Do you remember the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Shakespeare's iconic play Hamlet (1603)? The two courtiers were Hamlet's close friends who betrayed him, but have you ever wanted to learn more about them? Look no further than the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) by Czech-British playwright Tom Stoppard. It explores fate, free will, and death through these two minor Shakespearean characters. Below is a synopsis of the play, along with an exploration of its themes and genres.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: summary
Below is a table that summarises some key points about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
| Summary & Analysis of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead |
| Author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard |
| First performed | 1966 |
| Published | 1967 |
| Genres | Tragicomedy, absurdism |
| Literary period | Postmodernism |
| Summary of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | - The play is a unique perspective on Shakespeare's Hamlet with a focus on two minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the childhood friends of Hamlet.
- Throughout the play, the two characters find themselves caught in a bewildering and absurd world where they struggle to make sense of their existence.
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| Dramatic devices | Play within a play, foreshadowing |
| Main characters | Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, The Player, Tragedians, Hamlet, King Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Horatio, Fortinbras. |
| Setting | Denmark (The events in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet serves as a backdrop) |
| Themes | The futility of life, free will, fate, identity, and death |
| Analysis | Stoppard's play highlights the characters' lack of agency and their role as mere pawns in the larger narrative of Hamlet. They often find themselves in confusing situations, unable to grasp their purpose or differentiate between reality and theatricality. The dialogue between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is filled with wordplay, philosophical musings, and humorous banter, creating a sense of both wit and existential confusion. |
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: synopsis
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist play heavily based on Shakespeare's Hamlet (1603).
Absurdism in literature refers to texts in which the meaninglessness of life is explored. Characters often find themselves in ridiculous situations that they have no control over and that have no purpose. In terms of theatre, the Theatre of the Absurd began to develop after the Second World War. This encompassed plays typically written by European playwrights that investigated the chaos and futility of life. These works took an ironic and mocking look at human existence, frequently finding it hopeless.
Tom Stoppard takes two minor characters from Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and creates his version of their story.
Shakespeare's Hamlet is a tragic play that explores revenge, violence, and complex familial relationships. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, sets out to avenge his father who has been killed by his uncle in order to take the throne.
Fig. 1 - The cover page of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Act one
Act one opens with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two courtiers in the court of the Danish King, flipping a coin and betting on the outcomes. The two men are going to court on orders of the Danish king but seem unsure as to what they're doing and why they're doing it.
A group of Tragedians led by a character called the Player then arrive and try to convince Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to pay them to perform. The Player engages in a bet with Guildenstern, which he loses. He must then pay them in the form of a free performance.
A Tragedian is an actor who specifically performs tragic plays.
The play then shifts to Elsinore Castle, Hamlet's castle in Shakespeare's play. The following scenes are taken from Hamlet. Hamlet and Ophelia briefly appear onstage. Then, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meet with Claudius and Gertrude, the Danish King and Queen. They order the two men to investigate Hamlet and his recent behaviour. When alone, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ponder over how exactly they will do this. They appear unsure about their situation.
Act two
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a conversation with Hamlet in which he outsmarts them in their attempts to glean information about what he's doing. The Tragedians then return, invited by Hamlet.
The Player is furious that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern left during their previous performance. He feels it is a slight to the art of acting. He also suggests that the two men stop questioning the nature of their lives so much as no one can understand the chaos of existence. He then must leave to prepare his next play, The Murder of Gonzago, which Hamlet has asked him to put on. In another scene directly from Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude enter, inquiring about how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are progressing with Hamlet.
The actors then return to perform The Murder of Gonzago, which is revealed to be a version of Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's own deaths are acted out in front of them. Rosencrantz does not comprehend any of this, but Guildenstern is unsettled. He shouts at the Tragedians, claiming that they cannot represent death accurately in a play.
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are alone, they are found to be in the exact same positions as the actors who were playing them in The Murder of Gonzago. They are told they must accompany Hamlet on a voyage to England. Rosencrantz is more than happy to escape the pressures of the King and court, but Guildenstern is aware that they will remain trapped no matter where they are.
Act three
The final act of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opens with the two men on a boat to England with very little knowledge of how they got there. Claudius has given them a letter that they must deliver to the King of England. They open the letter and discover that it asks for the English King to have Hamlet killed. The two are hesitant about this at first but eventually agree that it is above their station to question Claudius's decision.
Chaos then ensues. The Tragedians are found hidden in barrels on the ship. They are fleeing Denmark as Claudius disapproves of their play. Pirates attack the ship, and Hamlet disappears, thought to be kidnapped. However, in reality, Hamlet has left to secretly change the letter from Claudius to order Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be put to death instead.
The Player once again claims to understand life and death better than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Guildenstern finds himself infuriated by this, taking the Player's dagger from his belt and stabbing him with it. After acting out a death, the Player reveals that the dagger was fake. He has proved his ability to act out death convincingly, which Guildenstern questioned earlier in the play. The Tragedians act out the final scenes of Hamlet, in which the majority of the characters are killed.
Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have now accepted that they must die. They gradually disappear from view. Their deaths are announced in the very same way as they are in Hamlet. The play closes here.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: play analysis
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a tragicomedy.
Stoppard's play mixes both tragedy and comedy together, culminating in a tragic ending as the two central characters lose their lives despite all they do to stop this from happening. Many of the tragic aspects of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead come from the scenes that have been taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Hamlet is generically a tragedy in which few of the main characters survive the events of the play. The futility of existence that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ponder over is another tragic element of Stoppard's play. In act three, they come to realise that they have no control over their own lives and are doomed to their fate, as has been acted out in The Murder of Gonzago.
However, at times, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead appears to be a comedy. Both central characters often make absurd statements, with Rosencrantz seeming to rarely understand what is going on around him. Including these comedic moments seems to poke fun at the serious points the play is making about the futility of life and the inevitability of death. This helps Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead fit into a further genre, that of absurdism.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: themes
The key themes from Tom Stoppard's complex play are the futility of life, identity, free will, fate, and death. Stoppard's play highlights the characters' lack of agency and their role as mere pawns int eh larger narrative of Hamlet.
The futility of life
While many philosophical questions are discussed in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the characters themselves lack any free will. As Rosencrantz and Guildenstern progress throughout the play, it becomes evident that all their experiences are pre-determined; they have already occurred in the original Hamlet play. This leads to life appearing quite pointless.
Despite their efforts, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern cannot control how their lives play out. Guildenstern even wonders at the end of Stoppard's play if there was any point at which he could have stopped the events that were about to unfold.
This apparent futility leads many of the central characters to take little action in their lives. For example, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discover that Claudius wishes for Hamlet to be put to death, they do nothing to intervene, as shown in the below quote said by Guildenstern. Despite the discomfort they feel, they resolve to deliver the letter to the English King anyway. Stoppard showcases the dangerous passivity of believing that everything is merely pre-destined and cannot be altered.
Let us keep things in proportion. Assume, if you like, that they're going to kill him. Well, he is a man, he is mortal, death comes to us all, etcetera, and consequently he would have died anyway, sooner or later. Or to look at it from the social point of view—he's just one man among many, the loss would be well within reason and convenience. (Act 3)
Death
Death is another reoccurring theme in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Stoppard's play is based on Hamlet, a play in which very few of the central characters survive until the end. This strongly hints to readers the path that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will take.
Readers of Hamlet will know that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die during the play; it is even stated in the play's title. This reality makes death inescapable for the two characters, despite everything they do to avoid it. Stoppard's play shows death as inevitable, but it also shows how difficult humans find it to accept death.
How many hints at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths can you identify in the play?
The idea of representing death is also challenged in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Guildenstern criticises the Player and the Tragedians for not showing death accurately in their play. However, he is proven wrong when the Player later fakes his death in front of him. Stoppard's play shows humans as not quite grasping death and its inevitability.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Dramatic devices
The main dramatic devices used in Stoppard's play are the play-within-a-play and foreshadowing.
Play within a play
The technique of having a play within a play is a form of metatheatre.
Metatheatre is when a dramatic work is aware that it is a dramatic work. Metatheatre is self-referential. This technique can be used to draw attention to particular aspects of a play. Common types of metatheatre are a play within a play or direct acknowledgements of the audience.
Metatheatre runs throughout Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern Are Dead. The various plays that the Tragedians carry out create a play within a play. This self-referential technique emphasises the fact that what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are living through is a play. They have little control over their fate as it has all been pre-written.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is another dramatic device found in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. This is when events hint at or warn about what will occur later on. In Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths are continually foreshadowed, but they do not realise this for the majority of the play. Their deaths are referenced directly in the play's very title. From the perspective of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they see their own deaths played out in The Murder of Gonzago. This is the most significant instance of foreshadowing that they are privy to.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Key takeaways
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a 1966 play by Tom Stoppard.
- It is based on two minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, from Shakespeare's Hamlet (1603).
- The play fits under the genres of tragicomedy and absurdism.
- Two key themes in Stoppard's play are the futility of life and death.
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead uses the dramatic devices of a play within a play and foreshadowing.
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