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Comparing Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

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Existentialism is a philosophy that really focuses on free will of an individual and the meaning of life. There have been many existentialists to write pieces demonstrating this philosophy. Tom Stoppard wrote an existentialist play called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. This play builds off of characters from the famous Shakespeare play, Hamlet. Stoppard's play is existentialist because it demonstrates its characters having free will, no real certainty and they toss around the idea of death and what it means to die.
One common existentialist belief is that certain questions are unavoidable. One question that seems to be unavoidable for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is the question of death. In the third act of Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern roll around the idea of death, and what it means to …show more content…

The player in this play, tries to somewhat comfort Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by saying "In our experience, most things end in death." (123) Guildenstern responds to that with fear and vengeance. He says, "I'm talking about death-and you've never experienced that. And you cannot act it. You die a thousand casual deaths-with none of that intensity which squeezes out life... and no blood runs cold anywhere. Because even as you die you know that you will come back in a different hat. But no one gets up after death-there is no applause- there is only silence and some second-hand clothes, and that’s--death----" (123) The player is an actor, who dies all the time in his plays and has yet to think about the effects of real death. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy also says, "..to cease to be alive is to die. So there are no deathless exits after all." Meaning, death is unavoidable. That is what Rosencrantz and

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In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play supporting roles and are shunted to the side, not having much choice in their decisions and merely “moving” along with the decisions of other characters. However, in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, they are the central figures and echo Hamlet’s inner thoughts that aren’t shown during the play Hamlet. The coexistence of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Hamlet shows the futility of opposing fate and that the spectators, or the minor characters, are perpetually going to be “acting” and staring in on the stage of fate. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz as spectators is best illustrated when Guildenstern says to

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Furthermore, when they re-open the letter later to discover that Hamlet has changed the letter, which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be "put to sudden death." R&G do not take any action of change the situation. Guildenstern says, "But why? Was it all for this? Who are we that so much should converge on our little deaths? Who are we? The player responds, "You are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

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Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an existentialist play. A core value of existentialists is that there is no absolute certainty. People never know what is coming next. They don't know what to expect. The play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, is full of uncertainty.

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