The character Igor Dmitriev played in "Hamlet" was summoned by what king to distract the prince from his apparent madness?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet". They are childhood friends of Hamlet, summoned by King Claudius to distract the prince from his apparent madness and if possible to ascertain the cause of it. The characters were revived in W. S. Gilbert's satire, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern", and as the alienated heroes of Tom Stoppard's absurdist play, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", which was adapted into a film.
Critical approaches to Hamlet From its premiere at the turn of the 17th century, "Hamlet" has remained Shakespeare's best-known, most-imitated, and most-analyzed play. The character of Hamlet played a critical role in Sigmund Freud's explanation of the Oedipus complex and thus influenced modern psychology. Even within the narrower field of literature, the play's influence has been strong. As Foakes writes, "No other character's name in Shakespeare's plays, and few in literature, have come to embody an attitude to life [...] and been converted into a noun in this way."