Hamlet and King Lear: Madness - Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear In both Hamlet and King Lear, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness with two characters: one truly crazy, and one who acts crazy just to serve a purpose. Hamlet's madness is often disputed. This article argues that the contrapuntal character in each play, namely Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear, acts as a balancing argument for the other character's madness or sanity. King Lear's most crucial distinction between Lear's mental frailty and Edgar's contrived madness works to better define the relationship between Ophelia's breakdown and Hamlet's "north-northwest" type of madness. Both plays offer characters on both sides of sanity, but in Hamlet the distinction is not as clear as in King Lear. By using the more explicit relationship in King Lear, a better understanding of the relationship is found in Hamlet. While Shakespeare does not directly contrast Ophelia's madness (or breakdown) with Hamlet's madness, there is instead a clear finality to Ophelia's condition and a clear uncertainty in her condition. Hamlet's madness. Obviously, Hamlet's character offers more evidence, while Ophelia's collapse is swift, but more conclusive in its precision. Shakespeare offers clear evidence pointing to Hamlet's sanity starting from the first scene of the play. Hamlet begins with the guards whose main importance in the play is to give credibility to the ghost. If Hamlet saw his father's ghost in private, the argument for his madness would be greatly improved. Yet, not one, but three men together witness the ghost before even thinking of warning Hamlet. As Horace says, being the only one of the guards to play a significant role in the rest of the play, "Before my God, I might not believe this / Without the sensible and true confirmation / Of my eyes. (Ii56-8)" Horatio, who appears frequently throughout the play, serves as an unquestionably sound alibi for Hamlet when framing the King with his reaction to the play. The fact that Hamlet speaks to the ghost alone diminishes his credibility somewhat, but all the men witness the ghost asking them to speak to themselves. Horace offers an insightful warning: What if it tempts you towards the flood, my lord, or towards the terrible cliff-top which falls into the sea from its base, and there assumes some other hideous form which may deprive your sovereignty of? reason and drag you into madness?