Random Thoughts on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

In our discussion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, we talked a lot about their purpose (or lack there of) in the play. To me, RnG were included in the play to create a familiar presence with the audience--an observer for those observing the play. The most important functions I see them having within Hamlet is their presence as listeners.

While I wouldn't say that they're supposed to be a stand-in for the audience (they do not share the reactions that the audience is supposed to have), or an insertion of an "everyman" presence (they're too far up in the social ladder for commoners to identify with), they definitely share an audience-like element within the play.

It is in front of RnG that Hamlet delivers his "What a piece of work is a man!" in front of him, after seeing through their very poorly made disguise. In most of their other scenes, their presence is usually made to reveal the intentions and plans of other characters--first in how Claudius plans to use them as spies against Hamlet, and again when Claudius gives them a letter to have Hamlet executed in England. We may not learn too much about RnG's individual characters, but we do end up learning about other's through them. They even reveal stuff about other characters after they get killed by pirates--we see just how cold-hearted Hamlet has become, and how resolved he is in confronting Claudius.

That, and I think that they've become archtypical characters who have become elevated over the course of media. The pair of inseparable, naive friends have become a stock in many plays, movies, television shows etc etc. Only this time, they command more agency and importance in narratives than before. Where as in Hamlet RnG don't get to do too much of importance, in other mediums they become essential to the plot.

In one such instance, I think R2D2 and C-3PO from "Star Wars" serves how the RnG archtype has evolved. Both sets of characters share similar aspects (they're both inseparable, low on the social-ladder, naive to the larger drama, tasked with transporting important information without knowing exactly why, etc etc), but the droids are much more important than the Danish college-chums. If R2D2 hadn't delivered those Death Star schematics, or opened all those doors, or stopped the trash compactor when he did, everyone in "Star Wars" would be dead and there'd be no story.

We can even see how the RnG archtype gets elevated to protagonist levels, in some media. But I don't want to talk about any of that until we get to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.