Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
A lithograph of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the flute scene from Hamlet by Eugène Delacroix
Created by	William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are sent by the king to spy on Hamlet, using their claimed friendship with him to gain his confidence. The characters were revived in W. S. Gilbert's satire, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and as the alienated heroes of Tom Stoppard's absurdist play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Rosencrantz ("rosary") and Gyldenstjerne/Gyllenstierna ("golden star") were names of Danish (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. James Voelkel suggests that the characters were named after Frederick Rosenkrantz and Knud Gyldenstierne (cousins of Tycho Brahe), who had visited England in 1592.

Shakespeare's Hamlet

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 Frederick II and Christian IV, and also at the University of Wittenberg, an institution where Hamlet is mentioned as having studied (he refers to them as "my two schoolfellows").

In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern first appear in Act II, Scene 2, where they attempt to place themselves in the confidence of Prince Hamlet, their childhood friend. The smooth and courtly language they employ immediately establishes them as sycophants. In reality, however, they serve as spies for the corrupt King Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, who usurped the throne and constantly attempts to check his nephew. Hamlet welcomes them as "excellent good friends", but, seeing through their guise, comments that they won't "deal justly" with him about their mission. Realising that he lacks allies except for Horatio, Hamlet gives recites the depression speech "What a piece of work is a man" to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

In Act III, Hamlet drops the pretense of friendship, coldly dismissing the two in Scene 2 by his only use of the royal "we" in the play. To his mother, he comments in Scene 4 that "I will trust [them] as I will adders fang’d".

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 tells us 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."

As agents of the corruption infecting the court, the two contribute to setting up the confrontation between Hamlet and Claudius. Shakespeare expects the audience to appreciate the poetic justice of their deaths: while they are very likely ignorant of the deadly contents of the letter they carry to England, and are to that extent innocent victims of Hamlet's retaliation; they are seen as having received their just deserts for their participation in Claudius's intrigues. The courtiers 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.

Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Main article: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Gilbert)

W. S. Gilbert's play 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

Main article: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

See also: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (film)

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 hamburger, 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 to be more enlightened than the other; however this light is traded off throughout the course of the drama. Stoppard also littered his play with jokes referring to the common thespian tendency to swap Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the midst of the play because the characters are basically identical. He does this by making Rosencrantz and Guildenstern unsure of who is who, as well as having the other players (Claudius, Hamlet, Gertrude) refer to them frequently by the wrong names. Because of the play's similarity to Waiting for Godot, Rosencrantz is sometimes compared with Estragon (one of the tramps who was waiting for Godot), and who shares his dim perception of reality, while Guildenstern parallels Vladimir, who shares his analytical perception.

Other portrayals

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the names of important characters in Square Co. (currently Square-Enix) Vagrant Story videogame. Rosencrantz is a mercenary and Guildenstern is the game's main antagonist.
• The characters of Royce and Aldo in the Doctor Who serial Warriors' Gate are based on Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
• Two treacherous ferrets named Rosencrass and Guildenswine appear in Garry Kilworth's Welkin Weasels series.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead is a 2009 American independent film written and directed by Jordan Galland. The film's title refers to a fictitious play-within-the-movie, which is a comic reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and its aftermath.
• In the episode "Tales from the Public Domain" of The Simpsons, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are parodied by Lenny and Carl as Rosencarl and Guildenlenny
• Similarly, in the 1983 movie Strange Brew, the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie (portrayed respectively by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) are modeled on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a plot loosely based on Hamlet.
• In the movie Princess Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement, Princess Mia's friend Lily addresses two of the palace maids as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
• The band Spin Doctors mention Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in their song "How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me)"? on their album Pocketful of Kryptonite.
• Dutch author Annie M.G. Schmidt used Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as the names of two prominent pet cats in her radio play / novel "Ibbeltje", dated 1961.
• Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the names of many other characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet are the names of several antagonists from the "Onimusha" video game series.
• The name of the moving company in the movie Gnomeo & Juliet.
• American composer Herschel Garfein wrote the music and libretto for an opera based on the Tom Stoppard play.
• Rosenberg and Goldstein from the Harold & Kumar film series are named after them.
• in the American television show "Numb3ers" the character Larry Fleinhart refers to their next potential victim as a "modern day Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" because he is delivering his own death warrant via a code unbeknownst to the victim.