Mad or Not Mad, That is the Question

Many believe Shakespeare's Hamlet to be about the madness of the main character, Hamlet. However, some speculate that Hamlet is not truly mad. Rather, he is pretending to be mad. I agree with this strongly for a few reasons. First of all, Hamlet is nowhere near as deranged as Ophelia is, after the death of Polonius. I believe Ophelia's madness is true, and that highlights Hamlet's madness as an act. Second of all, Hamlet seems like a teenager to me, and as a teenager he simply has many different emotions on many different things. I also believe Hamlet is faking madness in order to cast suspicion off of himself before the play. That way King Claudius is not aware of Hamlet's discussion with the ghost, and so Claudius will want nothing much to do with Hamlet, thus adding an extra layer of protection. Hamlet uses madness to protect himself against his "sea of troubles" until he is sure that Claudius is the murderer, and while he works himself up to seek his father's revenge.