consciously or not, he is concealing the true reason (Jones 242). Hamlet's desire to keep the first occurrence with the ghost a secret was an early sign of his madness. The agreement that they made meant a great deal to Hamlet. Hamlet's madness appears during a meeting between Hamlet and his mother. During the meeting, Polonius is secretly hiding behind the drapery. Hamlet unexpectedly kills Polonius. At this point, Hamlet's madness controls him. Hamlet has not totally lost his morals. However, his madness overcame his morality. If this event were to happen earlier in the play, Hamlet would have acted extremely different. But what in common parlance is madness synonymous with a sudden outburst of anger, in which self-control is lost for the moment. Such was the madness of Hamlet, when in sudden anger he slew Polonius, and again, when at Ophelia's grave, his mighty grief was roused to wrathful expression by the unseemly and exaggerated show of Laertes (Blackmore 60). Hamlet's madness only existed when he was in the presence of certain characters. His madness was only seen around Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. An example of this would be during a conversation between Hamlet and Polonius. Polonius asks, " Do you know me my lord (II,II,173)?" Hamlet replies, "Excellent well. You are a fishmonger (II,II,174)." Hamlet pretends not to know who Polonius is, even though he is Ophelia's father. When Hamlet is around Horatio, Francisco, and the Gravediggers, he behaves in a sane manor. During one part of the play, Hamlet tells Horatio that he will be acting mad and that he cannot say anything about it. Hamlet may be acting as a mad man or is trying to hide his true madness. The second occurrence of the ghost between Hamlet and the Queen is a definite sign of Hamlet's madness. The queen makes a comment on Hamlet's madness. "This is the very coinage of your brain. This bodiless creation ecstasy is very ...
