Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Summary and Analysis Blog

     Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, was first performed on April 11, 1967. In 1946, Stoppard moved to England with his stepfather and family, but felt out of place which he says reflects in his characters who get mixed up and whose "jokes and false trails [have] to do with the confusion of having two names", something that Stoppard himself had experienced. This idea, being mixed up with the confusion of having two names, comes through quite often in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.


CHARACTERS:
     Rosencrantz: main character; "nice enough to feel a little embarrassed at taking so much money off his
                            friend", a bit naive, gets switched/mixed up with Guildenstern a lot.

     Guildenstern: main character; "aware but not going to panic about it", constantly philosophizing and
                             trying to understand everything. gets switched/mixed up with Rosencrantz a lot.

     The Player: leader of the Tragedians, attempts to show Rosencrantz and Guildenstern their deaths
                         multiple times; likes to please others, possibly a pimp; possible "all-knowing" character.

     Tragedians: Traveling actors, possibly prostitutes, all male; "some of them kill even better than they die.
                          The rest die better than they kill." (Stoppard 83).
          Alfred: Tragedian who plays many of the female roles, young, offered up to Rosencrantz and
                       Guildenstern when they are betting with the Player.

     Hamlet: Prince of Denmark; slightly less angsty than the character from Hamlet, sends Rosencrantz and
                   Guildenstern to their deaths who are trying to figure out why he is acting strange.

     Claudius: Hamlet's uncle, king, summons Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths who are trying to
                      figure out what's wrong with Hamlet.

     Gertrude: Hamlet's mother, seems to genuinely care for her son but goes along with her husband
                      Claudius' plan anyways.

     Polonius: King's adviser, shifty, unafraid to spy on Hamlet.

     Ophelia: Polonius' daughter, spends the entire play in a state of shock


SETTING:
The play has three settings: the middle of nowhere, Elsinore, and on a boat. Supposedly this play is taking place during Elizabethan times.


PLOT:
     Act 1:

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are flipping coins and betting on the outcomes. The coin repeatedly comes up heads and Rosencrantz continues to win.
• Guildenstern begins to theorize the law of probability and averages, wondering how heads can be flipped so many times in a row.
• They remember that they were summoned and that it was a royal summons.
• Guildenstern goes on a rant about unicorns and the thinness of reality.
• The player and tragedians arrive and offers their "services" to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. the player tells that they perform tragedies of all types. While Guildenstern understands what they really do, Rosencrantz does not and asks about seeing a performance.
• The player lets slip they playing at court that night and once again offers up the tragedians for services. Disgusted, Guildenstern calls them out as a "comic pornographer and a rabble of prostitutes." (Stoppard 27). Rosencrantz, who now understands, is curious about their line of work but is shamed and angry when he offers 1 coin as payment.
•  Guildenstern steps in and begins betting on the outcome of a coin toss with the Player. The coin continues to show heads so Guildenstern bets the Player that the year of his birth doubled is odd. As the Player takes the bet, the tragedians realize they've been tricked because no number doubled is odd. When the Player has no money left to gamble, he offers up Alred as paymen.
• Guildenstern instead asks about a play, an idea which the Player jumps on and the tragedians get ready to perform.
• The last coin flipped showed up tails and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are "transported" to Elsinore where they see Hamlet chasing Ophelia and being overly dramatic.
• Claudius and Gertrude enter and task Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with finding out what is wrong with Hamlet and why he's changed. Polonius enters and begins informing Claudius about state matters. They leave.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin debating whether there were always questions or always answers. Getting frustrated, they decide they want to leave but are unsure which direction they came from and so do not leave.
• They begin discussing the task Claudius gave them and what to do.
• Guildenstern comments on the appalling business of being a spectator.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin playing at questions, taking turns going back and forth with statements, synonyms, rhetoric, repetition, and non sequiturs being fouls. Guildenstern ends the game and they try to figure out their names and identities.
• Rosencrantz pretends to be Hamlet and they act out how to figure out his problem through questioning.
• Guldenstern instructs Rosencrantz to go look for Hamlet who he finds coming towards them with Polonius. Polonius is also trying to figure out Hamlet's problem but when he's blown off he leaves the task to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet greets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern like old friends and together they walk to the back of the stage.

     Act 2:

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discuss their failed attempts to question Hamlet, applying the rules from their earlier question game to what has happened. Evidently they ended up answering more questions than he did.
• Guildenstern begins trying to figure out where they came from again, this time with the sun as a reference. Unfortunately he is unsure which direction the sun came up and which way is which direction.
• Guildenstern tells Rosencrantz to "lick your toe and wave it around a bit" (Stoppard 59) which leads to an awkward conversation where Rosencrantz offers to lick Guildenstern's toe for him. Guildenstern declines as he is afraid someone will walk in on them.
• Guildenstern philosophizes that things are in motion that they cannot control to which they will be subject to.
• Rosencrantz tries to engage the audience by telling them there is a fire.
• Rosencrantz plays a game with Guildenstern where Guildenstern has to guess which hand contains a coin except Rosencrantz didn't put a coin in either hand.
• Hamlet, the Player, and the Tragedians enter. Hamlet is discussing the performance the tragedians will put on and if they could add in a few lines.
• When Hamlet leaves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin baiting the Player and cautioning him to watch himself. The Player chews Rosencrantz and Guildenstern out for leading him and his actors to believe they had an audience while they performed. he tells them how they had searched for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern but when they found themselves alone they were humiliated, so they packed up and continued on to Elsinore.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern mock the Player and Rosencrantz warns the Player he cannot perform his usual filth as royals are above normal people.
• The three speak of the play to be performed, The Murder of Gonzago, and the Player says he has been to Elsinore before.
• The Player helps Rosencrantz and Guildenstern work through what they know about Hamlet and what is going on at Elsinore. The Player tells that Polonius thinks Hamlet is acting strange because he is in love with Ophelia. When they're done discussing, the Player leaves.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin thinking of the future and Rosencrantz  begins to wonder about death and being asleep in a box. During his rant about death, Rosencrantz questions eternity and when it first occurred to him that eventually he will die.
• Gertrude and Claudius enter and ask about the progress with Hamlet. After the report, they leave and Hamlet enters, soon followed by Ophelia.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern observe the scene with Hamlet and Ophelia and when they leave the Player and Tragedians come on to begin a dress rehearsal.
• The dress rehearsal, narrated by the Player strangely mimics the plot of Hamlet. They are soon interrupted by the entrance of Hamlet and Ophelia, shortly followed by Claudius and Polonius. Claudius renounces Polonius' belief that Hamlet's strange behavior is in response to his love for Ophelia.
• Once the king, queen, and adviser leave, the Player and his actors resume their rehearsal and narration.
• The Player says that they "aim at the point where everyone who is marked for death dies" (Stoppard 79) and that they have no say in the matter as everything is written.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are unhappy with the nature of the play and believe it is too sordid but the rehearsal continues, even foreshadowing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths, though they don't know it.
• Guildenstern criticizes the Tragedians' marketing of death questioning the reality of it. He tells the Player what death "really" is.
• Claudius tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that Hamlet has killed Polonius and that they are to retrieve both men. They are unsure of how and where to exit and in the end they remain in pretty much the same spot. Coincidentally, Hamlet (with Polonius' body) stumbles onto the stage and they confront him. Hamlet calls them both sponges.
• Claudius asks for Hamlet, who is brought in captured and they leave.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find out they are to take Hamlet to England and they leave to take him.

     Act 3:

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern awaken on a boat but are unsure if it is day or night. Guildenstern begins to discuss the freedom of being on a boat. Rosencrantz discovers Hamlet on the boat as well.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play the game where Guildenstern has to guess which hand is holding a coin, but this time Rosencrantz has a coin in each hand.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discuss their payment from the king and how they are always being mixed up.
• Guildenstern gets mad that Rosencrantz doesn't say original things.
• Guildenstern has to explain what they're doing to Rosencrantz and how they are taking Hamlet to the Kind with a letter that explains everything. Rosencrantz panics when he doesn't have the letter but calms down when Guildenstern shows that he has it.
• Rosencrantz claims England is a conspiracy of cartographers as he cannot picture what it is like there.
• They talk about death again.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enact how their meeting with the King of England will go and in the process read the letter instructing Hamlet's immediate execution. Both feel guilty but Guildenstern justifies that they cannot "interfere with the designs of fate or even of kings" (Stoppard 110) so they can't do anything.
• Hamlet overhears the two talking and switches the letter out with another under the cover of darness.
• Rosencrantz goes to check out some weird noises coming from a bunch of barrels and out pops the Player and Tragedians who were run out of Elsinore without being paid.
• Guildenstern claims that they are unrestricted on the boat and they summarize everything that they know so far.
• Pirates attack, and in the chaos, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet, and the Player each hop in a barrel. When the coast is clear Hamlet and his barrel are gone. The Player informs them that Hamlet is not coming back which upsets Guildenstern because of their mission to deliver Hamlet to the English King.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reread the letter and realize it is now calling for their immediate executions. They are, understandably, upset. Guildenstern is especially upset over being denied any explanation.
• Guildenstern goes on another rant about death and how the Player really knows nothing about it. His rant ends with him stabbing the Player in the throat who dramatically dies.
• The Player pops back up to the applause of the Tragedians and Rosencrantz. The Player speaks of all the deaths they can do and the Tragedians act out the major death seen from Hamlet.
• Guildenstern continues to struggle with the Tragedians version of death.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are alone. Rosencrantz breaks down a bit before he disappears, leaving Guildenstern alone. Guildenstern breaks down a bit as well when he realizes he's alone before he too disappears. 
• An ambassador enters and announces to Horatio that "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead" (Stoppard 126).

ANALYSIS:
The point of view in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is that of an outside viewer looking in as it is a play, though some of the characters seem to be aware they are on a stage and are being watched.

The tone in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is humorous but with a serious, slightly dark, underlying tone. Guildenstern's philosophizing that goes in circles paired with the many sexual innuendos and double entendres give a light, comical tone that fully covers the surface of the play but if one were to look closer at the dialogue and read between the lines a bit, they would see the serious tone poking through. The constant discussion of death and control add to the dark tinge in the serious tone. A mocking tone also arises in regards to Shakespeare, art, and the people who idolize it.

A lot of the imagery in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is seen in descriptions and stage directions, especially with lighting which is often used to help illustrate a change in setting. Sounds (drums, recorder, lute), lighting, and actions are the most prevalent forms of imagery, but Stoppard also creates detailed images when describing specific scenes from Hamlet and the play the Tragedians perform (The Murder of Gonzago).

There are a few important symbols in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Pirates are an important symbol that represent unforeseen events that come out of nowhere and can drastically change one's plans or path. Coins symbolize duality (life/death, Rosencrantz/Guildenstern, heads/tails, night/day, audience/performers) and breaking the confines of reality (the coin flipping heads 92 times in a row). The Boat represents life and the boundaries around us in life. Boxes represent the cultural and personal confines set on us and also represents death. The Letters symbolize an inability to control death.

THESIS:
Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead suggests that people have power over themselves though they have no power over what happens to them.

Throughout his play, Stoppard constantly stresses that it is a work of fiction, that the characters in the play are characters. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have no control because their entire lives in the play have been planned out: who they talk to, when they talk to them, and what they say. The title characters struggle with this fact because they feel they should have control, they constantly question why the don't and are unsatisfied with the answers they receive. Stoppard's point in illustrating their lack of control and specifically saying things like "It's written" is to show how fictional characters do not have control over their lives. People are not fiction characters and so the rules binding Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not apply.

One symbol in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is that of pirates, of unforeseen events coming in and completely changing someone's plans. Such pirates happen to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in an effort to illustrate the point of unforeseen events causing a change of plans. This aspect of the play is similar to real life in that unforeseen circumstances happen to everyone and no one has control over them.

Stoppard combined both of these aspects to make a point about life. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern experience unforeseen events that throw them off their original path, but as fictional characters they are unable to respond by their own free will. The reality of the situations combined with the restraints of characters illustrate that real people have the ability to respond to such situations. Real people have the power to decide how they respond, they have power over themselves and can deal with the metaphorical pirates that life throws at them.

QUOTES:
"Wheels have been set in motion, and they have their own pace, to which we are...condemned." (Guildenstern speaking to Rosencrantz)
     I feel this quote is significant because it is Guildenstern saying that they have no control, and in a way saying he knows his future is already written and there's nothing he can do about it. Most other times in the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are told that they have no control by another character, rarely do they say it themselves and even though it was relatively early in the play, I feel it was a very insightful, philosophical thing for Guildenstern to say.

"Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true." (Player talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern)
     I like this quote because the truth in it is astounding: what is true is decided by the individual, everyone must decide what they believe to be true but many times we only have to go on the word of another. It's an interesting relationship, that the only things that are true are what we believe to be truth, and I feel it is an interesting thing for the Player to be saying. If everything is written, their dialogue included, can they trust anything that is said? Do they have the power to decide if it's true or not?

"It's a man failing to reappear, that's all--now you see him, now you don't, that's the only thing that's real: here one minute and gone the next and never coming back--an exit, unobtrusive and unannounced, a disappearance gathering weight as it goes on, until, finally, it is heavy with death." (Guildenstern speaking to the Player)
     This is by far one of my favorite quotes from the play, though it is a little long. I feel Guildenstern perfectly captures the essences of death with this quote and I love how it relates back to staging and acting. Death is talked about many times throughout the play and there is the contrast between what Guildenstern believes about death and what the Tragedians portray as death. While I agree that the Tragedians have the dramatic representation of death down, I think Guildenstern has the (or a) true representation of death.