“To thine own self be true” could have been the best advice the characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet could have heard (Shakespeare I. 3. 84). The irony is that Polonius, the bumbling fool of the play, uttered these wise words. Such twists can be found as the characters of Hamlet undergo tough trials and tribulations that test their loyalty. Many take this sense of loyalty to an extreme, showing how obsession can lead one to lose control.
	Infatuation leads to the inability to act independently. Hamlet attempts to avenge his father’s death but becomes so immersed in this purpose that he goes mad. He reaches the point where he questions if he should even exist in his famous lines “To be or not to be,” (Shakespeare III. 1. 64). No one in his or her right mind would even conceive of such a drastic measure to deal with internal problems. Also, in securing the fact that Claudius did murder the king, Hamlet’s excitement overflows to an extreme when he declares “he could ‘drink hot blood.’ To the Elizabethan audience, the statement would inevitably have suggested one of the most degenerate practices of the Black Mass” (Prosser). Shakespeare reveals Hamlet’s drastic change in character when he compares Hamlet to a Satanist. Shakespeare divulges Hamlet’s incapability to control his own actions when his insanity takes over.
Whereas Hamlet takes time to ponder every intricate detail of his revenge, Laertes listens to the animal within him and acts upon instinct. However, Claudius can now tame and manipulate Laertes. Laertes follows his father’s advice “to thine own self be true,” throughout the beginning of the play (Shakespeare I. 3. 84). However, as Laertes attempts to avenge his father’s death, he decides “My lord, I will be ruled” and turns into a pawn in Claudius’s plan (Shakespeare IV. 7. 77). Under Claudius’s control, Laertes is even “ready to use poison… a despised, ‘Italianate’ weapon” in the eyes of the Elizabethan audience, which means Shakespeare intends for the reader to frown upon Laertes and his change for the worse (Rosenberg). He becomes a submissive puppet to Claudius’s plan as his thoughts and judgment have been clouded with the ever-present desire for revenge. Hamlet’s and Laertes’s obsessions with revenge have caused them to change who they really are.
	With tremendous passion comes tremendous loss of judgment. Although Hamlet confesses “I loved Ophelia”, Hamlet’s obsession to avenge his father blinds him from following his heart and true love. His little bit of conscience left knows that if Ophelia gets tangled in his affairs, she will end up hurt. To protect her, Hamlet has to push her away. He feigns madness at first and insults her when he bursts out “Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners”, which seems painfully harsh to even the reader (Shakespeare III. 1. 131-132). These outbursts come often, but “it soon became a habit to convey to the audience, by some tender gesture when Ophelia was not looking, that though he might speak harsh and insulting words to her, he still loved her” (Madariaga). This unusual form of protection does keep her away, but it unfortunately distances them so far apart that Ophelia can no longer handle the hardships of life. Hamlet, in a sense, drives Ophelia to her breaking point and death.
Hamlet also looses touch with his gentle mother. He culminates so much hatred toward Claudius that his parents’ relationship confuses Hamlet. He wishes “would it were not so! – you are my mother” (Shakespeare III. 4. 21). Hamlet becomes so obsessed with Gertrude’s treason that it overshadows their mother-to-son relationship. Furthermore, Hamlet’s flaming emotions “are obvious from his first soliloquy, in which 23 of 31 lines express his anger and disgust at what perceives to be Gertrude’s weakness, insensitivity, and, most important, bestiality” (Smith). As Gertrude’s son, Hamlet should have great respect and love for his mother, but he completely violates the normal relationship by degrading her and dubbing her less than a beast. Hamlet’s overly exaggerated hatred toward Claudius carries over to create an unnecessary barrier between mother and son. Gertrude did nothing to earn such a punishment from her son; his craze brought about such drastic measures. Hamlet takes his obsessions too far, which leads to Gertrude’s tragic death.
	While attempting to fill the void in their lives, both Hamlet and Laertes fall pray to the even emptier sense of revenge. They try to dig out of the hole, but their craze clouds their judgment, leading to their out of character decisions and to the tragic ending of the play.