Hamlet is a play written by Shakespeare William. It is one of the most criticized literary works and best-reviewed plays in the world today. The protagonist of the play is Hamlet. Shakespeare uses his characters very well to represent specific areas of human nature. In Hamlet, Shakespeare creates a vivid and in-depth vision of his characters who clearly represent certain areas of human nature. Shakespeare uses Hamlet and Ophelia to represent the theme of madness in the play. Ophelia was truly mad, where her madness originated from the circumstances she had to face in her life, while Hamlet was not truly mad but feigned his madness to carry out his revenge. Hamlet began to feign his madness after hearing from his father's ghost that he had been murdered. Hamlet is a very complicated character in the play. His speeches and actions make it very easy for the reader to describe the part of human nature he represents. Hamlet's resentment and longing for his father's death drives his actions throughout the play. The need for revenge and his hatred later push him to his death in the play. Hamlet was so obsessed with revenge and this destroyed his logic affecting his thought process causing him to go mad. His father was murdered and this drove him to madness because he was thirsty for revenge by killing his stepfather and his madness convinced him that it was right to kill his stepfather. At the beginning of the play it is very clear that Hamlet is faking his madness. His father's ghost appeared to him telling him that he had been murdered by his brother and it became very clear that he was planning his next move to take revenge and so he pretended it was madness. Hamlet followed what the ghost told him about his... medium of paper... it's compelling. Hamlet uses his feigned madness to cover up for people and advance his agenda of revenge. In contrast, Ophelia is a victim whose madness is the result of the tragedies she has faced. Shakespeare introduces a double madness into his work making it very interesting. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York. Washington Square Press. 1958.Bevington, David, Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet; a collection of critical essays, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1968.Ferguson, Margaret W. "Hamlet: Letters and Spirits," Shakespeare and the Question of Theory, Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman, eds., New York: Routledge , 1985.Greenblatt, Stephen, Hamlet in Purgatory, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. No fear Shakespeare: Hamlet. Ed John Crowther. New York: Spark, 2003. Print