Is Hamlet's Final Dispensing With Rosencrantz And Guildenstern
Hamlet’s final dispensing with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to address the audience evidences Shakespeare’s own resolution with the audience’s ability to determine the merit of his works. In the very execution of the vassal characters, the audience and characters alike will never be certain if Rosencrantz and Guildenstern delivered the letter in England and met their deaths, it can only be assumed through the established characterization of the two that they continued to inactively but tacitly support Claudius. Such an open-ended death signifies on Shakespeare’s own death, or rather how after the stage of his life ends the interpretation and discourse surrounding his plays will continue to occur off stage. Neither he, the controller of his
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“The four major soliloquies in Hamlet are cunningly set, one in each of the first four acts, so that each replaces and displaces action, until in Act V the soliloquy disappears, and Hamlet kills the King. Language - those words, words, words - is in itself a delaying tactic, as Hamlet himself repeatedly …show more content…
Once the relationship between playwright and audience seemed sincere, before a decade of grinding out performances and seeing his work misinterpreted and misunderstood. Hamlet dismisses Rosencrantz, Shakespeare hurries to dismiss the audience’s role in his play, but only through the death of the vassal characters does the Bard’s true conclusion about the audience’s role come to light. When speaking of the issue of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s death to Horatio, Hamlet states that the concern “will be short.../A man’s life’s no more than to say ‘one’” (Shakespeare 5.2.83-84). Essentially, while the meaning and proper performance of his plays will occur during his lifetime in which he can dictate and weigh in on, Shakespeare realizes his life is only one and his works will transcend his life. More importantly to the play, Hamlet’s final dismissal of the vassal characters marks the transition of no longer needing vassal
“The four major soliloquies in Hamlet are cunningly set, one in each of the first four acts, so that each replaces and displaces action, until in Act V the soliloquy disappears, and Hamlet kills the King. Language - those words, words, words - is in itself a delaying tactic, as Hamlet himself repeatedly …show more content…
Once the relationship between playwright and audience seemed sincere, before a decade of grinding out performances and seeing his work misinterpreted and misunderstood. Hamlet dismisses Rosencrantz, Shakespeare hurries to dismiss the audience’s role in his play, but only through the death of the vassal characters does the Bard’s true conclusion about the audience’s role come to light. When speaking of the issue of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s death to Horatio, Hamlet states that the concern “will be short.../A man’s life’s no more than to say ‘one’” (Shakespeare 5.2.83-84). Essentially, while the meaning and proper performance of his plays will occur during his lifetime in which he can dictate and weigh in on, Shakespeare realizes his life is only one and his works will transcend his life. More importantly to the play, Hamlet’s final dismissal of the vassal characters marks the transition of no longer needing vassal