"Indirectly, through her refusal to give him up she has created an unbearable situation for Claudius and a murderous rivalry between two brothers. (By the way, Old Hamlet does know about their feelings for each other as any husband would.) Of course, she does not intend to harm anyone, but, when jealousy is involved, all kinds of things can and do go wrong. (A tangent thought, who knows what terribl" . . . .