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Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

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In life human beings try to control almost every aspect. That can go all the way down to what shoes they wear to what the rest of their life looks like. That control is not something that human beings can really have even though conceptually they believe they have it. Tom Stoppard in his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, explores the idea of control. This play is based off of Shakspeare's Hamlet, and turns two of his mediocre characters into the main characters. Stoppard using the dialogue and lives of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to show how humans truly have no control of their lives. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are depicted as being literal beings who believe everything must happen for a reason. The play opens with the two characters …show more content…

When Guildenstern and Rosencrantz were presented in front of Claudius and told what their role to Hamlet was to be they freely accepted. Accepting the fact that they would help Gertrude and Claudius figure out what was wrong with Hamlet by tricking him. Rosencrantz finds grave issue with this but Guildenstern does not. Guildenstern says, "We've been caught up. Your smallest action set off another somewhere else, and is set off by it. Keep an eye open, and ear cocked. Tread warily, follow instructions. We'll be alright" (page 16). Guildenstern is convincing Rosencrterz that their decision to stay and help was ultimately unavoidable. The idea that one thing led to another which resulted in them being there. His words of wisdom to Rosencretz take on the image of someone excepting their fate. Instead of looking at what is going on and seeing how ultimately it is his own choice to stay. Guildenstern sees this as something else at play controlling the ultimate outcome. It is this unwillingness to recognize that perhaps this is his life to live which ever way he wishes, but something someone else has power over. In making the decision to stay it is not that he does it because he wants to but because something else is controlling the ultimate decision. This idea of control is morphed into something else entirely. Instead of it having control over just the logical and how things

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In 1.2 King Claudius gives speech addressing his brother’s death and the war potential in Denmark without sign of guilt and recognize what he have done to obtain this power. Similarly when Claudius witness the strange action of hamlet he send rosencrantz and guildenstern who are Hamlet best friends to spy on Hamlet even though they are doing what the king is asking they look suspicious to Hamlet which cause the break point in their relationship which cause their death. “To draw him on to pleasures and to gather, so much as from occasion you may glean, whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus that , opened, lies within our

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and Rosencrantz wonders “How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark?” (2.3. 337 -341). On the other hand, the way she treated Guildenstern in the scene with suspicion was because of the ghost of his father appearing to him and revealing his killer. The prince was aware that Guildenstern was a spy for Claudius and when she says she has been send by his mother the queen “ The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.” Hamlet replies “You are welcome” using a puppet to mock her, Guildenstern replies “Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed.

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For starters nobody even knows which is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern. Not the audience, not the supporting characters, not the director, not even themselves! There are many time throughout the film where one refers to himself as Rosencrantz and to the other as Guildenstern and then turns around as says it the other way. Or when R&G were called in to speak with the King and Queen and are called names that may or may not even belong to them at all! And my favorite scene: in the garden where (the one usually considered)

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are uncertain of their past, puzzled by the present and blind as to the future. But if the play still works, it is because Stoppard strikes an astonishing balance between cross-talk comedy and poignant awareness

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Even though he knows Rosencrantz is a spy, he wants to prevent Rosencrantz from being manipulated by Claudius. Hamlet’s reason for doing this is hinted at by his diction. He says that any “officers” who,

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When The two main characters first come across The Player, many philosophical ideas are exchanged. The Player seems to have better understanding of the world around him, and he attempts to bestow this knowledge on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Stoppard has The Player to show that there are some people who are able to make their own decisions and better understand life. The only problem is the two do not seem to understand or accept The Player’s logic. The Player believes all people are artists, while Rosencrantz thinks they are gentlemen.

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Them? They’re Dead (A Discussion on the Messages of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) What if you were not the main character in your own story? What if your only purpose in life was to further the life of another? For the two characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this is the case.

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One of them gets impassioned to make decisions about their plans. However, most of the time, they are very “indifferent” (23) and “have no desires” (17). Both of them make several references to how they are “entitled to some direction” and would rather someone make decisions for them. They doubt themselves and whether or not they honestly have a choice (43). Rosencrantz is even shown to understand Hamlet’s plight during the play, but never make any actions based on that understanding.

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No matter how many times Guildenstern flips a coin, the result is out of his power. This suggests that there is no way to control randomness and the outcome it yields. Tom Stoppard suggests that randomness is a factor that affects the characters and the readers. The coin

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Humans do indeed have free will; however, due to their inability to make intelligent decisions for themselves, it remains largely predetermined. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters given the role as major characters, but once they are given the role, they cannot comprehend their newfound freedom. Human nature prevents them from utilizing this freedom; instead they fall back to previous values mandated by society. Language gets broken down and becomes more incoherent as the play progresses to demonstrate this. The reason is because language is the oldest form of oppression, and although they are supposedly unrestricted now, they cannot comprehend this.

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However, Guildenstern begins to ponder whether their own actions actually have an effect on the outcome of their story. When one of the players asks the pair if they have spoken to Hamlet, Rosencrantz responds saying, "It's possible," immediately followed by Guildenstern responding, "But it wouldn't make a difference," (116). Stoppard seems to posit that total freedom is not easily

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If we analyze a scene from ‘Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are dead’,

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Thus, Rosencrantz cannot tell the difference between the real and the theatrical Rosencrantz because they are so similarity portrayed. Furthermore, Guildenstern states that no one believes a staged death, while the Player claims otherwise. Guildenstern is firm in his belief that theatre cannot show death, but the Player asserts that the only thing that will “awe” and convince the reader is a theatrical death. To convince the best friends, the Player stages his own death where he makes it seem as though Rosencrantz has stabbed him in the chest with his sword.

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Claudius then sent Hamlet to England to get killed but he is captured by pirates and he changes the letter and actually tells the King of England to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet then arrives back in Denmark, because of these events, Claudius and Laertes are forced to kill hamlet in a fencing match, Laertes and Hamlet fight and they both end up dying, and so does Claudius and Gertrude and the land is left to Fortinbras.

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The Player urges the pair to stop talking, to stop equivocating, and to start making choices about their situation. However, they both reject this idea and use their freedom and will more as a destruction, than as an advantage. They hate the way people appear and ask them to do things, but neither Rosencrantz nor Guildenstern try to do anything to exert control over their life and fate. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern stand in for humanity as a whole, and their plight represents the individual’s struggle to derive meaning and significance from a life that will end in the complete nothingness of death. They cannot learn from their mistakes, nor can they conceive of acting in any way other than what they have done before.

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