Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are part of what is "rotten
in Denmark." As old friends and former schoolmates of Hamlet's they, too, have their
price. Thus, Claudius employs them to spy on Hamlet; however, Hamlet, detects their
treachery. And, with his indefatigable wit, he toys with them, providing no information
in his suspicions of them. He asks them what brings them to
prison.
readability="13">
Prison, my
lord?
Denmark's a prison.
Then
is the world one.
A goodly one, in which there are many
confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o' th'
worst.
We think not, my lord.(2.2.
236-240)
When Hamlet asks
them, "...in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?" (2.2.259), his
old friends say, "To visit you,my lord; no other occasion" (2.2.2260) Hamlet knows that
they lie. He tells them that there is confession in their eyes. Despite his knowing
this, Hamlet confides that he has "lost all mirth." Speaking of his melancholy, Hamlet
tells his old friends that "Man delights me not."
Still,
knowing that they have been asked to observe him, Hamlet invites Guildenstern and
Rosencrantz to watch the evening's play, knowing, of course, that he will implicate
Claudius with the actions of the player king. His politeness to his old friends
notwithstanding, Hamlet's ill feelings for them is apparent when later in the narrative,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern become subjects in Hamlet's counterplot as he is sent
to England and they are killed.
Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are part of the theme of outside appearances as contradictory to one's
inner qualities.
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