'In Hamlet, Hamlet's madness spirals out of his control and threatens to compromise both the play and the audience.' Discuss how Shakespeare presents Hamlet's madness and the impact on the play's structure, and the audience.

The play's key turning point seems to be the metaplay, or play within play taking part at the height of Hamlet's deception. His madness structurally transcends the plot he's within - it can no longer be contained to one narrative. The fact that the play performed for his 'incestuous' mother and the King mirrors events supposedly to have taken place prior to Hamlet's first act lends it the characteristics of flashback, revenge tool and exposition for the sake of the audience. In fact, we as the audience take on an active role in Hamlet's madness if we are complacent in indulging in the metaplay, made easier by their use of elaborate poetic language.The players seem to become a literary extension of Hamlet's madness. His specific wish for the players not to 'Out-Herod Herod' informs us of Shakespeare's complex knowledge of English theatre, and the similar deceptions Hamlet now wishes to invoke. Herod was often used as antagonist within many of the early Christian morality, or 'mystery' plays, and Hamlet's direction of the players at the Danish Castle highlights how madness has become the catalyst for him to ascend from character to director and scriptwriter.