Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Summary

Author: Tom Stoppard

Setting: desolate nothingness; Hamlet, Elsinore, England

Plot: R and G wander throughout the nothingness flipping coins. Every time it lands on heads, which is always, R wins it. G worries about the improbability of the coins always landing on heads and wonders if the world they are is where the laws of chance and time are gone. Neither of them can remember where they are and why they are there. The only thing they know is that a messenger called. They encounter the actors or tragedians. The Player tells them that they specialize in sexual performances and gives R and G a chance to participate for free. G turns the coin flipping to their advantage by giving the player a bet. The player loses but says he cannot pay. G asks for a play and starts to leave as the tragedians prepare but R says that the coin has turned tails. R and G are now confused as they are in Elsinore. Claudius confuses the two and tells them they need to find out what Hamlet's deal is. R and G play the question game to practice finding out what is wrong with Hamlet. Hamlet confuses R and G also. Polonius comes to tell them that the tragedians have arrived. R and G feel bad becasue they have discovered nothing about Hamlet's feelings. Hamlet announces of the play to come the next day. R and G and the Player discuss the source of Hamlet's problem. Then they talk about death and what happens afterwards. R and G tell Claudius and Gertrude they are to attend Hamlet's play. Hamlet makes his to be or not to be speech. The Player explains tragic aspects of their work which foreshadows R and G's death. They discuss whether or not death can be truly and accurately represented on stage. Hamlet's play has disturbed Claudius. Claudius and Gertrude tell R and G to find Hamlet to get Polonius' dead body from him. R and G figure out a plan to get the body from Hamlet. Hamlet won't give up the hiding place of the body and acusses them  of being Claudius' puppets. R and G and then to escort Hamlet to England. On the boat to England, R and G wonder whether or not they are dead and where they are. The notice Hamlet and remember their misson and figure out what to do when they arrive. They fight over who has the letter Claudius sent with them. When the letter is found, they read it and find out Hamlet is to be executed in England. While R and G sleep Hamlet switches the letter. The wake up and find that pirates have invaded and taken Hamlet. R and G and the player come out from barrels after the invasion. R and G tell the player of the letter. G finds that the letter now says they are to be executed. G stabs the player. The player fakes death. The player describes the different deaths performed. R realizes his death is near and G wonders how they got in this situation. R and G disapper the light changes and shows the dead bodies of Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, and Laertes. Horation arrives and gives the last speech of Hamlet.

Characters:

• Rosencrantz
• Guildenstern
• Hamlet
• Horatio
• Gertrude
• The Player
• Tragedians
• Alfred
• Ophelia
• Claudius
• Polonius
• Laertes

Narrative Voice: none

STYLE
1. Point of View: All first person; characters interact with one another

2. Tone: humorous, self-concious

3. Imagery:

• coins

4. Symbolism:

• coins
• boat
• Lord's Prayer
• gambling

QUOTES:
1.  Player: "Uncertainty is the normal state. You're nobody special"
        Importance: Incomprehensibility of the world; criticizes G for thinking he is in a uniquely different situation. The player is saying that doubt is a human characteristic and it is normal to not understand everything that happens.

2.  Player: "Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was abet you wouldn't take it."
       Importance: The world is a random and chaotic place where success is rare. We wish the world to be orderly and everything to work out perfectly but the world doesn't change for our desires. Even those who do good or those who are in the middle get punished.

3. Rosencrantz: "What are you playing at?"
    Guildenstern: "Words, words. They're all we have to go on."
       Importance: Language is complex and always changing means that it can be a great source of delight. Characters spend much of their time playing with words and creating jokes. The complex and instable parts of language has a negative consequence too. Language is our primary way of  understanding, the fact that it is all we have to go on, is concerning. We have trouble expressing ourselves and making sense of everything.

Theme: One major theme in this play is the relationship between life and stage. The play asks the audience to assume all the characters from Hamlet are real and deserve to have their story told from different perspectives. The tragedians show this connection. They perform a play that depicts events that the two men find themselves in. When watching the play the shows the two men's death, R gets confused as to why there are actors dressed just like him and G. This shows that theater reflects life so well that R cannot tell the two apart. The Player states that theatrical death is the only death people believe in because it is what they expect.