Rosencrantz And Guildenstern from Shakespeares Hamlet
In Shakespeare’s classic play, Hamlet, there are two seemingly minor characters named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Many people have questioned the significance and what was Shakespeare’s intent on including these characters at all.They hold relatively small parts as old childhood friends of the title character, Hamlet.Early in the play, these two men seem to be genuinely concerned about their friend and the rumors surrounding him.Soon, however, it is revealed that they are more concerned with impressing the king and raising their status as gentlemen than the welfare of Hamlet.Hamlet, who is much more intelligent that his two companions, soon realizes their true intentions.He often seems to take enjoyment out of making fun of them in such a way that they don’t realize. As the play progresses, Hamlet realizes that he has matured much more that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and begins to show them how he really feels.In the final act, he orders them killed in fear of his own life, and settles his mind with the simple fact that they deserved the hand fate dealt them.When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are first introduced in the play, they show much concern about Hamlet and the state of mind he is in.Hamlet is first introduced to
them and when he sees them for the first time, he is overjoyed.Shakespeare shows how well these men know each other by how they react to each other.Hamlet questions their unexpected arrival with 1“You were sent/ For, and there is a kind of confession in your/ Looks which your modesties have not craft/ Enough to color.”Its obvious Hamlet knows them very well.They rekindle their friendship immediately by making childish, immature jokes as good friends do.2“On fortune’s cap, we are not the very button. /Then you live about her waist, or in the middle /Of her favors?/ Faith, her privates we.” is an example of how these three young men joke with each other.These types of jokes are, for Hamlet, rare, and he soon realizes it isn’t so with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.He soon feels he has outgrown that stage in his life. Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s immaturity can be seen through many examples, like this one when Hamlet says 3“Man delights / Not me, no, nor women neither, though by your/ Smiling you seem to say so.”Of which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find humorous at the thought of Hamlet with another man.Hamlet soon realizes it goes well beyond immaturity; it is also stupidity and ignorance that begins to separate the three. Guildenstern says to the king, 4“Nor do we find him [Hamlet] forward to be sounded,/ But with a crafty madness keeps aloof/ When we would bring him on to some confession/ Of his true state.”saying that even in his bewildered state, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are confused by his wit.Hamlet, showing that he is well aware of his superiority in intelligence, says 5“A knavish speech sleeps in a /Foolish ear.”to Rosencrantz after he doesn’t understand that Hamlet is calling him a sponge.Hamlet begins to distance himself from Rosencrantz and Guildenste
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Rosencrantz GuildensternMany,
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Pipe Call,
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Approximate Word count = 1219
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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