
the guilt of Claudius. The first sign of disease is seen when Ophelia is visited by an apparent "mad" Hamlet "My lord, as I was sewing in closet, Lord Hamlet, with doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stocked fouled, Ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankles, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other" (Scene 1, lines 87-90). There is times that you see flaws in Hamlet's mad act, for example when Polonius speaks to Hamlet "Though this be madness, yet there is Method in't. --Will you walk out of the air, my lord?" (Scene 2, lines 222-223). This quote also proves that Hamlet isn't really crazy, since a madman would not be able to turn on/off his sanity.
Since Hamlet does not want to murder his uncle through the advice of a possible hallucination, he needs the time to figure out a plan to make sure Claudius did kill his father.
Polonius' view of Hamlet about Ophelia
http://www.coolchaser.com/graphics/tag/crazy
http://nummynims.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/alice_burton_mad-hatter-011.jpg
