Summary and Analysis the Quick Kenzie Way

Summary and Analysis the Quick Kenzie Way:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Tom Stoppard 

First performed 1967

Author: Tom Stoppard

Setting: Middle of nowhere, Elsinore, and on a boat. In the Elizabethan Era (1500s)
 

Plot:
ACT I: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are very confused.  The odds are against all laws of nature, and every time they flip a coin it lands on heads.  This isn't as shocking as it is puzzling, a strange phenomenon that is only mildly interesting.  Guil remembers that there was a messenger who gave them a purpose but he can't really remember.  Ros mostly repeats what Guil says. 

While in the middle of nowhere they run into a band of tragedians, who are desperate to play for someone, anyone.  While at first alluring, their demonstration is too crude for the pair who want something with matter, something classical.  Guil tricks them into a bet to get their coins, but when he finally gets a bet wrong (the coin landed on tails) the lights change and they find themselves inside Elsinore.

Hamlet and Ophelia run by, and Ros and Guil get swept up by the King and Queen, and they both discuss in Shakespearean English and we learn that they are to find out what is wrong with Hamlet.  Left alone they get confused, talk about a bunch of nothing, play question-and-answer games, role play.  Hamlet and Polonius come in, mistake the two of them, and the scene goes dark.

ACT II: They talk with Hamlet but learn nothing.  They talk with themselves, get confused.  Polonius enters, with the Players. The Player accuses Ros and Guil of abandoning them on the road.  The three of them talk about Hamlet and what's going to be shown tomorrow.  They watch the dumbshow.  The Player leaves and Ros and Guil talk about death, Ros in particular very disturbed by the thought.

Ros and Guil "wake up" in the positions the "dead" actors were just in.  Claudius asks them to find Hamlet and Polonius' body.  They talk more, get confused, and try to trap Hamlet with their belts which fails miserably.  They learn they will be taking Hamlet to England.  Ros is hesitant and says he does not want to go but Guil makes him, since they've come so far anyways.

Then, they're on a boat.  Hooray, on a boat!  They talk mostly about previous topics, and Guil gets angry at Ros for being repetitive.  Ros gets scared about the nothingness that is to come and the unpredictability, says he doesn't believe in England.  Then they remember the letter and act out what they will say to the king.  By reading the letter they learn that Hamlet is to be executed.  Ros is distressed because Hamlet is a friend, but Guil rationalizes it in all different ways seemingly indifferent. 

Hamlet overhears them, switches the letter as they sleep.  In the morning, the tragedians are there.  Ros and Guil talk more, then pirates attack and there's chaos, and they all jump into barrels.  After the chaos Hamlet is missing, and Guil freaks out again.  The Player talks about death, which makes Guil so angry he stabs the Player, who dies.  But he didn't really die, just acted it out.  Then they talk more about fate and what went wrong, Ros eventually leaves the stage and Guil follows soon behind.

Then, we're back in Elsinore in the last scene where everyone is dead.  Horatio gives the last speech from the real play, and the curtains are drawn.  THE END!

 

Significant Characters:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:  They are two separate characters but often do not know which one they are, as do the other characters.  Together they seem to make up one person.  Guildenstern often asks the deep questions, often thinking through what is going on around them, as compared to Rosencrantz, who asks many simple questions ("what's my name?") and would rather act rather than think about it.  I think of them as the Thinker and the Doer.
The Player: The leader of the band of tragedians.  He seems to know what is going on, but Ros and Guil do not pick up on all the double meaning he says.  Seems a bit shady to me.
Alfred: Alfred is one of the tragedians, a boy who plays the role of the female character in the play.
The "Hamlet" characters (Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius): Major Shakespearean characters appear for select scenes and say their lines which they said in the original play.  Unlike in "Hamlet" their role is minimal and we aren't caught up in their emotional tale.

Narrative voice: No narrator

POV:  3^rd person, with no narrator.  Many times the fourth wall of the play is broken when the characters talk about the audience in a demeaning way, yell "Fire!" to watch their reaction, and even spit into the audience.

Tone: Bleak, hopeless, life is meaningless, art is what you want to make of it, play on words, made to make you think. 
 

3 Significant Quotes and why:

1) Ros: What are you playing at?
Guil: Words, words.  They're all we have to go on.  (pg 41)

This quote is significant because (its the Spruz quote! and) it sums up the situation Ros and Guil are in.  They don't have anything physical, anything real to direct their actions, just a couple of words.  This kind of goes along with the meaningless theme.  There's not any meaning, any reason for them to live when all they have are words that don't make sense.
This might also helps the interpretation of the play in which Ros and Guil are actors who fall into their parts when the "Hamlet" scene comes on.  All they have to go on are words, vague directions which they don't know how to respond to.

 

2) Guil (broken): We've travelled too far, and our momentum has taken over; we move idly towards eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation.
Ros: Be happy -- if you're not even happy what's so good about surviving?   (pg 121)

This quote is towards the end of the play, and is important because it also talks about the main points.  Guil represents the more serious theme to the book, that we will go throughout life knowing nothing.  Ros here represents the same idea, but has a lighter spin on it, that since it's out of our control why do we even bother worrying?

3) Player: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds -- if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.

This quote is significant because there's a lot in this play that has to do with odds, since all laws of reason have been flipped upside-down when every coin lands on heads.  But it's more than that.  It's a rather depressing quote, saying that life does not have very good odds for us, and our chances are bleak.

 

Theme: The meaninglessness of life

Elements which Support this Theme:

n      Setting – The setting is very vague, there's no "home".  Wherever Ros and Guil are, they don't belong, and they don't understand why they're there.

n      Plot – Plot?  What plot?  The plot is there, as the audience knows that all is leading up to Ros and Guil's death, but the circular, pointless conversations makes getting there take awhile.

n      Author’s style – Very simple ideas are exaggerated to give them meaning, (such as the probability of a coin toss), but their gross exaggeration only helps to make them seem more pointless.

n      Tone – Critical, sarcastic, witty/pun-y

n      Symbolism – The coins, and landing only on heads, the boat, the actors vs. real people