ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN

ARE DEAD

AUTHOR: Tom Stoppard

TITLE: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

EDITORIAL: Samuel French

DATE AND PLACE OF THE PUBLICATION: London, 1967

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

In this play we can see four main characters, and others that are secondary.

- Rosencrantz: he is friend of Guildenstern. He wears a brown jacket, brown shorts, brown long socks, a belt, white shirt and brown shoes. He is clumsy and ridiculous.

- Guildenstern: he is friend of Rosencrantz. He wears a blue jacket, blue shorts, blue long socks, white shirt and blue shoes. He thinks a lot. He thinks about life, the world, the death…

- Hamlet: he is the character of Shakespeare, but in this play, he has a secondary paper. He is the prince of Denmark, but he is mad and crazy because his father is died and his mother is married with his uncle.

- The Player: he belongs to a travelling group of actors. He talks with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a lot.

PLOT AND SUMMARY

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in some place playing to “heads and tails”. They see the travelling group of actors, who go to Hamlet’s castle to perform a play in it. Then, they remember that they should go to that castle. When they arrive, Claudius and Gertrude explain to them what his work is: they must find the reason for what Hamlet has a rare behaviour. For that, they change the play that the actors are going to perform. But Hamlet kills Polonius. Because of it, Hamlet is sent to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with a letter that asks the death of Hamlet. However, Hamlet modifies the letter. At the end, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are killed, because the letter says this. The reason for which Hamlet has a rare behaviour is because his father is died and his mother is married with his uncle.

SPACE AND TIME

The space in the play is different every scene. At first, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in some place (the author doesn’t set the place). But then, the actions take place in different stages: in the castle, in a boat… These two are the same that appear in Hamlet play of Shakespeare.

The time of the play is old. The actions take place in olden ages, when there were castles and Kings and Queens who lived into the castles. And the clothes of the characters also denote old time.

LITERARY RESOURCES

This play is divided into three acts. In this play predominates long phrases and long dialogues, which make the play boring and difficult. The author uses some plays on words, and sometimes the author confuses the dialogues: for example in the page 42-43, when the two main characters repeat the same several times, but each time one says something and then the same character says something that has been said by the other character… and then this character says something different… These things make difficult to understand the play.

PERSONAL OPINION

In my opinion, this play is boring, because the author complicates the play a lot with the repetitions and the plays on words. But there are some interesting in this play: first that it is a new version of a play written by Shakespeare; and second that in this play there are reflections about the life, the death, the world and the fortune. The author suggests some ideas about if the people are bosses of their life, or if is the fortune which plans our life. I think that it is the interesting part of the play, because for me, it is boring.