Stephanie Gamarra Wäntig January 4, 2005

Group: A

The play,

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead”

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” is a play written by the famous playwright Tom Stoppard. This play was first published in 1967, London. The editorial is Samuel French Ltd.

The two main characters of this play are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two friends that act in the play of Shakespeare, Hamlet. Rosencrantz is the kind of character that doesn’t care about anything and doesn’t have any kind of worries. He also has a hard time remembering things, like his own name, but thanks to Guildenstern, Guildenstern is always there to remind him of things. Unlike Rosencrantz, Guildenstern is more serious and likes to reflect and think about everything, like “death”, “destiny” and the “existence” of things which is quite interesting. Other than these two characters, we are introduced to ‘Player’, Hamlet, Ophelia, musicians, tragedians, but out these secondary characters, the more important one is the “player” who acts as a narrator of the play. The player acts like a leader to the rest of the actors of the play. Later on in the play we can see that the Player obliges the actors to turn into prostitutes in order to get money.

This play is divided in three acts. In the first scene we are introduced to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are playing a game with a coin. They don’t know what they are doing there, but later on they remember they had an appointment with Hamlet. Later on in the play meet a group of actors that are headed to Hamlet’s castle to present the play. Cladius and Gertrude explain the reason why they are both there. Hamlet has been acting very strange lately and they wanted to find out why he was acting that way, but they end up not knowing why. To try to find out what was happening they modify the play, and Hamlet is to kill Polonius and then is sent to England along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are in charge to give a card to the King. The contents of the card order the King to kill Hamlet, but are later changed and the King no longer has to kill Hamlet but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who end up dying.

The play takes place in a stage where a group of actors along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are rehearsing a play of Shakespeare. Tom Stoppard is very precise in describing the stage, and also includes a drawing of how the stage should look. From scene to scene we can see changes that are made frequently. We can see settings like, Hamlet’s castle, in a sail boat, etc. Also there must be a small area where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern maintain their conversations and where they play their game of the coins, which takes place off stage.

The time in which the play takes place is in the present. In the beginning of the play Stoppard refers to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as to Elizabethans which makes us believe that the time takes place during the time of Queen Elizabeth. The play is coherent without any time ellipsis. From the first scene to the last scene we can see a continuation that follows the previous scene.

The language of the play varies in each character. For example, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern along with the rest of the characters use a colloquial language, although not vulgar. Hamlet, King Claudius, and the Queen Gertrude use a very sophisticated language which was very common during the Elizabethan time.

In my opinion this play wasn’t very interesting as the other plays I read. Other than that I also think that it was very difficult to understand and very confusing, due to the fact that there were two different stories that were being told. One was the fictional part which was the play itself and the other part was the reality which was the life of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and also the language which was used was quite difficult to understand. Other than that I really liked the subjects that were brought up like “death” and “destiny” which made me think and reflect about these to topics which interested Guildenstern during his conversations with Rosencrantz.