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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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Hamlet from Hamlet asserts, “To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation.” (Act 3, Sc 1) Hamlet believes that death is the only way out. Death is to be embraced because it is the only way to escape the pain from this world. Death was an eye opener in a different way to Hamlet.

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As the soliloquy ends, Hamlet realizes there is a line that needs to be crossed for him being and not being. This is why death bothers him

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To die- to sleep- No more; and by a sleep to say we end the heartache. ”(ACT III scene i) In this quote we see Hamlet debate his own life and consider whether dying would be better than to

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Queen Gertrude teaches Hamlet a valuable lesson about death when she says “Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die, / Passing through nature to eternity” (1.2.74–75). She tells us that all we know is that we go from earthly existence back into the mysterious pace from whence we came. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet contemplates what happens when we die and what it means to die. Hamlet's point of view on death changes throughout the play. His views range from one side of the spectrum – contemplating the worth of life – to the other, which is death.

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Death seems to be the biggest mystery in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. From the start of the play with the Ghost of Hamlets father appearing to avenge his death, to Hamlet’s most popular “To be or Not to be” soliloquy, and to the plays bloody conclusion; the uncertainty of death seems to always be on our protagonist mind. Death has become a recurring theme throughout this whole play. His thoughts of death range from death in a spiritual matter, the truth and uncertainty in what death may bring, and the question of his own death.

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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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He is desperate enough to ask someone else to choose his fate. Furthermore, I appreciate the director’s choice of pauses throughout the soliloquy, which allows contemplation. For example, Hamlet says, “to die, to sleep- no more- and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” (3.1.61-64). Between “to die” and “to sleep” there is a noticeable pause, which allows the audience the question death themselves. Is death truly comparable to

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Written as an extension to the play Hamlet, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead focus not on the titular character of Shakespeare’s play, but on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two somewhat minor characters in Hamlet. The play follows the two of them after the King of Denmark enlists them to find out what afflicts their friend, Hamlet. It is written from the perspective of the backstage happenings, parts of the Hamlet readers would not read about. Stoppard scatters elements of “healthy confusion” in the play through the use of questions, suspense, and misnomers to create a sense of "pleasure and disquietude" in the readers. One major feeling experienced while reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is suspense.

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As Sir Guildenstern says in ‘Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are dead’, “Is there a god?” Much like Guildenstern, I ask myself that same question, stare into the abyss that is my brain and wonder if there actually is a god. In ‘Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are dead’, they constantly bring up this theme that not all questions cannot be solved by thinking and that the real solution to those questions is death. This goes along with the idea of existential nihilism which says that all life has no intrinsic meaning or value. This is very clear in certain scenes of the book, for example, the question game, when they’re on the boat delivering Hamlet, or when they are flipping the coin.

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead contains analogous thematic connections, such as the chaotic bafflement of the world, to Sanayatas’s “There may be Chaos still around the World”, allowing the reader to feel more connected to the character’s intimate opinions. The incomprehensibility of the world suggests that there may be chaos still around “this little world”. Clearly, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are trapped in a place where they have no control over their lives. During the play, they spend most of their lives in utter puzzlement, not knowing what is going on their lives or in those around them because they are “curled... in nature’s shell” and are “unmindful of the changing…skies”. The beginning of the play portrays their lack on

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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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He maintains that his life has no value throughout the play and contemplates suicide. Hamlet's questioning thoughts on life's worth is further expressed the ten lines of 203-212 in act V scene i. which read ““No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither/ with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it:/ Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander retur-/ neth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make/ loam, and why of that loam whereto he was con-/ verted might they not stop a beer-barrel?/ Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,/ Might stop a hole to keep the wind away./ O that the earth which kept the world in awe/ Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!” Hamlet speaks these lines during an exchange with the gravediggers, one who was singing and juggling skulls while he worked. In these lines, Hamlet explains how no one's life is really worth anything because, in the end, we are all reduced to corpses, skulls, dust, and clay. By using Alexander and Caesar as examples, two influential and powerful leaders of

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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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These continuous deaths heighten the tension, as the suspense and mystery revolving around who would die next, magnifies the sense of anticipation in the audience. These deaths occur gradually, with King Hamlet being the first, as he had died before the play even started. This is followed by Polonius’ death by Hamlet in Act 3, Scene 4. As a result of her father’s death, Ophelia had reached a mental decline and resorted to committing suicide by drowning herself in Act 4, Scene 7. The climax of the play is in the final act which is Act 5, Scene 2; where multiple characters such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet have reached their untimely deaths.

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