Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Summary/Analysis

Characters:

• Rosencrantz - Friend of Guildenstern, and childhood friend of Hamlet.  The less dominant of the two,  takes pleasure in the moment and does not need a greater purpose to enjoy himself.  
• Guildenstern - Friend of Rosencrantz, also childhood friend of Hamlet.  Tends to call the shots in the partnership, has a short temper, and thinks he can reason out the unreasonable.  This leads him to think he is more intelligent even though he tends to know nothing.
• The Player - The leader of a traveling troupe of actors.  Seems to do anything for money, including prostitution.  Understands that his fate is already set in stone and seems to understand the most out of all the characters in the play.  Compares acting to living in an extended metaphor.

Setting:

• Elsinore
• The boat heading to England

Plot Summary:

        The play opens with Rosencrantz flipping coins, all of which land on heads.  He bets heads each time and thus wins the coin each time.  Guildenstern tries to find a logical explanation for this to no avail.  The flipping is interrupted by a traveling group of actors.  Their leader makes several allusions to the idea they will perform sexual acts for money and also offers their child actor, Alfred, to be a prostitute.  This makes Guildenstern very angry and he punches the player leader, or the player "King."  Just as the troupe is about to leave, Guil stops the player and bets him on a coin toss, seeing as how they will do anything for money.  He knows that it will always be heads so he wins every time.  The player demands a different bet seeing how it is rigged, and Guil bets him that double his birth year is even.  The player (obviously) loses and offers Alfred as payment because he has no more money.  Guil asks for a performance instead, and then it is revealed the last coin flip was actually tails.  The lights change and suddenly the setting is in Elsinore, right in the middle of the events of Hamlet.  They meet Claudius, who tells them to find out what is wrong with Hamlet.  They struggle to understand his words or how to do this.  For practice of questioning Hamlet, they play the "questions game."  Then they pretend to be each other as more practice when Hamlet enters and greets them as old friends.

Act II begins with the tragedians reappearing; scolding Ros and Guil for leaving them without an audience.  The player talks with Ros and Guil about the play they will be putting on for the court, then talk about life and its endless march towards death.  The king, queen, Polonius, and Ophelia enter continuing the action in Hamlet.  The players then begin a rehearsal of the play they will perform while Ros and Guil don't see the obvious foreshadowing of the events to come.  There is a death of two spies wearing the exact same clothes they were.  There also is a criticism of representing death on stage by Guildenstern, while the player says characters written to die will die.  The lights go off and when they come back on, Ros and Guil are on the floor in the same clothes and positions as the dead spies in the play.  Claudius tells Ros and Guil that Polonius has been killed and to find his body and Hamlet.  They encounter Hamlet, but are incapable of stopping him.  The two philosophize more about life when the stage goes black.

Act II opens in darkness, with the two on a boat to England.  They discuss the mission the king assigned to them once they read a letter explaining Hamlet's execution.  They settle on relaxing and doing nothing because it will all work out.  Hamlet blows out a lantern, the only light, and changes his execution letter as Ros and Guil sleep.  In the morning, they hear the noises of the tragedians, who have stowed away in a barrel. They discuss their fate and soon after, pirates charge the ship and everyone on the ship hides in a barrel.  The lights go out, but when they come back on Hamlet is nowhere to be found.  They read the letter to find their names written to be killed, and then get in an argument.  The player and the two talk about death for a last time until the lights start to go out and the characters vanish.  The play ends with an embassador from England announcing the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

 
Narrative Tone/Voice/Style:

• Stoppard's tone is a satirical one as he criticizes many different things like Hamlet, contemporary theatre, and Western values.  He creates comedy through the confusion of the two characters, changing any kind of perspective one of Hamlet one has before reading.  

 Imagery:

• The imagery of the play is primarily dominated by Hamlet but it tends to be minimal.  The dialog written by Shakespeare is full of imagery but the lines that Ros and Guil say that are new tend to be intentionally sparse and vacuous.  However, the minimalist settings allows the dialog during the certain  philosophical speeches to be full of imagery and figurative language.  

Symbolism/Motif:

• Wind - the characters frequently try to establish a sense of direction, which they cannot, trying to emphasize the absurd aspects of the play and their confusion.
• Death - there are many conversations held, focusing on the nature of death, and its inevitability.
• Life is a stage - it is established that theatre is like life and with nobody watching, it is meaningless.  Many more comparisons between theatre and existence are made.

Quotes:

• “Life in a box is better than no life at all, I expect. You'd have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking: Well, at least I'm not dead.” - Saying that although everyone dies, inevitably, life is still worth it for the living.  
• "Words, words. They’re all we have to go on." - Showing the big picture of the play, Ros and Guil have no idea what they're doing besides what they are told.  This reflects its absurdist qualities as they struggle to comprehend and communicate, despite language is the only thing they know.

Theme:

• A theme of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is that the stage is not a realistic interpretation of real life.  Foremost, Stoppard directly communicates this through Guildenstern.  The Player King tsays that theatre is exactly like life to contrast this point, so the readers can see for themselves this is not true.  The setting is minimalistic to emphasize plays are not a good representation of real life and the dialog is intentionally confusing to undermine the significance of Hamlet. The entire plot of the play is set up to distort Hamlet as a play, therefore showing despite its significance it is still not a good reprentation.  His style and tone is mocking and satirical, which contributes to the criticism.