When Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark, dies suddenly, supposedly of a snakebite in his garden, Hamlet is devastated but also suspicious. Two months have passed since the death, and Hamlet still grieves. His mother, Gertrude, and his new stepfather (also his father's brother), Claudius, confront him in act 1, scene 2. Claudius asks Hamlet, “How is it that the clouds still hang on you?” Gertrude counsels him to “cast thy nighted colour off,” for Hamlet is still wearing the black of mourning, and move on with his life.

Hamlet, however, responds that his dark clothing reflects his internal grief, but Claudius tells him that his father is gone, and the time for mourning is over. Hamlet's extreme grief is now a fault and even an insult to his father. Hamlet makes a show of giving in, but in the soliloquy that follows, he announces that if God had not decreed against suicide, he would seriously consider it. Hamlet also reveals that he is upset over more than just his father's death. He is angry, too, that his mother married his uncle not even two months after his father was placed in his grave. In Hamlet's eyes, this is incest and betrayal, yet he must remain silent.

When Hamlet meets his father's ghost a few scenes later, he indicates that he is having another reaction to his father's death besides grief and anger. He is suspicious that there is more to the king's demise than an accidental snakebite. The ghost tells Hamlet that he actually died of poison at the hand of Claudius. Hamlet in turn exclaims, “O my prophetic soul!” He has been wondering, and now he knows. His grief remains, but now his primary emotion becomes a desire for revenge.

Hamlet reacts to the death of his father with grief and terrible, but understandable, sadness. When the play begins, it has been nearly two months since his father, the former king of Denmark, died suddenly, reportedly of a snakebite acquired while sleeping in his garden. The death was unexpected and, to the king’s son, most unwelcome.

When the queen, Gertrude, confronts her son about his continued mourning, despite the fact that she is no longer in mourning for her dead husband, Hamlet says to her, “I have that within which passes show, / These but the trappings and the suits of woe” (1.2.88–89). In other words, he knows that he looks like someone who is grieving deeply, but he says that his grief goes far deeper than what any one person might pretend to feel or seem to feel; his grief runs painfully deep and he is steeped in his woe, not simply wearing the appearance of it.

What’s more is that his mother is already remarried, though she became a widow less than two months ago. Moreover, she married her first husband’s brother, Claudius, a relationship that completely disgusts Hamlet. He believes that any grief shown by his mother or his uncle is purely show, as getting married so soon after the old king’s death would seem to indicate a lack of loyalty to him. When Hamlet insists that he feels his grief deeply, far deeper than the merely superficial black clothing he wears, he also suggests that he judges Gertrude and Claudius for their apparent lack of feeling.

Hamlet is utterly devastated about his father's death and is disgusted that his mother, Gertrude, has already married his uncle in less than two months after King Hamlet's death. Prince Hamlet revered his father while he was alive and is now terribly depressed at his passing. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet laments his father's death and is depicted as a confused, angry, discouraged individual. Hamlet even contemplates suicide, which reveals the extent of his anguish concerning the death of his father. Claudius's insensitive personality and Gertrude's decision to marry him exacerbates Hamlet's sorrow. In act 1, scene 2, Hamlet recalls his negative emotions during the king's funeral in a discussion with Horatio, and Hamlet mentions that he can still see his father's image in his imagination. Hamlet reveals his affinity for his dead father by telling Horatio,

He [King Hamlet] was a man. Take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again (Shakespeare, 1.2.186-187).

Later on, Hamlet speaks to his father's ghost and learns that Claudius assassinated him by pouring poison down his ear while he was sleeping. Upon hearing this news, Hamlet vows to enact revenge. Hamlet's attitude changes from a depressed, melancholy person, into a driven, confused man whose conflicting beliefs cause him to hesitate and make questionable decisions.

In Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet is devastated by his father's death. His grief is encaptured by his anguished cry, released at the first moment he appears alone for the audience: "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" (I.ii) He had great love and respect for his father, who was a good and just King. 

What makes Hamlet's grief darker and more insidious is the fact that he appears to be the only one who is grieving. His mother has, two months since, remarried the late King Hamlet's brother, the now-King Claudius. She is also confused by Hamlet's continued grief, gently prodding, "Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off," asking him to literally remove his black and thereby figuratively remove his dark mood (I.ii). Likewise, Hamlet's new stepfather, his uncle Claudius tries to manipulate Hamlet into actually regretting his deep sorrow, explaining "you must know, your father lost a father," and inferring that Hamlet's situation is in no way special. He then shames Hamlet, adding, "to persever / In obstinate condolment; 'tis unmanly grief; / It shows a will most incorrect to heaven" (I.ii). 

Hamlet's inconsolable grief over his father's untimely death is reinforced by the confusingly blasé behavior of those other "mourners" in the Danish court. 

How does Ophelia take the news of her father’s death in Hamlet?

As a woman in this particular historical moment, Ophelia is subject to the whims and demands of the men in her life. She is used as a pawn by her father, who asks her to spy on Hamlet to learn of his true intentions, and by Hamlet, who insults her and tells her that he never really loved her. Ophelia doesn't have a confidante to turn to, and she is caught up in the schemes and acts of deception which ensnare the men in her life.

No one seems to care much about how Ophelia is dealing with rejection, but she can at least somewhat rely on her father to look out for her. When Hamlet murders Polonius, Ophelia finally snaps.

We don't see this mental collapse onstage, but when Ophelia appears onstage again in act 4, scene 5, her crazed actions have become the subject of court gossip. A gentleman tells Gertrude that Ophelia "beats her heart" (4.5.5), speaks nonsense, and is easily angered. She also "speaks much of her father" (4.5.4) and has grown suspicious of the world around her. Ophelia sings tales of death and of lost love and tells Claudius that she cries when she thinks of the way they have lain her father "i'th' cold ground" (4.5.46).

Ophelia is a broken woman. Feeling that the world is unpredictable and that there is no one who truly considers her best interests, she slips into a world of madness following the death of her father.

How does Ophelia take the news of her father’s death in Hamlet?

The last time we see Ophelia on stage, prior to her father's murder by Hamlet, is just before the start of the play by which Hamlet hopes to get his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, to betray himself as the murderer of Hamlet's father. Hamlet treats her in quite an embarrassing way, making lewd comments about what "lie[s] between [a] maid's legs" and insulting her by saying that "woman's love" is brief (3.2.125-126, 3.2.175). Hamlet kills Polonius two scenes later, and when next we meet Ophelia, she is "distract[ed]" and "Her speech is nothing" according to the gentleman who tells Gertrude that Ophelia is insisting upon an audience with her (4.5.3, 4.5.9). When Ophelia enters, she sings nonsensical songs that seem to conflate her recollection of being loved by and loving Hamlet with her love for her now dead father. It is as though the grief of losing her true love, compounded now by the loss of the father who made her give that love up, is too much for her to mentally support. We don't get to see Ophelia's initial response to the news of her father's death or whether her descent into madness is gradual or quick; we simply see the effects of her double grief, and this way of presenting her current state to us is more dramatic than watching a slow decline would be. The once vibrant young woman is now, suddenly, a shell.

How does Ophelia take the news of her father’s death in Hamlet?

Ophelia is completely overwhelmed by her father's unfortunate death. He was her advisor and warned her about Hamlet's deception and forbade her to have any contact with him. 

Ophelia seems to be desperately in love with Hamlet who has rejected her, asking her to "get ... to a nunnery." It is difficult for her to understand Hamlet's inconsistent actions, for he later seeks her attention again, asking to lay his head in her lap during the performance of his play and making sexually suggestive references. 

It is the knowledge of her father's untimely death, the fact that Hamlet has treated her so badly, and the realization that the one she loves is responsible for her father's demise, that drive Ophelia to mental breakdown. She continuously sings senseless ditties which are a confused jumble about death, dying, lost love and broken promises. This creates great concern in both Gertrude and Claudius about her emotional and mental health. They instruct Horatio to watch her closely.

Gertrude later informs Claudius and Laertes about Ophelia's drowning. She was out picking flowers from the banks of a river. One of the boughs on which she was leaning broke and she fell into the water, still singing. Ophelia made no attempt to save herself and she was dragged into the depths by her clothes which were weighted down by the water.

It seems as if Ophelia either lost all hope and chose to die, or that she was incapable, in her mental state, to understand the danger and therefore made no attempt to save herself.    

How does Ophelia take the news of her father’s death in Hamlet?

When Ophelia's father, Polonius, is killed by Hamlet in Act 3, sc. 4, Ophelia loses touch with reality. In Act 4, sc. 5, Ophelia comes into the scene with Gertrude and Claudius.  Ophelia's singing and her seemingly nonsensical responses to Claudius and Gertrude indicate that she has gone mad.  Later, in the same scene, Ophelia re-enters the scene when Laertes is there.  She continues to utter apparent nonsense.  Later, in Act 4, sc. 7, Gertrude tells Claudius and Laertes that Ophelia has drowned.  Gertrude describes the situation saying that Ophelia seemed unaware of her situation when the limb broke and she fell into the water.  Ophelia's reaction to her father's death is insanity.  This is ironic because Hamlet tells us that he will pretend to be mad, but Ophelia's madness appears to be genuine.