Who are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

When most people think about the story Hamlet, the characters most central to the plot jump to mind: Hamlet himself, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and even Ophelia to name a few. But few rarely remember, or even pay much notice, to the characters Rozencrantz and Guildenstern. These two characters are delegated a small, seemingly insignificant role within the play. When they are needed they make an appearance, but they seem to be rather removed from the majority of the play. The pair do not even have a scene written out for their deaths; rather, the audience learns of it from Hamlet as he relays it to others. They seem to be more or less vehicles of convenience, used by Shakespeare simply to move the play along and to give Hamlet people with which to interact. The pair are randomly introduced to the audience by King Claudius as childhood friends of Hamlet, and are immediately set upon him to spy and report back to the king. Their role in the play is summarized neatly through the pair's own words:

Rosencrantz: Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,

Put your dread pleasures more into command

Than to entreaty.

Guildenstern: But we both obey,

And here give up ourselves in the full bent

To lay our service freely at your feet

To be commanded. (Hamlet, II.ii.27-32)

They are set up as puppets, with little mind or will of their own: essentially, they seem to have little control over the direction or purpose of their lives. This very idea is encapsuled within Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the main stars; the large amount of time that they are not seen within Shakespeare's original play is depicted here. This idea that they are not entirely in control of their own lives (and if you think about it, what character is ever in control of his or her own life?) is prevalent within the play, It examines how bewildering this loss of control is, and looks at the uncertain line between life and death while ushering them towards their inevitable ends as determined in Hamlet.

But moving on. While doing the reading, I stopped at the section when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meet up with Hamlet for the first time. The first time I read Hamlet, I remember skimming over this part: while the word games seemed amusing, the characters themselves seemed flat and shallow; tripping over themselves in an effort to catch Hamlet out. But because I've read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, it's so much harder to try and ignore them. Instead, their words seem to hold so much more weight. For example:

Hamlet: Denmark's a prison.

Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.

Hamlet: A goodly one, in which there are many confines,

wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o'th'worst.

Rosencrantz: We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet: Why, then 'tis none to you, for there is nothing either

good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Rosencrantz: Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too

narrow for your mind.

Hamlet: O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count

myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad

dreams.

Guildenstern: Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very

substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet: A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz: Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a

quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.

The word play between the three characters is very interesting to me; it feels as if they are constantly making pun after pun; taking each others words and twisting them all around in order to make some sense out of what is said. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem as if they are trying to place limits on the words that Hamlet says; limits that they cannot see past. While they speak of Hamlet's ambition (thinking of Hamlet's motives through King Claudius' words), Hamlet knows this and speaks of larger things that seem to throw the pair off. The sense of word play is also prevalent within Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead through the question games that the pair play with each other while standing around in between scenes. Given that they are shown to have the ability to play these kinds of games, I then found it funny that Stoppard completely cuts out the entirety of their interaction with Hamlet. Right when they meet with him in their play, a blackout occurs and the lights come back on only after Hamlet is about to take his leave. The reversal of what scenes are important for the audience to see is very interesting to me; just as we are not allowed to see much of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern without their interaction with Hamlet in Shakespeare's play, Stoppard also blocks us from seeing them interact with Hamlet.