The inclusion of the term "madness" or the phrase "mad" plays a pertinent role in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Not only does the title character, Hamlet, show signs of "madness," but his love, Ophelia, "goes mad." Although from the plot of the work we can understand what is meant by crazy, but what really is madness? Merriam Webster's dictionary lists two definitions for this term: a state of serious mental illness and/or very foolish or dangerous behavior or thinking. Based on these definitions we can conclude that Ophelia, Hamlet's lover, daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, has indeed gone mad, but the question remains as to why. Ophelia has gone crazy because her body can't process all the pain and stress she's been subjected to during the events of the show. As far as we know, up until recent events, Ophelia has had a comfortable life. His father, an advisor to King Claudius, brought the family to a high place in society, safe from the effects of poverty. She's beautiful, rich and has a boyfriend, who's only good for a while. During King Hamlet's death, Polonius forbade his daughter Ophelia from seeing her only lover, the man she believed she would marry, she sings: "Said she, 'Before you made me fall, you promised me to marry.'" He replies : So I would have done, by that sun yonder, if you had not come to my bed” (Shakespeare IV.V) She has given herself completely to Hamlet, but on her father's orders she must sever all ties. This makes her grieve, grieve for lost love, true lost love. She is still in love with Hamlet, but must obey her father despite her grief; this is taking a toll on poor Ophelia. She is torn between the family,... the paper medium... the brand and her people should have helped her instead of letting the poor girl suffer. She suffered alone from this mental illness until her untimely death, which is still unclear whether it was suicide, accident or murder, but based on what that girl had to endure; it wouldn't have been unlikely that he simply couldn't stand it anymore. He had to put an end to the madness. So what is the real cause of Ophelia's madness? It's the lack of empathy and care that all the characters in the play felt towards the poor crazy girl. She wasn't crazy until she couldn't stand it anymore. This madness could have been stopped, perhaps days earlier, but no one bothered to ask a teenager simple questions: "Ophelia, is everything okay?" Is there anything you need to talk about?' Maybe next time these people will think twice before driving one of them crazy.