R+G

Marty Loftin
Mr. Barker

Final Exam: Recommendation
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

One work I found particularly interesting was Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a play that centers on two fringe characters from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an inverse of Hamlet, in that all the primary characters of Hamlet have become minor characters, and that the minor characters are now centralized. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern struggle to feel independent in events larger than themselves, they want to make decisions and have choices, but because of the writing of Hamlet, their fate is already predetermined. In there life, there is no chance, or anything that could prevent any of the actions that will happen. The plays portrays insignificance on a personal level, we expect main characters to be important, to make a difference, but in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, we are faced with unimportant main characters who are destined only to die. And when they attempt to change their fate, they only fail: Rosencrantz (or is it Guildenstern?) attempts to save his life by stabbing the lead player. The knife was a toy, but of course it was a fake, how could it not be a fake? The sad truth is that the duo often discussed their fate and how they could just leave and not be involved with the problems at Castle Elsinore, but of course, fate makes them go with the flow. They are the personification of destiny; nothing they can do will push them away from their predetermined death.

The duo’s dialogue helps to push show us their wish of free will, but outside events make them conform to predestination. In the end, it didn’t matter what the duo did, because there role made little difference and they couldn’t even save their lives. It’s very existentialist, I know, but isn’t that feeling something we feel every now and then? That no matter what anyone does, they still die in the end, and everyone is eventually forgotten. It’s depressing, but still matters to try to live longer and try to make a difference, because even if you die young, you still lived, some life is important than none. The one good thing about Tragedies and life is that no matter how someone lived and died, it’s still a story to someone. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern may have died, unable to diverge from fate, but their life and death is remembered in play and cinema, they may be nobody characters (most people in this world are nobody characters) who sit on stage without dialogue or action form time to time, but that’s what makes them real to us, they relax and talk, not in unrealistic soliloquies but in conversations. They are unlike Hamlet and co. in that they are not always talking or being eccentric or in deep emotion. They are normal. They want to be different and die their way, but almost no one gets to choose how they die, except suicides. This play is not only the revelation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but also an appreciation of life, and the acceptance of death, which is the same as life, just different.