Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Passivity Quotes Page 2
Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
| Quote #4 A FEMALE FIGURE, ostensibly the QUEEN, enters. ROS marches up behind her, puts his hands over her eyes and says with a desperate frivolity. |
We include all of these stage directions because Alfred and the Queen are two of the most passive characters in the play, perhaps even more so than Guil and Ros. Isn't it weird that Alfred gets dressed up as the Queen? What a coincidence.
| Quote #5 GUIL: As soon as we make a move they'll come pouring in from every side, shouting obscure instructions, confusing us with ridiculous remarks, messing us about from here to breakfast and getting our names wrong. (2.352) |
Guil here blames everyone else for their confusion and their situation. Do they ever learn not to get confused by such ridiculous remarks?
| Quote #6 GUIL: And yet it doesn't seem enough; to have breathed such significance. Can that be all? And why us? – anybody would have done. And we have contributed nothing. (2.428) |
Guil is right – they've contributed nothing. How could the two of them possibly be picked out for the task of divining what is wrong with Hamlet? Is it the fact that they contribute nothing?
