In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Polonius offers a simple explanation of madness, stating that "to define true madness, what is it to be nothing but mad ? » Such a diagnosis is necessary at the Danish court, where the perspective of reality shared by the courtiers cannot accommodate Hamlet's reactions to a markedly different reality. The entire world is caught up in a massive charade of nobility and honor created to protect its players from the cruel realities of their situation and protect them from the schism between emotion and expectation. It is Hamlet's inability to act and his intolerance towards actors that causes him to be called mad. Likewise, he is unable to avenge his father's murder because he knows that to do so would simply be playing his part in a meaningless drama in which the actors lie about their roles. Not only is the society he lives in artificial, but the terrible sins he knows have been committed have caused his view of reality to be completely devoid of justice and salvation. While madness is generally considered to be an inability of the individual to accept reality or society, Hamlet's madness is rather the reaction of an extremely sane mind to a society that cannot accept the reality and to a reality that is fundamentally imperfect. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Hamlet's position can be better understood in light of his film, Laertes. Both men's fathers were killed. Hamlet had a loving relationship with his father, viewing him as a God among men. Instead of using the knowledge of her father's murder as an opportunity for revenge, this information only makes her situation worse. While acknowledging his duty to the deceased king, he declared: “Time is disordered. O cursed spite, I was always born to remedy it. (1.5.188) The truth does not give Hamlet clarity and conviction about the path he must take, but instead casts a shadow of doubt on the idea that anything he can do will put the universe in order. Likewise, he states: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than your philosophy dreams of. » (1.5.166-168) The terrible sins he encountered cast a shadow over a world that would have given birth to them, and as a result, they drained the meaning of life. Laertes, on the other hand, reacts to grief in exactly the way Danish society would expect. He completely ignores everything except the social context of the events that have occurred and masks his cold-blooded plot to murder Hamlet using ruse with the facade of honor and a fair duel in which he even gives Hamlet a handicap . Perhaps the most ironic aspect of this duel is that even though it results in the death of almost every major character, it is never considered anything other than "game". Before he begins, Hamlet declares that he will "play this brother's wager fair." (5.2.253) All stage directions indicate that Laertes and Hamlet are "playing." (5.2) They never fight, even if they play to the death. In this way, the nobles of Denmark die as actors recreating a duel, not as people who live and die. By tasking players with re-enacting his reality, Hamlet adds both an element of realism to the play and perspective on his situation. The play performed at the Danish court is one in which the universe is not so terribly askew. In the murder of Priam and the Mousetrap, the act of revenge and the notion of justice and morality retain a certain degree of value and meaning because the universe.