Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead Analysis

In Act II of the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, there is a discussion of what happens during death. Rosencrantz is one of the characters in this play. Rosencrantz is quite stupid and doesn’t have too many bright ideas. Tom Stoppard’s control over the rhetoric, syntax, and diction used in the play develop Rosencrantz’s own beliefs about death as well as how stupid he really is. Rosencrantz is a dull character. He can not comprehend complex issues such as death. In this passage, he makes an attempt to sound intelligent and complex, but is unsuccessful. This is seen through the Rhetoric used in his monologue. Antithesis’ like “you’d wake up dead” reveal that Rosencrantz views death as something that a person would be aware of. Something temporary that one could simply wake up from. The oxymoron’s use in a different phrase, “I mean one thinks of it like being alive in a box, one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead.” It is ridiculous to think that one has the ability to be self aware during death. As far as science knows, a dead body is is only considered dead because of it’s absence of life. Therefore, Rosencrantz’s entire analysis of death …show more content…
At the end of his monologue, Rosencrantz starts banging on the floor with his fists. He tells the imaginary person who is alive in the box “hey you, whatsyername! Come out of there!” Guildenstern, who has shown signs of uncomfort, tells Rosencrantz “you don’t have to flog it to death!” The final statement by Guildenstern has a double meaning. The first meaning could be to stop banging on the floor so much. The second meaning could be to stop droning on as he understands Rosencrantz’s point. Either way, Rosencrantz got carried away by his own ideas which ironically ended up killing his original statement “it’s silly to be depressed by it” by ending the with “I wouldn’t think about it if I were you. You’d only get