Hamlet: Madness or Brilliance

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heaven,
Whiles like a puffled and reckless libertine
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede. (1.3 43-50)

This is a simple reply to her brother just saying I will listen to you but do not go and be a hypocrite. These are simple lines but they show that she has her wits about her, and that she is not mad or anywhere close to it. In the beginning there is no trouble at all with Ophelia, the trouble comes later after her father, Polonius has been killed by Hamlet. We first see that she has completely gone mad when she is talking to the queen. She starts to sing to her:

He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass green turf,
At his heels a stone,
O, ho! (4.5 29-33)

At this point Ophelia has completely lost it. She started out a normal girl who liked a guy, and then she went crazy and suicidal. Ophelia makes her grand exit from the play by drowning herself, completing her descent into madness.

Next, when ...

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