“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” (Jaques 2.7.6. As You Like It)
The story Rosentcrantz and Guildernstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard, demonstrates how stories and their characters are all just fictional. The characters in the play have no control over their own lives, they were created by a writer who controls everything about them and only exist when they are meant to. The characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, however, do not realize they are just merely characters and they are being watched by audiences. Everything they do is humorous for the audiences amusement. The coin tosses, the acting, the stage, the fact that the characters could not make choices -not even the Player- all lead to the fact that they do not exist in their own lives, but exist when their play is being preformed for the enjoyment of the audience.
Tom Stoppard used every form of comedy in this tragedy to help show people Theatre of the Absurd and Existentialism. Throughout the story, the author shows Ros and Guil being curious and always trying to apply logic and find what is true, but in the end, the audience learned logic does not make sense and nothing is really true. A good example of trying to use logic is when the audience sees Ros and Guil playing the coin toss game. It always landed on tails, even though half of the time it should have landed on heads. This shows that logic does not make sense. Another example of not being able to use logic would be that neither Ros nor Guil could make sense of what Hamlet was saying. It was just gibberish to them no matter how they viewed it. Guil had a gift of using sophisticated making what he said seem true or as if he knew what he was talking about, but due to c...
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...to explain his view on existentialism and Theatre of the Absurd by creating characters such as the Player, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern who do not exist but merely are characters created for the enjoyment of audiences. Tom Stoppard used comedy throughout this play to explain how logic does not make sense, the collapse of language, and not existing from not making choices. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead shows how Ros and Guil could not take control of their lives because the writer did not intend them to. They could not make choices because everything about them was created by the author. Even the Player did not exist, he was merely just the link between Tom Stoppard and the story itself. The player in a way was the mouthpiece. No matter how aware any character may have seemed about their situation, their lives were still at the hands of their creator.
Furthermore, as each outcast appears to achieve their struggle against society, the authors begin to differentiate in how they present them. As Shakespeare and Brontё show Hamlet and Heathcliff negatively, Kesey reveals McMurphy as a saviour and hero amid the ward. As the play develops Shakespeare explores Hamlet’s decent into madness to challenge the conventions of the archetypal hero. To start Hamlet is the typical misunderstood tragic hero, but Shakespeare implicitly begins to develop an immoral and threatening character. Whose inhumanity is truly revealed in Act 5, Scene 2, where Hamlet explains how he sent orders for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be “put to sudden death, / Not shriving time allowed” (V, ii, 46). Shakespeare makes this seem like a grandly impulsive moment with such an immoral act because it clearly juxtaposes Hamlet’s initial inaction and philosophical being, which emphasises such a brash and disproportionate action against his childhood friends, that the Hamlet presented at the start would seem incapable of. His initial presentation, though, of black clothing can be read as the physical manifestation of the state of h...
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, logic is used in an unfamiliar way. This logic does not deal with the nature of life, but deals with the more complex forms of logic that require the filling of blanks to make things work out. Although, for the most part certain things did not make sense, but yet they did express logic. They used environmental attributes to make sense of the complexities they had.
Hamlet is grounded in logic throughout the entire play. His logic is more blatant than the average man’s, therefore confusing some of the other characters. Rather than stating something profound in response to when Polonius asks what Hamlet is reading, he says only the most obvious and elementary of answers possible, “words, words, words” (2.2.192). This trend between Polonius and Hamlet continues. “What is the matter my lord?” asks Polonius. Hamlet answers, “Between who?” (2.2.193-194). Tenney Davis responds to this by saying that Hamlet feigned his insanity convincingly by taking things too literally, which manifested in a desire to “split hairs” (Davis 630). Hamlet was always annoyed with Polonius and his garrulous speeches, but reacted not in an irrational way, but to the contrary, with the most simple, though rude, coherent answers. If Hamlet were truly mad, he would not have been able to give make such a guileless and processed ...
Of the four young men who occupy a place in the life of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear, at least initially, to be his closest friends. They are schoolmates at Wittenburg, and Hamlet greets them both amicably, remarking, " My excellent good friends! How dost thou,....." Queen Gertrude affirms the status of their relationship when she says, "And sure I am two men there is not living to whom he more adheres." Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are unaware, however, of the real story behind the death of Hamlet’s Father. They do not have the benefit of seeing his ghost, as Hamlet has. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are very loyal to the new King. Unlike Hamlet, they initially have no reason not to trust Claudius. But they become unwitting and unknowing pawns for both factions. Their relationship with Hamlet begins to sour. Hamlet realizes what the King is up to, and he becomes distrustful of the two. "’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?...
Initially being sent by the King and the Queen in hopes of helping Hamlet with his “depression”, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are already seen as puppets. As the play progresses, it is revealed that the boys are being used to spy on Hamlet for the King. Hamlet eventually catches on with this, and begins to play around with them by giving them false information: “Sir, I lack advancement,” (3.2.368). Referring to his line to the throne, Hamlet lies to Rosencrantz knowing that he will return this false information to the King. The reason Hamlet does this is to give power to the King by letting him know that his status is not at risk of being taken away and handed down. Hamlet realizing that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not loyal friends, he admits that he believes they should be killed: “Those bearers put to sudden death, not shriving time allowed,” (5.2.51-52). Regardless of whether or not Hamlet was the bad guy in this friendship conflict, he still creates this sense of authority to the audience as if he can sentence anyone to death if they cross him.
Stoppard gives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern an existence outside ‘Hamlet’, although it is one of little significance and they idle away their time only having a purpose to their lives when the play rejoins the ‘Hamlet’ plot, after they have been called by the King’s messenger: “There was a messenger...that’s right. We were sent for.” Their lives end tragically due to this connection with ‘Hamlet’, predetermined by the title, but the role provided them with a purpose to their otherwise futile lives, making them bearable. Their deaths evoke sadness and sympathy leaving the reader grieving for them.
Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about uncertainty and about Hamlet's failure to act appropriately. It is very interesting to consider that the play shows many uncertainties that lives are built upon, or how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act or when they evaluate one another's actions. Hamlet is an especially intriguing production, both on the set and on the screen because of its uniqueness to be different from what most people expect to be in a revenge themed play. Hamlet's cynicism and insane like behavior cause him to seem indecisive, but in reality he is always judging and contemplating his actions in the back of his mind in order to seek revenge for the murder of his father.
...nd not making any sense whatsoever. In comparison, Hamlet speaks in regular sentences, and is able to converse normally with those around him. With much thought, and careful planning, Hamlet searches for evidence to determine the truth about his father's murder. And with this in hand, he departs on a path to avenge his father that is both reasonable and rational. While Hamlet might not carry the best of luck with him throughout the play, he certainly holds onto his mental integrity and ability to reason through challenges.
By far, Hamlet is the best piece of writing ever written by William Shakespeare in my opinion. In most tragedies heroes die in the worse manner ever; in the play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet commits suicide, and like that Hamlet dies by getting stabbed with a poison blade. The theme appearance versus reality has shown a lot throughout this play. Things may appear to be one way, but in reality, it’s a different allusion to many evil circumstances. Many characters throughout the play tends to hide behind a different personality than what they portray in reality. There are four different characters that tend to show a different personality Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Polonius, and King Claudius. These characters have a different incognito. They give off the impression of being nice and truthful, but in reality they are filled with dishonesty and evilness.
hidden meanings to comic dialogues, Stoppard keeps the play from falling into the dark abyss of the bleak realities of life as most absurdist works tend to. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as well as the other characters, are rescued from being mere buffoons due to the trouble their surrogate parent takes in investing them with the richness of language, which is the handiwork of the playwright, whose exquisite use of puns adds to the comic element in the play.
Logic affects our lives everyday. We use it both subconsciously and consciously to make decisions which can be as important as our careers, or as insignificant as what to eat for lunch. Logic can also be used in other ways. Ironically, others’ bad logic can result in us learning something just as much as we learn from our own bad decisions. This is shown in Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail.
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”, Hamlet discovers the truth about his father’s recent murder. Hamlet learns that his uncle and newly crowned king, Claudius, is his father’s murdered and promises to avenge him. Many characters in the play appear to be honest and sincere but in reality are filled with mischievousness. The them of appearance versus reality is a constant theme throughout the play. Four particular characters in the play hide behind a mask of evil. Hidden behind this mask are Polonius, King Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While behind this mask Polonius, King Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear to be pure and trustworthy but on the other side they are filled with evil and dishonesty.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet was written in the sixteenth century Elizabethan historical context, where certainty was questioned and there was a growing importance of individuals and their choice as opposed to fate. Influenced by the Renaissance, Shakespeare wrote in the tradition of the revenge tragedy. Stoppard however, who was living in a time of disillusionment due to the tragedies of two world wars, was influenced by the existential movement. Disregarding the past and future due to a lack of trust, Stoppard wrote in a tradition known as the Theatre of the Absurd incorporating existentialism. He uses various processes to adapt and transform the values and ideas influenced by the sixteenth century Elizabethan context in Hamlet to reflect the twentieth century evasion of reality unless it is in a reflexive and directionless present.
This shows that Guildenstern thinks that reality is only real when there are other people there to see it. Without a witness there is no meaning. This shows the idea that reality has no meaning and can’t exist without anyone to witness and give meaning to it. Stoppard develops the idea that life is meaningless towards the end of the play when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern encounter the Player while on the ship to England.
The transformation of a Shakespearean Revenge Tragedy into an Absurd Drama means a considerable change in structure from a well-structured and rigid format, into a chaotic and formless play. Stoppard deliberately alters the configuration of the play to create a confusing atmosphere, which creates the exact feeling of society in the 1960s- no definites or certainties to rely on. Language portrays meaning in both plays- the language of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead differs to that of Hamlet. Stoppard employs meaningless colloquial exchanges, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s question game, which strongly contrasts to Shakespearean elaborate and poetic verse, as seen throughout the play, especially in Hamlet’s soliloquies- “There is sp...