1. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Existential?
Absurd?
Just plain weird?

2. Existentialism A philosophy of the 19th-20th century
Deals with the conditions of existence of the individual person and his or her emotions, actions, responsibilities and thoughts.

3. Soren Kirkegaard
He is referred to as the father of existentialism, and he believed that the individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life meaning and for living that life passionately and sincerely in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions, including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation and boredom.

4. Sartre
Existence precedes essence

5. Theatre of the Absurd No real story line
Focus on incomprehensibility of the world or an attempt to rationalize an irrational, disorderly world
Language acts as a barrier to communication, isolates the individual even more, thus making speech almost futile.
Man plays a defined role, but it is a role that is unfathomable
Linear, not cyclical ( as in WFG)

6. Stoppard’s ultimate conclusion
“We as human beings will be better off if we learn to accept that death is just as incomprehensible as life, and the only way to psychological happiness must come from dismissing social conventions and beliefs of death and reconciling it with the ultimate view that we live in a world which defies reason and meaning.”
He saw two levels of death – stage death and real death

7. Work Cited
From Beckett to Stoppard: Existentialism, Death and the Absurdity [home.sprintmail.com/lifeform/beckst]