#rosencrantz and guildenstern

[reckless-libertine]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)\\

Rosencrantz breaks my heart in this scene. He's "only good in support", always using Guildenstern as his guide in all things. The way he takes Guildenstern's lead here and braces himself for death is just... 😭 I don't even think he's scared, but if Guildenstern does it, then he should too.

[two-bees-poetry]

horatio’s epilogue

[dykebarbie]

this was the plot of rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead. to me

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

Rosencrantz: According to castle gossip, the two of us are being ‘shipped’ together.

Guildenstern: Shipped? To where?

Rosencrantz: From what I’ve heard, allegedly England.

[theabigailthorn]

[gabriel-shutterson]

There was a production where Guildenstern was deaf and that just made the recorder scene worse because Hamlet is essentially rubbing in Guil’s disability :( and Rosencrantz looked about ready to cry because he was the one translating for Guil

OH MY GODDDDD NOTMAL NORMAL NORMAL

I’ve actually always headcanoned Ros as HOH. I thought it was cool, giving a disability to a character that clearly is able to overcome it (given that he doesn’t shut up<3)

I think in a similar way, the sponge scene that I mentioned in my previous post gets Guil riled up because of Hamlet’s line “I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.” He’s essentially calling Ros stupid, yeah? I think it could easily be interpreted that Ros is autistic and is unable to fully understand social cues, sarcasm, and insults. He claims to ‘understand [Hamlet] not’ before the foolish ear line, which is on par if he is, in fact, autistic.

So, essentially, I interpret it as Hamlet— well knowing Ros has issues understanding social cues— calling him stupid for something he can’t help. With that information, it makes total sense that Guil takes personal offense to it and explodes.

Shut up Jenny

[wisteria-lodge]

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are not interchangeable.

(OR: Why Rosencrantz is the dumb one.)

Okay. First, their character introduction:

GERTRUDE. Your visitation shall receive such thanks  As fits a king’s remembrance. [she's paying them to spy on Hamlet.] ROSENCRANTZ. Both your Majesties  Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,  Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty. [Not a great opening move. What Rosencrantz is saying IS true, the King and Queen COULD just force them to do whatever. But why remind them of this, and risk upsetting them (and risk not getting paid??) ] GUILDENSTERN. But we both obey,  And here give up ourselves in the full bent  To lay our service freely at your feet,  To be commanded. [Guildenstern covers up Rosencrantz's faux pas, lays on the flattery, and is just much more politic with his 'thank you so much! We're so happy to be here! I am here to support your version of events 100%, whatever it ends up being!']

They later meet up with Hamlet, and at first there's an easy back and forth. Hamlet is friendly, happy to see then. But then Hamlet describes his situation as a "prison"... a red flag which Guildenstern immediately picks up on.

GUILDENSTERN. Prison, my lord? HAMLET.  Denmark’s a prison. ROSENCRANTZ. [doesn't get it] Then is the world one. HAMLET. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst. ROSENCRANTZ. [STILL doesn't get it] We think not so, my lord. HAMLET. Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing  either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison. ROSENCRANTZ.  Why, then, your ambition makes it one. ’Tis too narrow for your mind. [COMPLETELY wrong, as Hamlet is about to tell him.] HAMLET. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. GUILDENSTERN. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition. [Guildenstern is again stepping in to cover for Rosencrantz, by saying... okay, that comment wasn't THAT stupid, since 'dream' and 'ambition' can mean the same thing]  For the very substance of the ambitious is merely  the shadow of a dream. [and I've got some additional thoughts: how can dreams and ambitions imprison you, if they're not real?] HAMLET. [Okay, I'll play, I'll bite.] A dream itself is but a shadow. [I'm talking about bad dreams specifically. A nightmare, like a shadow, isn't 'real' - but it can still affect you.] ROSENCRANTZ. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow. [I'm not ambitious! I go with the flow! Wheeee!]

When Hamlet accuses them of spying, it's Guildenstern who asks "What should we say, my lord?" He's giving Hamlet a politic non-answer... what's your game, tell me what you want and maybe I'll do it. But then Rosencrantz starts asking Guildenstern what they're supposed to do... totally giving the game away... which is when Guildenstern makes the call for both of them, and confesses.

Which sets up one of my favorite jokes in the play, because it's just so dumb. Hamlet LOVES it when people are honest with him, so Guildenstern confessing seems to have... unlocked some extra emotional honestly, and Hamlet goes into the "What a piece of work is man" speech, just pouring his heart out, until:

HAMLET. ...what is this quintessence of dust? Man  delights not me, ⟨no,⟩ nor women neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. ROSENCRANTZ. My lord, there was no such stuff in my  thoughts. HAMLET. Why did you laugh, then, when I said “man  delights not me”?

Hamlet is doing his Hamlet thing. Rosencrantz doesn't get it. He's zoning out. But it sounds like maybe Hamlet is wrapping up, and and then Rosencrantz comes back in right at the end, only to hear him say "Man delights not me."

And giggles.

Because "Man delights not me [anymore]" sounds... kinda gay.

So Hamlet has to roll his eyes and be like oh my god I've ALSO stopped being delighted by woman.

Like that's the joke right? If there is another way to interpret this joke I want to know.

Then, in the next scene, R & G check back in with Claudius to make their first report. Rosencrantz says "[Hamlet] does confess he feels himself distracted/but from what cause he will by no means speak." (He said he feels weird but didn't say why.) Guildenstern comes in with the actually useful thing: "But with a crafty madness keeps aloof/when we would bring him into some confession/of his true state." (Hamlet is 100% faking, because he doesn't want to deal with people.) Which is, y'know. Correct.

I want to skip ahead to after Hamlet's climatic play, where R & G show up with the message that Queen Gertrude is angry with Hamlet, and wants to talk to him. This is very much Guildenstern's scene. He's the one who delivers the message, he's the one who has the back-and-forth with Hamlet about the recorder, culminating in Hamlet's "Do you think I'm easier to be played on than a pipe?" It's such a modern insult I love it. "Do you think you can play me? You can't even play a pipe." But of course that's the insult Hamlet gives Guildenstern, who is at least trying to play the game.

The only part of the scene where Rosencrantz talks is this:

ROSENCRANTZ. Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration. [Hamlet already has this information, Guildenstern already told him. Rosencrantz seems to actually think that the only reason Hamlet isn't coming is because he doesn't understand what to do.] HAMLET.  O wonderful son that can so ’stonish a mother! [*Deliberately* misunderstanding Rosencrantz. Making fun of... the way Rosencrantz tends to misunderstand things] But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration? Impart. ROSENCRANTZ.  She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. HAMLET.  We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us? [This switch into the plural pronouns, and shift in register means that he is MASSIVELY pulling rank on Rosencrantz. It's an insult. Hamlet is saying "Why are you wasting my time?"] ROSENCRANTZ.  My lord, you once did love me. (... ) what is your cause of distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend. [I find this line heartbreaking, because it's honest. Rosencrantz really, authentically, does not get it. Hamlet was his friend, and now he's not. Something is bothering Hamlet, and he doesn't know what. And that's as far as he can go.]

The last bit I want to look at is the final solo interaction R & G have with Hamlet before he kills them (spoilers.)

HAMLET. (...) to be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king? [Back to pulling rank] ROSENCRANTZ. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? [Doesn't get it] HAMLET. Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. (...) When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. [When Hamlet insults Guildenstern it's - you're trying to play the game but you're bad at it. His insult to Rosencrantz is - you sponge. you don't have a single original thought or impulse in your head. Everything in there is something someone else put there, and the only reason the King keeps you around is to use you.] ROSENCRANTZ. I understand you not, my lord. [Doesn't get it.] HAMLET.  I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. [Directly calling Rosencrantz a fool.] ROSENCRANTZ. My lord, you must tell us where the body is and go with us to the King. [Doesn't know what to do, reverting back to just doing his job, therefore proving Hamlet's point.] HAMLET. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing— [Hamlet is doing a Hamlet, riffing on the idea that Claudius isn't really king, etc.] GUILDENSTERN. A “thing,” my lord? [Guildenstern hasn't actually said anything in a second. And this line... always feels cold to me. Cold, and a little angry. Because Hamlet is insulting the king by calling him a "thing," after he just insulted Rosencrantz by calling him an object. Rosencrantz didn't pick up on that... but GUILDENSTERN did. "Thing" is also slang for dick - Hamlet is calling the king a dick - and there might be an undercurrent of "is this really the time for dick jokes?"] HAMLET. Of nothing. [This does continue the dick joke. Nothing = no thing = vagina (in shakespearean slang) So, yeah, Claudius is not only a dick, he's a... pussy (sigh.) Claudius is also "nothing" as in worthless ect, but I actually think this is a three-way pun, because Hamlet was also JUST talking about Rosencrantz having no substance. Being "nothing" in the sense that he's an extension of Claudius, the "thing of nothing."

So yeah. It's Shakespeare. Ending the scene on a viciously insightful three-way pun... that is also a dick joke.

[artbypurplegorilla]

their only crime was boyfriending too hard

[friedmagazinebouquet]

It was so unexpected. Who could have foreseen this outcome?

[vrawliney]

love them

[reckless-libertine]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

[withasideofshakespeare]

I can’t decide if it’s funnier if Rosencrantz and Guildenstern look really similar (leading to the name mix-ups 2.2.35) or if they look completely different but are together literally all the time and no one in Denmark is quite sure which one is which because it’s been like fifteen years since they separately introduced themselves.

[thespianwordnerd]

Actually it was very funny of Shakespeare to write it into the actual dialogue that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern laugh at Hamlet when he says says "man delights not me." They pretend not to hear the innuendo but the gay subtext is unavoidably there and I'd be willing to bet Mr. Will Shakespeare knew exactly how it sounded.

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

my Roman Empire is how in Hamlet, we are presented with four characters who were each at one point the person/people Hamlet held most dear, and one of them watches as Hamlet's actions lead the other three to suffer, lose their minds, and/or die.

Horatio is Hamlet's closest friend over the course of the play, the one he comes to again and again, refers to as being in his 'heart of hearts', and who keeps him stable and alive for at least the most part. We follow these two the most explicitly throughout the text.

Ophelia is Hamlet's lover, and their relationship can be read many ways, ranging from never-really-loved-the-other to they-did-it-numerous-times-and-in-fact-she-was-pregnant-(possibly)-(also)-(aborted) but for the sake of this post I'm going to go the middle ground and say they had a wholesome and happy relationship before Hamlet's dad died and he got all sad. Doubt the stars are fire, but never doubt I love.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet's childhood friends, and Gertrude remembers them as being so loved by him that 'two men there are not living to whom he more adheres'. It's clear that these three were very close during some stage of his life, likely his childhood and potentially teens. The point is, they meant the most to him at some point in his life.

But again, by the time the acts of Hamlet come to pass, Hamlet has chosen Horatio to be his sole compatriot. Whether or not this is prior to his actual arrival in Elsinore is largely irrelevant- Hamlet makes sure he spends a lot of the first half of the play flustered in the face of a prince who won't stop finding nice things to say about him. Hamlet butters him up with honeyed words, and tells him the truth about everything, or what he thinks, anyway.

Horatio is touched but one specific line does stick out to him a bit- when Hamlet assured him it was not an attempt at flattery, and went on to clarify that he feels free to love Horatio as Horatio doesn't want anything from him, and doesn't have anything to hide. If what the ghost said about Claudius were true, it makes sense for Hamlet to be paranoid and hold others at a distance, but Horatio can't help but think about the underlying implication that if Hamlet had any reason to be suspicious of Horatio, he'd be just as cold to him as everyone else. Which, again, makes sense, but something about it rubs him a strange way.

Horatio tries to relate his experiences with the others he knows were close to Hamlet. He doesn't know much about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but Hamlet has mentioned suspicion of them, but despite that, seems to have been cordial enough. As for Ophelia... She seems to have seen the worst of his feigned madness, so he doesn't really know about her. He also heard something about an argument, but he doesn't know to what extent.

After the play, and an odd interaction with R&G, Hamlet heads upstairs to speak to his mother and Horatio thinks about it some more.

He words the question properly to himself: would Hamlet still love me if I were in their position? And he doubts for a moment, but then he remembers what Hamlet told him, the look in his eyes as he proclaimed his sincerity, and even the rare laughter he'd indulged in after the play, in only his presence, and Hamlet has convinced him.

Up until he hears the news of Polonius's murder. And until he hears the recount of Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's intervention with the seemingly mad prince, and he begins to doubt him.

And when he's left to take care of Ophelia, driven mad by the death of her father and the wrath of her lover, and in her delirium she tells him things, tells him everything, and there's a strange sense of familiarity in her words. She shows him her letters, throwing them at him and laughing, tears running from her eyes, and Horatio recognises the poetic style, the sweet wording that always seems to know how to strike your heart closest, and he realises that she had once been where he had, received Hamlet's love in the same way. And it's strange, in a way he's not sure what to do with.

His fear is alleviated slightly when Hamlet sends him a letter, and he seems back to his usual sense of self, the one Horatio knows. Horatio is glad for the normalcy, and it does a part to clear his worry that he had been deceived in any nature, after his time with Ophelia.

Even further when he finally returns to Denmark, and while the two talk, they stumble upon Ophelia's funeral, and Hamlet takes no time to jump into her grave and proclaim his grief loudly. Horatio feels a bit sick at feeling any sort of relief at this, but the proof that Hamlet may have truly loved her and hadn't intended for this to happen does something to quell the fear again.

That is, until Hamlet recounts his journey.

And with a strange sort of expression that looks sort of like... pride, recounts how he sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths.

Horatio is a little shocked by this, as he can't recall the two having done anything particularly wrong, and this was clearly not accidental. Hamlet brushes him off by saying the two knew what they were getting into, showing strangely little remorse.

Horatio thinks, about how they were his childhood friends, and then again about Ophelia, and then again about his earlier question.

would Hamlet still love me if I were in their position?

And he realises, in a way that makes him nauseous, that the answer is no. And not only that, but for all Hamlet's laughter and flattering words, it wouldn't have saved him.

But still, he doesn't leave his side. Hamlet loves him now, and he's the lucky one. Nothing can be done anymore, and he feels they draw close to the end.

And he does still love him. And Hamlet loves him back.

Horatio reaches for the poisoned cup as Hamlet dies. It feels right that it should end this way, and he doesn't really want to go on.

But Hamlet wrestles the cup out of his hand with an intensity that catches him off guard, begging him to stay alive, to tell his story

and so he does, cradling the prince as he slips into a deeper dream.

Sometime after, Horatio will again think about it all. The four of them. Three dead by his hand, one alive by it.

He wonders.

Did Hamlet ever think about it too? About how his actions hurt the ones closest to him, and in his final moments, chose to break the pattern and save the only life he could?

Or did Hamlet only save him because he still loved him? Not out of guilt, or reflection on his previous actions necessarily, but because Horatio still hadn't done him wrong?

[gabriel-shutterson]

Jealous Rosencrantz is very canon methinks 😳 I think there should be a cutscene of Ros beating the shit out of Hamlet after the recorder scene and Guildenstern bursting into tears

No no no babe!!! It’s the other way around!!! ❤️

I think I briefly discussed this on either the hamlet server or with an irl. But something I noticed in canon is how LITTLE Guil speaks. Although I said it was 38 lines per boi, it’s really clear that Ros is a chatterbox. The most Guil speaks IS the recorder scene, and you can tell it’s because he’s annoyed. He talks when he’s MAD

So after the recorder scene, the two of them go hunting for hamlet who just killed Polonius. I can VIVIDLY imagine Ros saying “ok PLEASE don’t get mad we’re dealing with something serious’ and Guil is like, fine, whatever

Then the sponge scene comes! Guil doesn’t speak the whole scene. Until-

He interrupts Hamlet, loudly, immediately after hearing Ros be insulted. Imagine this— he’s already PISSED, but is trying to keep his cool, and then Hamlet starts digging into Ros and he EXPLODES.

But that’s just a theory. A game theory.