Hamlet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern :: Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern       This procrastination cannot be due to an instinctive and exigent repugnance to killing, for Hamlet kills Polonius, and Laertes, and in the end the King himself and he dispatches Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their doom with true alacrity. Whence then does it come? The answer ordain be entrap by examining all these cases. And before them all, let us look at those two lines in 1.4. unhand me gentlemen, By heaven Ill make a fantasm of him that lets me   It is one of the key points in the drawing of his character. When it comes to doing what he is determined to do, he will not hesitate to kill even his closest friend, for Horatio is one of the gentlemen whom he threatens sword in hand. Hamlets spontaneous tendencies are therefore essentially individualistic and, the point must be emphasized, not even death of others, if need be, will stand in his way.     This the Hamlet whose behavior towards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern we are now to study. They were his friends, and we cognise from his mother that he had much talked of them and that two men there are not living To whom he more adheres.   The two one-year-old men receive from the King a commission which, whatever the Kings secret intentions may be, is honorable. Hamlet, the King in fact tells them, is not what he was. The cause of the change I cannot dream of. Therefore, I beg you so by your companies   To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather So much as from occasion you may glean Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus That opened lies within our remedy.   Guildensterns words show that the two young men understand their work in an irreproachable way Heaven make our presence and our practices Pleasant and helpful to him.   They enter upon their new duties at a later stage in the same scene. Cordial and lighthearted, the meeting of the three young men leads to some fencing of wits on ambition for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who know nothing about King Hamlets murder, naturally assume that the trouble with Hamlet is frustrated ambition (and so in part it is) Hamlet, of course, parries, and as he tries to activate off, his two companions, in strict obedience to their master, the King, say Well wait upon you.