Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were fumbling and confused characters, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, whose identities do not appear to differ at all from each other. Even though they were only minor characters they still played an influential roll in the plot of the play by taking advantage of Hamlet.
Their part in the plot:Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were childhood friends of Hamlet who were living in Wittenberg. Hamlet's uncle, the corrupt king, sent for them to come back to Denmark so they could spy on Hamlet for him. King Claudius was concerned about Hamlet's apparent lunacy and feared he had a hidden agenda. From the first time Hamlet greets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he suspects they had come to Denmark for some reason other than just visiting him. Hamlet questioned them until they admitted that Hamlet's uncle had sent for them. Eventually Hamlet was sent to England, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were supposed to escort him.
Hamlet finds a letter that they were carrying and discovers that he was supposed to be executed; Hamlet rewrote the letter so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern would be the ones executed. Their ship was attacked by pirates and Hamlet escaped and gots back to Denmark. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern got to England, they were executed.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's motivations and results:Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were like many people because, they would do anything for a reward. The king told them that they would be rewarded for their loyalty and they were even going to escort their friend to his death. It was possible that they did not know of Hamlet's planned execution but they would have at least assumed he would be imprisoned or something similar.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were not in it just for the money but they were also motivated by fear. Like...
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern the Polychephaly
This essay seems to miss some of the most prominent themes that these two characters illustrate in both "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." This writer calls them unintelligent and motivated by fear. I see no real basis for this in either play. In "Hamlet," they came from Wittenburg, which was famous as the cite of the university where they and Hamlet had been fellow students. Especially in Stoppard's play, the notion that they are unintelligent should be dismissed by the verbal tennis scene, in which they both show a remarkable understanding of philosophy, rhetoric, and logic.
The point that Stoppard raises and this author overlooks is the existential question: does the average person have control over his life. This is suggested powerfully by the way that they respond to Hamlet's critical inquiry, did they come of their own accord or were they sent for. "We were sent for." They do not have control over things. In both "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," they are out of control, run by life rather than able to run it.
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