As should be apparent by now, RDR2’s use of literature ranges from deep and extensive to brief and glancing. Sometimes, the writers allude to a work broadly rather than dealing with its themes.
During “A Fine Night of Debauchery,” Arthur Morgan grumbles to Josiah Trelawny, “This ain't Hamlet.” This is the writers begging us to notice that this is Hamlet. Happy to oblige. After the death of his father, Hamlet's uncle Claudius marries Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, and becomes king. One of the senses of discomfort this creates — the rottenness in the state of Denmark — is that Hamlet is of age. Under the rules of primogeniture, he should be king. Arthur is similarly infantilized.
Allusions to William Shakespeare's The Tempest are among the most obvious references in RDR2 — and yet, other allusions to the Bard's work are so subtle we almost have to guess at them. The game doesn't make direct allusion to King Lear or Othello, but the influence of those dramas is clear. Those plays feature a scheming villain spitting poison in the ear of a noble-but-tragically-flawed leader and a loyal but hapless child or follower who dies as a result of the leader's weakness: a plot that RDR2 reworks beautifully. However, this is an influence felt, not named. Other Shakespearean works are alluded to more directly. We’ll begin by discussing…
