A modern perception of madness often includes a person trapped in a padded room, delusional and depressed and perhaps locked in a straightjacket. This perception often comes, however, without reasons for or justification of the madness. Emily Dickinson once wrote, "Much madness is divinest Sense – to a discerning Eye –." In Hamlet, Ophelia goes mad after the death of Polonius, her father. In her madness, Ophelia reveals the intimacies of her life and her relationship with Hamlet, and is the most truthful with those around her, who mistake these truths for the ravings of a madwoman. This madness furthers the audience understanding of the toll that the tragedy is taking on the characters.
             In Ophelia's case, the madness exhibited is fairly close to the perception of madness that is common today. Ophelia, in Act IV, Scene V of Hamlet, can be found shrieking, screaming, and singing nonsensical songs to the king and queen of Denmark. Her behavior frightens Gertrude to such a degree that she originally refuses to see Ophelia. Gertrude herself says that, "...her speech is nothing/ Yet the unshaped use of it doth move/ The hearers to collection; they aim at it/ And botch the words to fit their own thoughts." Neither Gertrude nor Claudius, who witnessed the outburst of song and rhyme, believe that in her madness Ophelia can say anything that would make sense in its purest form, but that it exactly what Ophelia does. She details the intimacies of her relationship with Hamlet, saying in her song that she lost her virginity to him, and after she had given herself to him he refused to marry her.
             Of course, a person rarely goes mad for no reason, and Ophelia is no exception to the rule. Not only do both Claudius and Gertrude express their feelings that she is justified in her madness, but the audience feels the same way because of the tragedy that has befallen her. Ophelia has "betrayed" Hamlet, her
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