Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead

Misc. Information

Author: Tom Stoppard

Setting: a little bit of everywhere, the setting isn’t very detailed and leaves the reader a little bit confused.

Characters

Rosencrantz: Like a child in many ways. He tends to stumble upon riches (in the beginning when they are flipping coins) and in the movie, he stumbles upon many different concepts from physics. He is seen as less intelligent than Guildenstern. He is confused for Guildenstern in the play, to the point where it is seen as a motif of the play.

Guildenstern: More of an adult figure. He looks out for Rosencrantz. As a more intelligent character, he tries to use logic to understand his situation, but whenever he gets close to understanding the situation, he forgets.

Player: He seems to be more in control of the play than R and G (I’ve decided that typing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is really repetitive and takes a lot of time, so I’m just going to call them R and G) are, and seems to understand that the play is a loop. He is seen as a more powerful character, and he understands the dynamic of the play better.

Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, and Ophelia: Not very major characters, but because they were big in Hamlet, I thought it would be rude not to include them.

Tragedians: The “actors” in the play that Hamlet hires, they are like the player’s posse. This includes Alfred, who, out of all the tragedians, is the only one who has a real name.

Summary

The play opens on R and G flipping coins. A strange phenomenon has occurred, where the coin is only coming up heads. R has been calling heads the whole time, so his bag of money is fuller than G’s. G tries to explain this by using many “laws” that are incorrect.

They stop flipping coins and think about how they got to the point that they’re at. They remember that a messenger called for them. Other than that, the readers learn that R and G forget things almost as soon as they happen.

After this deep heart to heart, they stumble across the player and the tragedians. It soon becomes vary apparent that the player is trying to sell R and G sex, however R and G are oblivious, so the player tries to drop more obvious hints, it becomes nearly painful for the reader.

After this silly encounter, R and G suddenly appear in Elsinore! (what!?!) they are told that Hamlet has gone crazy, and that (being his two best friends) they should find out what is troubling him, and try to help fix it. This proves to be quite the issue later on when they cannot find him.

Before Hamlet goes off on his crazy killing spree (just kidding, he only kills Polonius), R and G run into the Player and his tragedians, who are angered by the fact that R and G just left them in the woods. He soon gets over it, and R and G explain their situation with Hamlet. He tries to lend some helpful advice.

The player leaves and we learn that Polonius has been killed. It is R and G’s job to find Hamlet and Polonius’ body. Gertrude and Claudius decide that it’s a good idea to send Hamlet to England, and so R and G go with him. However, instead of actually getting on a boat, they magically appear on it in a dark room.

On the boat they talk about many different things, but one reoccurring conversation was the one about G liking boats, and how he would totally live on one if given the chance (however, we know this will never happen.) It’s reflected back in the end with the quote “our first mistake was getting on a boat.” But we’ll get to that later. First lets talk about the other stuff that happens.

R and G practice what they’ll say to the king of England, and accidentally open up the letter tat was given to them by the king. They learn that Hamlet is to be put to death. However, Hamlet was also listening to them practice, and realizes that he is going to his death. He plans against this and writes a different letter, about R and G’s death, and closes it with his royal seal.

R and G come across the player and the tragedians, but before they can fully greet each other, the boat is attacked by pirates!! Hamlet hops a ride with the pirates, and R and G are flustered! What are they to do? They practice their revised lines now, and accidentally open the letter again! This time, instead of mentioning Hamlets death, they read about their own impending doom. The player tries to console R and G, but as the play comes to a close, G starts to understand that the play is just a loop, and they will just be reborn the next time someone opens Hamlet (the book)

Stuff that happens that isn’t necessarily important about the summary, but still means stuff to the book.

·         The repetition of conversations is a common motif in the play, but the information that is repeated isn’t necessary.

·         The ‘Question and Answer’ game

·         R and G practicing their lines when they aren’t in the play of Hamlet

·         Repetition of them forgetting.

Thesis

T-Stopz’ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead contrasts the confusion and language of the stage with the audience, commenting that because life is not a work of art we are not limited by the same laws of fate that characters are and therefore may exercise free will.

Quotes and why they’re important

·         “It is written” although this isn’t a long quote, this is a major moment of epiphany for readers. The idea that R and G were in a play before was obvious, but now we start to realize that everything that they do is written, and they can’t stray from the text. This line was a big help in writing the thesis statement.

·         “well, we’ll know better next time.” This is the last thing that G says before disappearing in the end of the play. Before this point, we as readers understand the loop that R and G are stuck on, but up until now, we were led to believe that they remained ignorant about it. We see here that G understands his fate, this too was a help in writing the thesis.

Major Motifs

o   Confusion

o   Language

o   Chance/ Fate

o   Death

o   Theatre