Summary and Analysis: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

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. 

Response to Course Material

We finally finished Rosencrantz and Guildenstern which I am quite happy about because I found it quite confusing and annoying. Oh well, can't be worried about it now that it is over and done with.  This last week we practiced writing prompts for the AP test which was helpful. Unfortunately I feel as if I wrote a completely wrong essay I think so I am glad that we get to re-do it tomorrow for more practice!
Also right now we are reading Ceremony on our own which is interesting so far. I am concerned that I won't be able to catch on to all the levels that Ms. Holmes says that this plays has. I'm glad we are reading something that isn't Shakespeare related! So should be exciting!

Response to Course Material- February 10

         Well lets see Hamlet was quite an adventure, it was a very long process to read and annotate that book trying to understand all the meaning behind everything. Unfortunately, we just began the most confusing book that I have ever read.  We just started to read Rosencranzt and Guildenstern and it is very complicated and repetitive so far, and I know that there is meaning behind everything they are saying it is just confusing to always catch on.
         I hope that we practice more writing and multiple choice for the AP test, I'm beginning to get really nervous for that test that is coming up in May.

Hamlet: Summary and Analysis

Hamlet:

Author: William Shakespeare, born in April of 1564, was an English poet and playwright. 

Setting: Elsanor- royal compound in Denmark

Narrative Tone/ Style: 

-Hamlet does not really have one singular tone because it is a play that lacks a narrator. It is possible for many different interpretations because of this. The reader is able to get all the characters points of view on how things are happening because of this creating multiple tones in the play. 

Plot: 

      The play begins with a scene where the watchmen and Hamlet's friend Horatio see a ghost that they find strange because it looks like the dead king, who was Hamlet's father. They decide to tell Hamlet about what they have seen. While this is occurring, the new King, Claudius, who is Hamlet's uncle, is telling his people that they do not want to go to war.  This scene shows Claudius and Gertrude (Hamlet's mother) together and man and wife. 
      Then we are introduced to Ophelia, Polonius, and Laertes who are a family. This scene consists of Polonius and Laertes telling Ophelia that Hamlet is not good for her and because she is not of high status that he is probably just trying to get into bed with her so they tell her to stop seeing him. Also in this scene Polonius gives Laertes a lot of life advice because he is going off the France and Polonius doesn't trust him to make good decisions. 

     When Hamlet is confronted with his fathers ghost the play really gets interesting. The ghost tells him that his father's death was not an accident in the garden like he thought, it was his uncle who poisoned him for his thrown and for his wife. He then instructs Hamlet to take revenge in his father's name by killing his uncle. Obviously this is troubling to Hamlet but he wants to avenge his father so he forms a plan to determine Claudius's guilt and tells Horatio of his plan. He begins to pretend to act mad. 

      Hamlet then acts mad in front of Ophelia, calling her horrible names and saying things that do not make sense. After hearing of this, Ophelia agrees to a plan to let Polonius and Claudius listen in on a conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet so they can see he has gone mad.

    Then the king orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, friends of Hamlets to spy on Hamlet and try to get him to reveal is plan and details of his madness. Then, Hamlet instructs actors that have come to the castle to put on this play that he uses to see if Claudius reacts to it and see if he can tell if he is guilty from it. Claudius gets up and leaves the performance, making Hamlet think he is guilty. Then, Gertrude calls Hamlet to her bed chamber where they engage in a huge argument about her, old Hamlet and Claudius. During this fight he hears someone behind a curtain/wall and ends up killing Polonius. 

       Claudius sends Hamlet to England with plans to have him killed while in Elsanor Ophelia commits suicide and Laertes is depressed about losing his sister. Thinking that this is entirely Hamlets fault he plans to kill him. During Ophelia's funeral Hamlet shows he is back form England and Claudius's plan failed. Claudius conspires with Laertes to stage a friendly fight with Hamlet but really have the sword poisoned and to kill Hamlet. 

    The play ends in a bloodbath. Before the fight begins Hamlet apologizes to Laertes and then Laertes realizes the Hamlet is not the bad guy and doesn't want to kill him. Meanwhile, Claudius has a back up plan to kill Hamlet with poisoned wine if he is not killed in the battle. Unfortunately, Gertrude takes a sip of the poisoned wine and dies. Both Laertes and Hamlet are injured by the poisoned sword and they both end up dying. Fortinbras comes in and everyone is dead and he takes over the throne of Denmark.

      

Significant Characters: 

Hamlet: The old King's son, whose death sets the plot and scene for the play. He is the main character, who holds the most lines in the play and is the center of the action. He is caught between his mother and his uncle, who he thinks is his father's murderer.It shows a great deal about his character that he is determined to make sure Claudius is guilty before he can take his revenge.  He is also very eloquent with his words, his relationship with language is something that is often analyzed about the play. 

Claudius: Hamlet's uncle, who is the suspect in the murder of Hamlet's father, and is now married to Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Wanting to keep is status as King, he is determined to stop Hamlet's revenge on him and keep tabs on Hamlet's madness. 

Gertrude: Hamlet's mother, who is now married to his uncle after Hamlet's father, her husband, died. She is a confusing character because you cannot tell if her alliance is more towards Hamlet or Claudius. She is very frustrating because she is very selfish and dependent on men. 

Ophelia: Ophelia's character makes me sad because she loses Hamlet and she loses her father. She is hard to analyze because Shakespeare never really comes out and says she is pregnant but we believe she is and this and her confusing love for Hamlet and her strange relationship with her father that drives her to suicide.   

Theme: 

The main theme in Hamlet is revenge and how it never works out the way you want it to.

Important Quotes: 

1. "Get thee to a nunnery." - Hamlet

-This quote is significant because it shows the confusing relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. In this scene he is very rude to her showing that he doesn't always think the highest of her but in the scene at Ophelia's grave he says he always loved her which makes no sense because he is literally telling her to get to a whorehouse. 

2. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
-This quote is important because it shows that there is something wrong in Denmark. It does a little bit of foreshadowing towards the murder and the corruption of the royalty in Denmark. 

Response to Course Material

Well in class we have literally just been doing Hamlet for what seems like months now. It is different than any I have ever read and it is much different than the other Shakespeare I have read. My main problem is that I had a really hard time understanding what they were saying in the play while reading it. I was happy to watch the movie because it really helped me understand what was going on, but I hated how the first movie was done compared the second movie. I thought that the second movie was better because the acting and the scenes were way better done. Annotating Hamlet took FOREVER, it is just such a long play with so much to comment on, I honestly didn't think I would ever finish it!

I'm getting pretty worried about the final for this class, it seems like it is going to be all terms and that terms test was quite difficult the first time…so we shall see how it goes. I feel like i'm going to have to study a lot but I guess it will be good in preparation for the AP exam.

I think that is about it! I look forward to discussing Hamlet tomorrow in class! :)

Open Prompt

1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.


       In Audrey Niffenegger's book, The Time Travelers Wife, the author uses time travel to enhance her story. The way she uses time is quite interesting actually, because she creates a character who has a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably.

       The love story between Henry, the time traveler, and his wife Clare is a sad but amazing one. Niffenegger uses the time travel to have their love grow over time because once they meet naturally; Henry then begins to time travel back to Clare's childhood. This means that Clare has known Henry her whole life and she has been falling in love with Henry since she was six years old.  This strong connection between the love Clare has for him as she grows up and he is there for her then, and how she loves him when they are older proves how important the time travel was to their relationship.

       Henry and Clare’s story complicates when they are unable to conceive children due to the genetic disorder that Henry is passing onto the child. This is obviously very sad for the both of them because they want children but Henry does not want Clare to go through that pain of having miscarriages anymore and gets a vasectomy. This would have worked if a version Henry who had not yet had a vasectomy had not traveled to visit Clare and had gotten her pregnant. Henry is upset at first, but when the child is born is ultimately happy for the occurrence.

       Henry then travels and meets his ten-year-old daughter before she is technically born; he learns from his future daughter that she is able to somewhat control where she travels in time. He also learns some sad news. His daughter, Aba, informs him that he died when she was five years old. This give Henry the knowledge of his untimely death at the age of 43 and means he only has five years left to live. The way the author uses time travel to predict Henry’s death and how he dies is very clever and allows for a lot of emotional reaction from the reader because he knows, and we know that he is going to die and that he has zero control over it.

       Niffenegger uses time effectively to show the connection and love between Henry and Clare. She also uses it to strengthen the story and the hardship of Henry’s disease, which contributes to the work as a whole. 

Death of A Salesman: Summary and Analysis

Author: The author of Death of a Salesman is the American playwright, Arthur Miller. He is most famous for this play and The Crucible.

Setting: The Setting of the play is mainly in the home of Willy and Linda Loman. The house seems to be falling apart throughout the whole play and Willy is always either fixing or having to pay for things to be fixed. During Willy's visions of the past, we see the house as it used to be, not surrounded by high rise apartments, even a few trees in the yard. It is sad to see the difference between past and present in these scenes.

Plot:

Act One: 

        The play begins with the sound of a flute, and Willy Loman coming home from a business trip. This is the first time we see Willy interact with his wife Linda. Their relationship seems normal until you see her reassuring him on things that can't possibly be true and treating him like a child. Linda complains that Willy travels too much and convinces him to ask his boss tomorrow if Wily can have a job in New York so he doesn't have to drive so much. He agrees and tells Linda to go up to bed. 

        Now is when the reader also sees Willy have one of his episodes. He begins talking to himself and goes in-between the past and the present. This is where we see Willy's version of what life was like when his sons, Biff and Happy, were younger. They idolized him. The first flashback is of the boys washing Willy's car and playing around and asking how his trip was. Then Bernard, a neighbor that is Biff's age, comes out of their house and tells Biff and Willy that Biff needs to study for math or he fail the class. This seems to be of no concern to any of the Lomans, they have this belief that everything will just work out without hard work. After this first episode, the present Happy comes downstairs to try and get his dad to stop talking to himself and come upstairs. This doesn't work as well as hoped. During this whole time with Willy talking to himself, Biff and Happy have been upstairs discussing old times and dreams for the future. This is the most we hear from Happy during the whole play, and it has the most substance in it. When Biff comes down to try and get Willy to stop yelling and ranting things that don't really make sense, we see the tension between Biff and Willy. Though we are not sure yet what it was that ruined their relationship, we know that there is absolute zero respect for Willy from Biff. This is a sad, broken, father-son relationship. Biff is clearly angry with Willy for something, and Willy is very disappointed that his boy never amounted to anything. 

         During this first night, we also learn about Willy's brother Ben, who went to Africa/Alaska and struck gold and became very rich. We see that Willy regrets not going with his brother.  After Willy finally calms down from his fight with Biff, he goes upstairs while Linda scolds Happy and Biff about being so rude to their father. She explains what struggles he has been going through and how she suspects he is trying to kill himself and how Biff has to save him. Biff finally makes Willy happy by agreeing to go meet with Bill Oliver the next day about a business proposition. 

Act Two:

         Act two begins with Willy and Linda having breakfast, Linda tells Willy how excited the boys were when they left the house this morning and how they are going to treat Willy to dinner that night after the meeting. Willy then proceeds to go and meet with his boss about getting a job in New York. This is a very sad scene because his boss denies him a job and Willy loses it. He breaks down and yells and acts childish. After he gets fired he goes to Charley's where he runs into his son, Bernard, who has become a very successful lawyer. This depresses Willy because Bernard became a success and Biff did not, even though Biff was well-liked. Bernard asks him what happened in Boston when Biff visited Willy all those years ago, and Willy shuts down. He doesn't want to take the blame for Biff's failures. Charley gives Willy the money he needs, offers him a job which Willy denies because he is too proud, but takes the money anyways. He goes to meet his boys for dinner, which goes horridly. Biff tries to explain how awful the meeting with Bill Oliver went and how he stole his fountain pen but he can't do it. When he finally does, Willy gets crazy upset and goes into the bathroom where he is met with more memories of the past. We finally discover what ruined the relationship of Biff and Willy. It happened when Biff visited Willy in Boston and discovered Willy was cheating on Linda with another woman. The boys meet up with two girls and leave the restaurant with Willy in the bathroom. When they get home Linda is very upset. She cannot believe that they left their father at the restaurant and yells at them relentlessly. Willy is outside, having one of his episodes trying to plant seeds into the dirt. Willy and Biff fight some more once they come into the house and Biff breaks down and says he is going to leave but tells Willy he loves him. Willy stays downstairs while everyone else goes up stairs and begins to talk to Ben again and about insurance money and commits suicide in his car.

Requiem:

This little piece at the end is just Willy's funeral. We see that his family, Charley and Bernard come. Linda cannot cry and it is all in all depressing. Biff, though sad, says how his dad's dream was wrong and he was always chasing the wrong things, at the same time Happy is defending Willy. This is when we finally see how Happy is very similar to Willy and how they will probably end up with the same fate.

Significant Characters:

Willy Loman: Main character of the play, the salesman. He is very depressed when we meet him and has spent his whole life under the false idea that the key to success was being well-liked. This does not serve Willy well because not only is he not well-liked and a liar, he is not a very good salesman.

Linda Loman: Wife to Willy, just trying to make him happy even if it means going along with his lies and stories. She is not only his wife but also acts as his mother figure in the book. She seems to care more for Willy then her two sons combined and blames them a lot for what is happening to Willy. She expects them to save him because she can't.

Biff Loman: Willy's eldest son, was doomed to failure after discovering Willy was having an affair and cheating on his mother. He is the opposite of Willy, he goes West in search of the old American dream but is sent back home to try and save his father.

Happy Loman: Does not really have a personality---Exactly like Willy. A businessman. He is very disrespectful towards women and is constantly begging for attention from his mother and father who have always been more worried about Biff.

Charley: The opposite of Willy, Charley is his neighbor who has been a very successful businessman and has a very successful son.

Bernard: Also neighbor of the Lomans, he is Charley's son. He has been very successful in all things he has done.

Important Quotations: 

1) "And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ’Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?" -Willy Loman

-This quote shows how desperate Willy is to be liked, which is why he does everything in his life. He wants to be loved and remembered and a successful salesman. It's sad he never becomes one.

2) "He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong." -Biff (pg 11)

-This quote shows that Biff understands the differences between the American dreams, Happy and Willy's dream compared to Biff's dream. It helps bring the book full circle because we now understand Willy more now that he has passed.

Theme:

     The theme of Death of a Salesman, is the American Dream of consumerism. Of being well-liked, attractive and having material objects that are supposed to provide happiness when they really cannot. This is shown in the text because of Willy's desire to become a great salesman, be well-liked and have lots of money. He made the mistake of telling his kids that this was how the real-world works. This theme is shown constantly throughout the play.