The play is structured as the inverse of Shakespeare'sHamlet. Two minor characters in the original, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are the leads in this play; they are on-stage here when they are off-stage in Shakespeare's play, with the exception of a few short scenes taken directly from the original. They find themselves within the puzzling universe of the play, brought into existence as an act of the playwright's creation.
The two characters and those they encounter often confuse their names, as have interchangeable identities. They are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world that is beyond their understanding; they cannot identify any reliable feature or the significance in words or events. Their own memories are not reliable or complete and they misunderstand each other as they stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications to themselves. They often state deep philosophical truths during their nonsensical ramblings, however they depart from these ideas as quickly as they come to them. At times one appears to be more enlightened than the other; however this position is traded-off throughout the course of the drama.
Several important themes in the play:
Existentialism - why are we here? Why should Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do anything unless someone asks them to? They find themselves as pawns in a gigantic game of chess, yet make no effort whatsoever to escape.
Free will vs. determinism - is it their choice to perform actions, or are they fated to live the way they do? The implication the play gives is that it doesn't matter what choices Rosencrantz and Guildenstern make, they are trapped within the logic of the play, and cannot escape, being fated to follow a destiny determined by the plot. Hamlet ends with the news of their deaths, so they have to die.
Search for value - what is important? What is not? Does anything matter? If we are all going to die, why do we continue to live?
These themes, and the presence of two central characters who almost appear to be two halves of a single character, are shared with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and the two plays are often compared. The theme of characters living the strange world of an author's creative imagination (without being fully aware of it) has also been explored in other works, for example Frank Baker's classic Miss Hargreaves: A Fantasy, and Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World.
The play was filmed in 1990, directed by Stoppard, starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in the leading roles, Richard Dreyfuss as the player, Joanna Roth as Ophelia and Iain Glen as Hamlet.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100519/) at the Internet Movie Database
Lecture (http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/stoppard.htm) (public domain) by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/RosencrantzandGuildensternAreDead-1033741/) at Rotten Tomatoes
Rosencrantz, for example, delights in showing off to Guildenstern, always inviting him to see his new discovery (an experiment, a paper plane, a recently fallen apple), and he is never angry when the experiment misfires or Guildenstern crumples up his creation.
Guildenstern is trying at last to do something, to make contact with the only reality of which he is sure.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have, in effect, purchased their way into a production of Hamlet and, because of the logic of the script (pages of which are blowing through many scenes) must move inexorably to their deaths, as it is written.
In Stoppards revision, the characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are not fully developed in the original play, fumble around bewildered about their mission and the reason for their existence.
When Tom Stoppard produced Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, England was dealing with the aftermath of WWII and colonization, causing the public to question authority, challenge precedent, and debunk mythologies associated with power and prestige.
Like Prufrock, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are easy tool[s] in a highly orchestrated plot in which they are insignificant attendants. They have been casts as the fools, and despite their arduous journey towards enlightenment they have been denied understanding, purpose, and essential meaning.
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