To illustrate his point to Gertrude Hamlet takes two images, one of Claudius and one of Hamlet. He first starts to describe old Hamlet, he was a great king that was able to command power, every God seemed to have given him a talent. He tells Gertrude how wonderful his husband was. He starts to describe her new husband, Claudius, associated to a disease that cannot be removed. He tells Gertrude that her feeling cannot be love as she is too old to feel passion, so it must be lust. He asks her what type of person would go from Hamlet to Claudius. He goes on saying that something worse than madness has happened to Gertrude’s sense as even if she was mad she could not prefer Claudius to her previous husband. Hamlet uses imagery to ask her what kind of evil has deceived her in this game.

Hamlet believes that all her senses have gone, but that even if she had only a part of her senses then she wouldn’t be so confused. He believes that if the devil can encourage the worse nature of the older generation to rebel against their better judgment, then they have no right telling the younger generation what to do. Hamlet explains that in circumstances like these virtue becomes a soft wax melting in the fire of youthful ardor and, that reason acts as a pander to lust. Hamlet uses imagery to explain to Gertrude that things are no longer in the order that they should be “frost itself as actively doth burn” nature has lost its natural order.