Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern | |
|---|---|
| Hamlet characters | |
 A lithograph of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the flute scene from Hamlet by Eugène Delacroix | |
| Created by | William Shakespeare |
| In-universe information | |
| Affiliation | Hamlet (formerly), Claudius |
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Shakespeare's Hamlet
Names
Rosencrantz ("rose wreath") and Gyldenstjerne/Gyllenstierna ("golden star") were names of Danish (and Norwegian, and Swedish) noble families of the 16th century; records of the Danish royal coronation of 1596 show that one tenth of the aristocrats participating bore one or the other name.[1] James Voelkel suggests that the characters were named after Frederik Rosenkrantz and Knud Gyldenstierne, cousins of Tycho Brahe who had visited England in 1592.[2]
The majority of characters in Hamlet have classical names, in contrast to the "particularly Danish" ones of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The names were common in the court of
Appearances
In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern always appear as a pair, except in editions following the First Folio text, where Guildenstern enters four lines after Rosencrantz in Act IV, Scene 3.[1]
The two courtiers first appear in
In
When Hamlet kills Polonius, Claudius recruits Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to escort Hamlet to England, providing them with a letter for the King of England instructing him to have Hamlet killed. (They are apparently unaware of what is in the letter, though Shakespeare never explicitly says so.) Along the journey, the distrustful Hamlet finds and rewrites the letter, instructing the executioner to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. When their ship is attacked by pirates, Hamlet returns to Denmark, leaving Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to die; he comments in Act V, Scene 2 that "They are not near my conscience; their defeat / Does by their own insinuation grow." Ambassadors returning later report that "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead."
Function
As agents of the corruption infecting the court, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern contribute to setting up the confrontation between Hamlet and Claudius.
Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
W. S. Gilbert's play (1874) is a comedy in which Rosencrantz plots with his friend Guildenstern to get rid of Hamlet, so that Rosencrantz can marry Ophelia. They discover that Claudius has written a play. The king's literary work is so embarrassingly bad that Claudius has decreed that anyone who mentions it must be executed. They obtain the manuscript and convince Hamlet to perform it. When he does, Claudius decrees that he must die, but is eventually persuaded to banish him to England. Rosencrantz and Ophelia can now be together.
Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
As the protagonists of Tom Stoppard's play and film, they are confused by the events of Hamlet and seem unaware of their role in the larger drama. The play is primarily a comedy, but they often stumble upon deep philosophical truths through their nonsensical ramblings. In the movie, Rosencrantz invents the sandwich, and discovers gravity and volume displacement, among other things. The characters depart from their epiphanies as quickly as they come to them.
At times, one appears more enlightened than the other—but they trade this enlightenment back and forth throughout the drama. Stoppard also littered his play with jokes that refer to the common
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 0-8160-5373-1.
- ISBN 0-19-515021-X.
- ISBN 0-416-17920-7.
- ISBN 0-292-72533-7.