Real madness cannot be controlled, but feigned madness is easily controlled in order to manipulate other people. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet pretends that he is mad in order to deceive King Claudius and his company when in reality, he is not mad at all. Hamlet admits the trick he is trying to pull, as well as Polonius and Claudius, whom he is trying to deceive, admit that at times it seems as if Hamlet is simply pretending to be crazy. While Hamlet deceives many people, it is often obvious that he is clearly not crazy but rather completely sane which he uses to deceive the king and his company. Hamlet refers to his madness in several scenes; in two scenes he admits that he is just pretending to be crazy. In act one, scene five, Hamlet admits to the ghost that he is going to "put on a mischievous character" so that he can deceive Claudius and possibly murder him. Later in the play, when Hamlet speaks to Gertrude in the closet scene of act three, scene four, he tells his mother that "I [Hamlet] am not essentially mad, but mad by profession". ...