#rosencrantz and guildenstern

[theabigailthorn]

[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?

[just-some-guy-joust]

Doomed by the Narrative: Side B - Round 1

[theflannelwizard]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern each have one roller skate on and hold on to each other using their other feet to propel them around. Btw

[i-put-the-ass-into-sass]

These two. They are Shakespearean characters. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

[almost-correct-quotes]

rip guildenstern you would've hated who's on first

[thehamletdiaries]

Alright, I made the quiz; I made it in a semi-lazy way so you just get to find out what character I think you are in an, of course, in an amazingly scientific way, but that's really all it is. It's also just the "younger generation", so - Hamlet, Horatio, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes and Fortinbras.

Anyway, enjoy!

[superconfusedcoryn]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are like the Numbers 12 and 13.

I won't elaborate. I don't think I can elaborate. It just makes sense.

[moonlarked]

thinking about the fact that we never get anything about hamlet’s past at wittenberg except through sparse lines from other characters. as I’ve said before, wittenberg represents a contrast to elsinore - freedom as opposed to a prison. his education and philosophy are such an important part of his story and yet the only time we get any mention of it is either from his banter with horatio or the king and queen telling him to go back. in fact, we get much more about hamlet’s life before wittenberg. we get the queen referring to ros and guil as hamlet’s closest friends despite the fact that he is obviously closer to horatio. we get constant mention of hamlet’s father and his family life before wittenberg. we get ophelia, who hamlet presumably met before wittenberg (and loved that version of him). and wittenberg is freedom compared to elsinore’s prison. all of hamlet’s new self that he built away from his family is slowly chipped away by his father, his mother, and his uncle. “why, what a king is this?” it’s the king hamlet was supposed to be. it’s the king he almost had the freedom to not turn into.

[artbypurplegorilla]

their only crime was boyfriending too hard

[queeringclassiclit]

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

(see also: in Hamlet by William Shakespeare)

submitted by anon

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

Hamlet, writing a letter: and upon its reading, the bearers of this letter should be compensated with very nice houses and lots of money for their troubles

Rosencrantz, from the other room: haha bro what if our names were Rizzencrantz and Gyattdenstern

Guildenstern, also in the other room: haha yeah it's like we're sending Hamlet to Ohio

Hamlet, writing quicker: on second thought I think you should kill these guys actually

[two-bees-poetry]

horatio's epilogue

by the time you’re twenty-three, you feel like you’ve lived five years of funerals, horatio, one for each of them. your friends have empty houses now, and no one talks about it. no one talks about it. everyone breathes and everyone leaves and no one will talk to you, horatio.

rosencrantz and guildenstern died first, but it’s like they just disappeared. left town one morning and never came back. their parents held funerals, but you were all too wrapped up in each other to be able to go, so none of you went. their lockers are still full of junk. their parents won’t look at you now.

ophelia had a closed casket funeral, and you don’t like to think about why. in the water for too long, hiding in the reeds and the willows. the search party didn’t think about the lake until she’d been out there for a whole day. hamlet’s mother found her, and from that point until her death, she was different. you’ve never heard a scream like that.

laertes is immortalized at the high school- the best running back in twenty years. they put his letter jacket in a case, and you watch it collect dust until you graduate. when they renovate the football field, they name it after him, and they don’t mention how he died, grief-stricken, his oldest friend’s knife in his stomach.

hamlet’s house has been on the market for five years, and you walk past it every day on the way to school- the treehouse his father built, the porch swing gertrude loved. no one’s been mowing the lawn. for seventeen years you spent every afternoon in that house, horatio, and now you watch it fall apart. your best friend (maybe he was more to you) is dead, and his whole family went with him. lord knows he wasn’t easy to love, but he was yours- he was yours. you go to the community college so you can keep walking by his house every day.

now your parents mostly leave you alone. rosencrantz and guildenstern’s lockers never get emptied. laertes is still on the high school’s brochures. ophelia becomes a local legend, and people come from other cities to see where the dead girl drowned. hamlet isn’t spoken about. no one knows what to say. his name makes it into a couple of true crime podcasts, but you can’t listen to them.

you graduate college alone, horatio, and no one talks to you.

two.bees.poetry

[hamletkin]

hamlet at rosencrantz and guildenstern:

[radio-ghost-cooks]

goodnight to the arctic monkeys fans. goodnight to the fic writers. goodnight to the dishwashing staff. goodnight to the revenge insomniacs. goodnight to animators. goodnight to people who like pokemon scvi for the characters and story. goodnight to people who keep forgetting to drink water, i feel ya'll. goodnight to hamlet x horatio shippers (and their rosencrantz x guildenstern cousins). goodnight, night vale. goodnight.

[just-some-guy-joust]

Doomed by the Narrative: Side A - Round 1