Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead - Tumblr Posts
i made a rosencrantz and guildenstern quiz
and it's filled with somewhat contraversial characterisations! pls remember that it's all in good fun
There was a production where Guildenstern was deaf and that just made the recorder scene worse because Hamlet is essentially rubbing in Guil’s disability :( and Rosencrantz looked about ready to cry because he was the one translating for Guil
OH MY GODDDDD NOTMAL NORMAL NORMAL
I’ve actually always headcanoned Ros as HOH. I thought it was cool, giving a disability to a character that clearly is able to overcome it (given that he doesn’t shut up<3)
I think in a similar way, the sponge scene that I mentioned in my previous post gets Guil riled up because of Hamlet’s line “I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.” He’s essentially calling Ros stupid, yeah? I think it could easily be interpreted that Ros is autistic and is unable to fully understand social cues, sarcasm, and insults. He claims to ‘understand [Hamlet] not’ before the foolish ear line, which is on par if he is, in fact, autistic.
So, essentially, I interpret it as Hamlet— well knowing Ros has issues understanding social cues— calling him stupid for something he can’t help. With that information, it makes total sense that Guil takes personal offense to it and explodes.
Shut up Jenny
Barbie (2023) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2014)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Because despite everything they do, I can't help but love these two sycophantic morons!
Sorry thinking about how Act 3 Scene 2 Ros says the exact fucking thing to hamlet that hamlet said to Ophelia just a scene before- ‘You/I once did love me/you.’
Rosencrantz (made with AI)
now that i think about it. rosencrantz and guildenstern were literally just two guys. not like horatio, who stuck to hamlet against all odds and actively made himself a part of the narrative, and not like fortinbras, who wanted a part in everything but got a little too late.
rosguil were just… never part of any of this. they did what they did because the king asked them to, and what were they supposed to do? say no to him? did they know what was in the letters? did they believe that finding out what the matter with hamlet was, even behind his back, would maybe help their childhood friend? they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and their “betrayal” really wasn’t betrayal at all. they were. literally just two people.
Rosencrantz
life in a box is better than no life at all ig
(inspired by this post)
When you are waiting for Godot, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive instead.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
rosencrantz’s fatal flaw is literally that he cares too much.
there are multiple points in the play when he tells guil that they should try doing something other than what they have been told they’re “supposed to” do, but guil is too scared to try it because he’s afraid of the uncertainty that would come with forging their own path.
so ros drops it and stays with guil. every time.
i truly think that ros could have escaped the narrative if he was by himself, but he WON’T because that would mean leaving guil, and he’s not going to do that.
guil values security (being sure of what he is meant to be doing and what will happen next), while ros values his relationships with other characters.
we see more evidence of these values in their reactions to realizing that the letter they’re carrying has instructions for hamlet to be killed.
guildenstern thinks that they should pretend that they never read the letter and give it to the king of england as planned. he is relieved to have a clear direction to go in.
rosencrantz is more troubled by the contents of the letter. he feels guilty about the idea of allowing hamlet to be killed, because they are his friends.
guil points out that they’ve only been TOLD that they’re hamlet’s friends, but they have no memory of their history together. ros still thinks it’s wrong. though he may not really know much about hamlet, he knows that he’s his friend, and he feels a sense of loyalty because of that.
as i’ve mentioned, the thesis of my essay is basically that rosencrantz and guildenstern have the free will needed to escape the narrative of the play, but they fail to do so because of external factors.
one of the main factors, particularly for guil, is their need for directions. our protagonists don’t know what to do with themselves when there isn’t another character telling them what they’re “supposed to” do next. they both respond to this uncertainty with confusion, but guil in particular becomes very anxious when he doesn’t have directions.
in act 1, when they are trying to remember where they’re going and why, guildenstern gets stressed out by the fact that they have been left to their own devices: “We have not been . . . picked out . . . simply to be abandoned . . . set loose to find our own way. . . . We are entitled to some direction. . . . I would have thought.” guil seems somewhat aware that they have been “picked out” as the focus on the play, and therefore feels “entitled” to be given instructions on what to do.
guildenstern feels better knowing what will happen to them beforehand, even if it’s not going to be pleasant, because at least then he isn’t going in blind.
Life in a box is better than no life at all. I expect. You'd have a chance at least. You could be there thinking - well, at least I'm not dead!
Tom Stoppard, Henry Popkin (Editor): Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 1994, Act II, S. 51.
Is this what film would be thinking?
Hope to start uploading shots from Croatia soon, the B/W will have to wait, the machine's broken.
Pick a live-action movie. Keep one human actor; everyone else is played by muppets.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, in two variations:
1. Keep both title roles human on the grounds that they’re really a single composite character; Kermit the Frog is cast as the Player King for maximum meta fuckery.
2. The Player King stays human; cross-cast with Sesame Street and make the title roles Bert and Ernie.
Don't let them confuse you.
‘the plot of hamlet is so convoluted haha he gets kidnapped by pirates and it’s not even relevant’ shut up forever. it is so relevant. its like you’ve never even seen rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead
rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead (1990) // boot theory, richard siken