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Whose side are they on, and where do you think they will end up? Posted by wanda21 on Mar 4, 2009. |
Hamlet Group
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are primary in the play to spy on Hamlet and, considering they are not very smart, they are on the side of Claudius and Gertrude. After Hamlet seems to have lost his senses after the ghost visits him and after he appears to Ophelia as a bit crazy, Claudius, Gertrude, and Polonius vow to get to the bottom of it. Part of their plan is to involve their minions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to help them spy. When Hamlet calls the two out on spying in Act 2, Scene 2, they are not quite sure what to say. Hamlet says, "I know the good King and Queen have sent for you." Rosencrantz simply says, "To what end, my lord?" And Hamlet, quick wit that he is, replies, "That you must teach me." In regards to where they will end up, I must facetiously say that they end up in the absurdist play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead wallowing in the chaos that is the world around them. Posted by ms-charleston-yawp on Mar 4, 2009. |
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I always feel a bit sorry for R+G. They become trapped in the middle of the desperate struggles of Hamlet and Claudius. They didn't do anything terrible. Imagine a friend of yours goes crazy and his parents beg you to keep an eye on him and find out why he's behaving so strangely... is that disloyalty to your friend? Now imagine this is a king and queen who are asking you! R. replies to Claudius's request...
In other words, "We can't say no." And from their POV, they are helping Hamlet, they don't know the contents of the letter to England or his father's ghost and murder. But Hamlet 'shoots the messengers' and has them killed. What did they do wrong? As the above post mentions,Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a great play for seeing Hamlet from R+G's point of view. They were 'sent for'. They were told to come to Elsinore by Royal Command. And they tried to help Hamlet regain his sanity. OK, so they realised that doing this task would increase their reputation with the king and would earn them a reward that "befits a king's rememberance". But they didn't sell Hamlet out. They tried to help him. Hamlet makes this big speech to R+G about "The most important thing in friendship is truth" but Hamlet doesn't tell them the truth!!! He doesn't warn them about how dangerous Claudius is. He doesn't say, "Beware the plots of the evil king, my friends" and then punishes them for disloyalty because they are unwittingly carrying Claudius's deadly letter. Hamlet justifies R+G's execution by saying, "why, they did make love to their employment." suggesting that they were complicit and cunning. BUT THEY WEREN'T! Hamlet has his close friends executed on false suspicions of disloyalty, and yet Hamlet himself is most disloyal to his friends. Posted by jillyfish on Mar 4, 2009. |
