Setting:
- The play of Hamlet
- In a void like place
Author:
- Tom Stoppard, who was a British playwright
- Rosencrantz- the more slap-happy of the two partners, he finds joy in the little things in life and represents a person who creates their own joy and meaning in life.
- Guildenstern- the more thoughtful of the two partners, he tries to use logic and reason from a variety of different academic fields to comprehend his situation. He fails to find the meaning he seeks and ends up looking about as dumb as Rosencrantz because of it. He represents someone who engages in the futile search for greater meaning in life.
- Player King- the character who is most omniscient in the play, he seems to know how the plot goes and has come to terms with it. He also represents someone who accepts the dominating role of Shakespeare in modern day Western culture.
Summary:
- The play opens with Guildenstern flipping coins, all of which land on heads. Rosencrantz bets heads each time and thus wins the coin each time. Guildenstern tries to find a logical explanation for this, but can't articulate a coherent answer. The flipping is interrupted by a traveling group of actors. Their leader makes several allusions to the idea they will perform sexual acts for money and also offers their child actor, Alfred, to be a prostitute. This makes Guildenstern very angry and he punches the player leader, or the player "King." Just as the troupe is about to leave, Guil stops the player and bets him on a coin toss, seeing as how they will do anything for money. He knows that it will always be heads so he wins every time. The player demands a different bet seeing how it is rigged, and Guil bets him that double his birth year is even. The player loses and offers Alfred as payment because he has no more money. Guil asks for a performance instead, and then it is revealed the last coin flip was actually tails. The lights change and suddenly the setting is in Elsinore, right in the middle of the events of Hamlet. They meet Claudius, who tells them to find out what is wrong with Hamlet. They struggle to understand his words or how to do this. For practice of questioning Hamlet, they play the "questions game." Then they pretend to be each other as more practice when Hamlet enters and greets them as old friends. Act II begins with the tragedians reappearing, scolding Ros and Guil for leaving them without an audience. The player talks with Ros and Guil about the play they will be putting on for the court, then talk about life and its endless march towards death. Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and Ophelia enter continuing the action in Hamlet. The players begin a rehearsal of the play they will perform while Ros and Guil don't see the obvious foreshadowing of the events to come. There is a death of two spies wearing the exact same clothes they wear. There also is a criticism of representing death on stage by Guildenstern, while the player says characters written to die will die. The lights go off and when they come back on, Ros and Guil are on the floor in the same clothes and positions as the dead spies in the play. Claudius tells Ros and Guil that Polonius has been killed and to find his body and Hamlet. They encounter Hamlet, but are incapable of stopping him. They wake up on a boat, where Ros and Guil try to console each other about their situation. They act out their meeting with the king and discover that Hamlet is to be killed. Hamlet overhears this and switches the letter with another saying to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The pair then find the players hidden in barrels, who hid away after their play angered Claudius. They learn that they have very little freedom, and then pirates attack leaving them hiding in barrels with Hamlet gone. They discover the new letter saying they are to die, and the player goes off about death, even faking his own. The two characters try to reconcile with their situation as they fade out and the final scene of Hamlet ends the play.
- Stoppard's tone is a satirical one as he criticizes many different things like Hamlet, contemporary theater and Western values. He creates comedy through the confusion of the two characters, changing any kind of perspective one of Hamlet one has before reading.
Imagery:
- The imagery on this play is very little, espicially when Ros and Guil are in the void like place. The other imagery is dominated by the play Hamlet.
Symbols/Motifs:
- Coins - Uncontrollable and random fate
- Wind - Guildenstern often tries to get a sense of direction using the wind, but can't. This emphasizes the confusion and absurdist aspects of the play.
- The Tragedians - Life is a stage with no one watching you.
- "Words, words. They’re all we have to go on." - Showing the big picture of the play, Ros and Guil have no idea what they're doing besides what they are told. This reflects its absurdist qualities as they struggle to comprehend and communicate, despite language is the only thing they know.
- "Audiences know what to expect, and that is all they are prepared to believe in." - Breaks the fourth wall and shows that audiences can't distinguish between reality and plays.
Theme:
- The stage is not real life. Stoppard directly communicates this through Guildenstern. The Player King says that theater is exactly like life to contrast this point, so the readers can see for themselves this is not true. The setting is minimal to emphasize plays are not a good representation of real life and the dialog is intentionally confusing to undermine the significance of Hamlet. The entire plot of the play is set up to distort Hamlet as a play, therefore showing despite its significance it is still not a good representation.
