Summary and Analysis: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Summary and Analysis: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Author: Tom Stoppard

Setting: We aren’t really given many details about setting, besides that they are in Elsinore, in a forest, and on a boat. Other than those directions the audience is left to decide what they want about the setting.

Plot: The opening of this play has two men playing a coin toss game together. They are traveling, and one of them begins to notice that every single time he flips a coin, heads it is. About ninety-some times in a row. They begin to think their luck is amazing, and get into mindless chatter about probability and really, we discover that all this talk is really nonsense, and no matter what fate doesn’t change. Whatever is meant to happen, will happen. They just have yet to accept that. Next, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern run into the Tragedians (actors) and the player. They want to perform for R&G and make them pay. Suddenly, R&G end up in the castle in Denmark, right before Ophelia and Hamlet. They run into Claudius, who of course, mixes the two up immediately (like they do themselves a lot) and he presents them with a task: to find out what is going on with Hamlet.

While they are figuring out how to do such a task, they begin to think of games to help them come along with it. One of them pretends to be Hamlet, while the other asks him questions that will soon get at his craziness. They then start up with the ever famous “question game” (that was really annoying to annotate) and get caught up in that and they almost forget what they are there to do. They never really come to a direct conclusion about Hamlet’s craziness, and then they start questioning death and how exactly it really works and what happens after it. Then, we are brought to the play within a play. R&G find themselves watching a play very similar to what has just happened in the castle. It is so much like what is happening, that even two spies die (clueing that they are soon to die, no matter what).

The last setting we are told is the boat setting. R&G are sent to England by Claudius with Hamlet. They were handed a letter by the King to give to the people in England. It demanded that Hamlet be killed. They knew that this is what the letter contained, but they didn’t know how to act upon it, so they did nothing. Hamlet, however, knew what the letter said, and he was not going to die. So, he geniously switched the real letter with a different one while they were sleeping that said R&G were to be killed instead. Once they figure this out, they begin wondering why this has to happen, but they cant do anything about it. Horatio closes this play with the closing of Hamlet, making it come full circle.

Characters:

            Rosencrantz: Guildenstern’s partner in crime. Him and Hamlet were childhood friends, and Claudius has called on him to come figure out the truth behind Hamlet’s craziness.

            Guildenstern: Rosencrantz’s partner in crime. Him and Hamlet were childhood friends, and Claudius has called on him to come figure out the truth behind Hamlet’s craziness.

            The Player: He seems to be the only one that really understands life in this play. He knows how everything works, and he seems almost God-like. He is the leader of the Tragedians.

            Hamlet: He seems selfish in this play. He isn’t shown that much, but when he is, he seems mean. He switches his death letter with one ending the lives of R&G.

Quotes:

1.     “Life is a gamble, at terrible odds—if it was a bet you wouldn’t take it.”

~ In act III, The Player says this to R&G after his play about him taking the throne the way he did. He says this because not everyone will be successful in life, in fact very few people will. Throughout the book, chance seemed to be, in a sense, a motif. Though not everything was based of chance, they kept mentioning probability and how that is how you got through in life. This isn’t true though, we saw that it was all fate and nothing was able to change that.

2.     “We’ve travelled too far, and our momentum has taken over; we move idly towards eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation.”

~In act III, Guildenstern says this to Rosencrantz when they realize that Hamlet is no longer on the boat. This shows how they aren’t in control of their lives at all anymore. They just have to accept their fate and deal with what they discover about it.

Narrative Tone: In this play, we aren’t introduced to a narrator, which means that we don’t have to worry about seeing things through a certain point of view. We see things as openly as we can, all just facts and details. This allows us to see multiple characters at a time as well. The tone of this play is different than Hamlet. It has comedy in it, and it is more light and friendly. Though we know the end will be tragic, we still aren’t thinking about that the entire time throughout the play.

Theme/Symbols: We are all a part of a bigger, more important story. We cannot change our fate and we have to accept how things are and how they will be. We all act as characters to move along in life, just like R&G. The players and plays within the play help relate back to this theme. They will always just be actors on the stage, and there is nothing they can do about it. The coin toss shows how we cant change our fate; it was always heads, no matter how many times they tossed it.