"I will be brief: your noble son is mad.

Mad call I it, for, to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad?" --Polonius, ct II, !cene II

Within a month of her husbands death, Gertrude has married her brotherin-law. Hamlet cannot comprehend his mothers actions and considers them to be an act of treachery and deceit.

Hamlet and Claudius

Hamlet idealizes his father in death and describes him as so excellent a kin ! in his " that this too too solid flesh would melt! speech in #ct $, %cene &.'n Hamlets eyes nobody can replace his father as (in . 'n the same scene, he pleads with Hamlet to think upon him as a father ) an idea that furthers Hamlets contempt* We pray you to throw to earth +his unpre,ailin woe, and think of us #s of a father When the host re,eals that -laudius killed the kin to take the throne, Hamlet ,ows to a,en e his fathers murder. Howe,er, Hamlet appears to be emotionally disorientated and finds it difficult to take action, displayin his inability to be decisi,e and purposeful.