In Act 4, Scene 5, the Queen, a Gentleman, and Horatio begin the scene speaking with each

other, and then with Ophelia, who seems to have gone mad. Ophelia is singing throughout
her conversation with the Queen and King. Her song contains so many hidden messages and is
a lot of fun to decipher!

I think Ophelia is going mad with thoughts of her lost love with Hamlet, as well as
with her fathers death. In the lines How should I your true love know from another one, (28-
29) Ophelia is speaking about Hamlet and how he has betrayed her love. Ophelia may also be
sneakily leading to the false love between Gertrude and Claudius. (Remember, she is singing
the song to Gertrude and later on the king). On a more literal level, the words just mean How
can I tell the difference between various men (or her lovers), and the response is By his cockle
hat and staff and his sandal shoon. Ophelia could be saying that all men are the same on the
inside; they are only differentiable by the clothes they wear. In this regard, Hamlet is no
different than Claudius, or Laertes, or Polonius. In the next lines, He is dead and gone, lady,
Ophelia is once again referring to the lost loves of not only Hamlet, but of the love from her
father, who was killed.
However, Ophelia speaks kindly of her father, in the lines, Which bewept to the ground
did not go with true-love showers (44-45). She believed that her fathers love for her was full
and unlike the love Hamlet promised her in that it was actually fulfilled. Of course, Hamlets
love for Ophelia included the attraction aspect, which Im sure was not the case with her father.
Ophelia is also upset that Hamlet left her after having sex with her. Then up he rose
and donned his clothes and dupped the chamber door, let in the maid, that out a maid never
departed more (57-60). She might feel used as well as worthless to Hamlet.