Act 3 Scene 1

In act 3 scene 1 Hamlet continues with his mysterious disposition. In this scene he does not really present himself as crazy to his family, just cynical and sarcastic. He takes out his anger on Ophelia which, to the King and Queen, contradicts Polonius’ view that he was crazy because of un-answered love. He does not sound insane to me in this scene, just disgusted and annoyed. Hamlet seems to be more fed up with Ophelia and her love than desiring of it. But this poses the question whether he was just acting crazy in front of Ophelia in act 2 or whether it was genuine. I lean more towards the acting side because after Hamlet sees the ghost, he tells Horatio and the others that he is going to go insane for little while. But if he really did love Ophelia, maybe the scene in act 2 was symbolic of letting go, rather than insanity. Anyway, Hamlets “plan of action” I think is just getting more complicated and it’s turning out exactly the way he wants it too…so far. In scene 1, we as readers are given more insight into his character, as confusing as it might be.