1. BY TOM STOPPARD BACKGROUND AND LITERARY ANALYSIS NOTES Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

2. Background on Tom Stoppard Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937 Fled in 1939 because of German occupation Settled in Britain in 1946 Playwright and Drama Critic Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966-67) Stoppardian: “works using wit and comedy while addressing philosophical concerns” Co-wrote screenplay for Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (uncredited) and Sleepy Hollow #76 in Time’s 2008 list of the most 100 influential people in the world

3. Use of Hamlet  R&G scenes are connected to or from original play  Scenes reduced to insignificance or absurdity  Hamlet’s characterization is through stage directions  Scenes off-stage in Hamlet are on-stage in R&G

4. Use of Hamlet cont.  In R&G, Hamlet has no personality - in Hamlet he is thoughtful and dignified (at times)  In Act III, R&G becomes a vaudeville comic – spitting on stage, jumping in barrels  R&G disappear on stage in R&G instead of dying off-stage as they did in Hamlet  Language from Hamlet (ie. questions game, speeches, parodies)  “To be or not to be” (Hamlet) = “You can’t not-be on a boat” (R&G)

5. Identity Problems  Identity – major theme of R&G  R&G – protagonist Not an “I”, but a “we”  Player – Greek chorus w/ Delphic powers  R&G families were both very important in Denmark for several hundred years; now reduced to current situation of “fools”  Life/society - antagonist

6. Identity Problems cont.  Guil – intellectual, searching for logical answers  Ros – dense, slow to catch-on  Coin symbol – R&G are 2 sides of one coin  Modern man’s lack of identity  Lives are meaningless if they don’t even know who they are  Religious identities confused – Saul/Paul; Christian, Jew, Muslim; and Chinese philosopher  Players lose their identity when they lose their audience

7. Use of Direction  Instructions  Which way?-- north, south, east, west  Boat can change direction, they (ppl on boat) cannot  Only following directions or does nothing w/out directions – not an individual  Without an identity they cannot move – never leave stage – lack of direction

8. Theatre of the Absurd  No morals  No solutions  Simply presents the absurdity of R&G’s predicament  Themes are difficult to explain logically  The absurd world cannot be reasonably explained

9. Topics (resulting in themes)  Death  Identity  Alienation  Life as a game  Exits and entrances  Acting v. reality

10. Motifs  Games  Messenger/calling  Boat  Home  Wheel  Direction  Coins

11. More words, words, words  Coda – in music, takes one to the finish.  It is also the end of a literary piece that ties all the themes together  5 codas are all rhymed couplets, occasionally separated by another line, containing some identical and/or similar phrases.  They seek the unfindable throughout; their search brings them to their end  39, 45, 93, 102, 114 (locations of the coda)

12. More words, words, words  Clichés  2x uses a cliché untwisted and makes it funny by making it literal  Several times changes a word w/in the cliché. The twisting shows their confusion and the failure of language  38, 74, 120 (locations of some mixed clichés)