Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare in which insanity plays a major role. Ophelia becomes demented because of her father's death and her mistreatment by Hamlet. Ophelia's insanity is conveyed through her childlike nature, lack of femininity, and her intensified value of flowers. Helen, a deranged kidnapper in the movie Hide and Seek, portrays many of the same characteristics as that of mad Ophelia.
             In their demented states, both Ophelia and Helen convey a lack of femininity. Femininity is generally characterized as the possession of qualities such as weakness, gentleness and delicacy. Although femininely weak and gentle, Ophelia lacks the womanly virtue of delicacy. Because of her "bawdy songs and verbal license," she is portrayed as a "sexually explicit madwoman" (Showalter 224). She illustrates her loss of delicacy in these "bawdy songs" (Showalter 224) in which she sings of being "tumbled" and loss of virginity (4.5.63). These unladylike subjects are considered an "offence against decorum" (Showalter, 224). In contrast, Helen lacks the weakness and gentleness generally associated with femininity. She proves this in her violent fits of rage, resulting in beating her husband to death with a baseball bat and frequent physical abuse of the pregnant woman whom she kidnapped. Thus, both women portray a significant lack of ladylike virtues in their states of insani!
             Although carefree singing in sober situations and insistence of getting their own way are two characteristics stereotypically associated with young children, both Helen and Ophelia convey these qualities in their madness. Ophelia is constantly with her "hair down singing" in a breezy manner even when singing of grave situations such as the death of her father and the deflowering of a virgin (qtd. in Showalter 224). She also proves her childish insistence in demanding that Laertes &q
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