Author: Tom Stoppard
Setting: This play begins in an unknown forest, jumps to Elsanor, and then on a boat.
Plot:
The play begins with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern traveling through the forest, they cannot remember where they had been that morning or where they are suppose to be going. Then they begin to flip a coin which keeps landing on heads. Again. And again, and again. They seem to be confused and they are amazed with the luck of this coin. During their confusion they realize that a messenger is the first thing that they remember and they then encounter the Tragedians where they meet the Player. The Tragedians really want to preform for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern but they don't really want to watch so after the Tragedians have started Ros and Guild leave and then they find themselves in Elsanor.
Once in Elsanor they encounter Ophelia and Hamlet arguing, while Claudius and Polonius seem to be plotting. They are informed by Claudius and Gertrude to do some investigating on what is going on with Hamlet. Before they go to talk to Hamlet, they practice and act out a scenario in which one of the is Hamlet and one of them is questioning him. After they actually have an encounter with Hamlet they realize they did not find anything that would be useful out and tell Claudius they don't know why he is crazy. They think about and discuss death, a common theme throughout the play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in the Tragedians play in which their characters die which foreshadows their actual death later on in the play.
In the last act of the play, Claudius informs Ros and Guild to go to England with Hamlet. They discover on the boat that they are supposed to deliver Hamlet to the King of England by whom he will be killed. Hamlet figures this out and replaces the letter that says to kill him with a letter that says to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Then pirates attack the ship they are on and somehow Hamlet is no longer there. Ros and Guild discuss death and how this has happened to them and then they are killed. The play ends with the same speech that Horatio gives at the end of Hamlet.
Significant Characters:
Rosencrantz: Hamlet's childhood friend who is called on by the King and Queen of Elsanor to come and help their son Hamlet in his depression and mental troubles. He and his dear friend Guildenstern are constantly mixed up as they supposedly look much alike one another. He seems pretty dim-witted at the beginning of the play but towards the end there seems to be more to him than anyone thought.
Guildenstern: Hamlet's childhood friend who is called on by the King and Queen of Elsanor to come and help their son Hamlet in his depression and mental troubles. He and Rosencrantz are constantly mixed up as they supposedly look much alike one another. Guildenstern seems to be very wise, always going on long tangents about what the meaning of life and death is. A very complex character.
The Player: The Player is more complicated then I thought during the first read, but I realized later on how wise he was. He is the leader of the Tragedians, a group of Actors that travels around. He also represents a god-like figure because he always seems to know what is going on and what has happened and what will happen.
Quotes:
"Uncertainty is the normal state. You’re nobody special." -The Player
- This quote by the player brings out the important theme in the play that life is unpredictable and that nothing is certain in anyones life. The world is ever changing.
"Give us this day our daily mask.”
- This quote is important because one major thing in this play is the fact that they keep bringing up the Lord's prayer, but always with the wrong words.
Symbols/Motifs:
Coins: The coins that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue to encounter and flip throughout the play symbolize chance and the improbability of the world.
Death: Death is constantly brought up throughout the play and how it is inevitable.
Hamlet: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are thrown into the story of Hamlet, which is shown in cues and actions from other characters along the story line of Hamlet.
Acting vs. Real Life: It is constantly brought up in the play that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern know that they are acting on a stage in front of an audience.
Narrator: This is a play so there is no one narrator.
Theme: The extreme mystery of life and the world and the constant role of chance in our lives.
