Author: Tom Stoppard wrote this in 1966. He is a post-modernist playwright.
Setting: Well, the setting of this play is ambiguous. There really doesn't seem to be a defined setting, which I believe is the point. It emphasizes the, again, ambiguous nature of the play, as well as defines the confusion that follows throughout. Sometimes, however, we have a defined setting, and that's when this play transitions into Hamlet.
Summary:
Two Elizabethian men, R & G, are in a unknown setting, flipping coins, which always come up heads for some reason, Rosencrantz winning each time this happens. They recall that they are travelling because a messenger sent for them. The encounter the Players, who are actually prostitutes in a way, and say the men can "participate" for a fee. Guildenstern, thinking about the coin flips, uses it to his advantages and proposes a bet, and the Players must perform for them because they cannot pay. (also we are then told the coin landed tails up).
Now they are in Elsinore, bam. They watch as Hamlet and Ophelia leave stage and they meet Claudius who mixes them up. They realize what is going on, and practice questioning him. They overhear Hamlet speaking in "code" to Polonius. They talk to Hamlet and fail with their plan to question him. The Players arrive. There will be a play the next day. Hamlet tells them what they have to play.
They rehearse the play which, obviously, mirrors Hamlet. When they perform it, Claudius is upset, and sends R&G and Hamlet on a boat to England. Hamlet switches the letter they were carrying. There is a comical scene with pirates and then Hamlet is gone. The players mimic death, they talk about death, then it switches over to the end of Hamlet .
Characters: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- two men finding their purpose in life. One is philosophical and jaded while the other is childish and idealistic. They flip kinda.
Alfred- that poor boy.
Player- cunning, witty, confident, desperate. For the rest, see Hamlet post.
This play is written in a way that is very specific about the actions the characters perform, how they perform it, and where on stage they are when they do them. However, in contrast, the setting is rarely that specific, except when they're in Elsinore, which essentially is specific to follow an interpretation of Hamlet. The often vague, float-y language helps us visualize how hopeless the characters sometimes are.
Symbolism:
The way the coins always land on one side represent how many things they took to be true are no longer in effect (such as probability, time, and randomness), and tell us perhaps the characters are not in charge of their own fate.
Quotes:
"GUIL: Well…aren't you going to change into your costume?
PLAYER: I never change out of it, sir."
This kind of shadows the idea that the characters are in a play within a play, and that the Player knows so. It also shows how people don't need to "act", persay, because they are always acting, and prepared to do so.
Theme:
Death is not to be feared, nor is it something to be welcomed. Fate brings all to the same end, nothingness.
These themes are emphasized throughout the play by
a) the philosophical discussions about death being just dissapearing, just nothingness.
b) how the things they do are predetermined (by the plot of Hamlet)
c) the ending, how the characters just fade away
(somewhat unfinished post)
Setting: Well, the setting of this play is ambiguous. There really doesn't seem to be a defined setting, which I believe is the point. It emphasizes the, again, ambiguous nature of the play, as well as defines the confusion that follows throughout. Sometimes, however, we have a defined setting, and that's when this play transitions into Hamlet.
Summary:
Two Elizabethian men, R & G, are in a unknown setting, flipping coins, which always come up heads for some reason, Rosencrantz winning each time this happens. They recall that they are travelling because a messenger sent for them. The encounter the Players, who are actually prostitutes in a way, and say the men can "participate" for a fee. Guildenstern, thinking about the coin flips, uses it to his advantages and proposes a bet, and the Players must perform for them because they cannot pay. (also we are then told the coin landed tails up).
Now they are in Elsinore, bam. They watch as Hamlet and Ophelia leave stage and they meet Claudius who mixes them up. They realize what is going on, and practice questioning him. They overhear Hamlet speaking in "code" to Polonius. They talk to Hamlet and fail with their plan to question him. The Players arrive. There will be a play the next day. Hamlet tells them what they have to play.
They rehearse the play which, obviously, mirrors Hamlet. When they perform it, Claudius is upset, and sends R&G and Hamlet on a boat to England. Hamlet switches the letter they were carrying. There is a comical scene with pirates and then Hamlet is gone. The players mimic death, they talk about death, then it switches over to the end of Hamlet .
Characters: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- two men finding their purpose in life. One is philosophical and jaded while the other is childish and idealistic. They flip kinda.
Alfred- that poor boy.
Player- cunning, witty, confident, desperate. For the rest, see Hamlet post.
This play is written in a way that is very specific about the actions the characters perform, how they perform it, and where on stage they are when they do them. However, in contrast, the setting is rarely that specific, except when they're in Elsinore, which essentially is specific to follow an interpretation of Hamlet. The often vague, float-y language helps us visualize how hopeless the characters sometimes are.
Symbolism:
The way the coins always land on one side represent how many things they took to be true are no longer in effect (such as probability, time, and randomness), and tell us perhaps the characters are not in charge of their own fate.
Quotes:
"GUIL: Well…aren't you going to change into your costume?
PLAYER: I never change out of it, sir."
This kind of shadows the idea that the characters are in a play within a play, and that the Player knows so. It also shows how people don't need to "act", persay, because they are always acting, and prepared to do so.
Theme:
Death is not to be feared, nor is it something to be welcomed. Fate brings all to the same end, nothingness.
These themes are emphasized throughout the play by
a) the philosophical discussions about death being just dissapearing, just nothingness.
b) how the things they do are predetermined (by the plot of Hamlet)
c) the ending, how the characters just fade away
(somewhat unfinished post)
So clearly this is unfinished as you said. At the end when it says see Hamlet post, I looked and there is no Hamlet post...
ReplyDeleteI wish I could give you more feedback but it's hard when the bulkiest part of the assignment isn't on here. From what you do have though, of what you have in the summary, it's great! You go in depth but it isn't too overwhelming. And your setting is dead on! Hope you'll be able to finish this before the exam!