Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Through the Existentialist Lens
Tom Stoppard decided to pick up where Shakespeare left off. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is the untold tale of two minor characters from the play Hamlet. A theme not covered much in Hamlet is existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, choices, possibilities, the unknown, and the vastness of the universe. It is the view that humans define their own meaning in life, despite existing in an irrational plane. Stoppard's work turns Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into helpless creatures, while the world around them carries on. They represent the antithesis of existentialism because they are unable to make any significant choices ("Rosencrantz …show more content…
In R & G, this principle is demonstrated through the characters’ use of language. One aspect of this is when Stoppard has the title duo “play at questions” (Stoppard 1.1). The two attempt to have a conversation entirely in question form until one of them cannot do it any longer. One significantly existentialist exchange of questions is when Rosencrantz seems to be getting bored with the game, or perhaps something deeper:
ROS: Where’s it going to …show more content…
By the end of the scene, it is repeated into obscurity, at which point “matter” does not matter. Stoppard’s use of repetition in this way conveys the existentialist idea that some things are insignificant in the world. Another aspect of this exchange is the sentence structure. The interrogative structure of each line conveys the contemplative nature of existentialist thinkers. A second example of existentialist dialogue is when Rosencrantz is confused about his purpose of being in the castle. He gets upset and says: “—over my step over my head body!—I tell you it’s all stopping to a death, it’s boding to a depth, stepping to a head, it’s all heading to a dead stop—” (Stoppard 1.1). He cannot form a sensible thought. Stoppard includes this misuse of words and jumbling of common phrases to emphasize the confusion in everyday life and meaninglessness of the English language itself. The irrational quality of Rosencrantz’s speech can be best described as a metaphor for human existence. Human existence might be described as 'absurd' in the sense that many existentialists argue that nature as a whole has no design, no reason for existing (“Existentialism”). The fact that Stoppard does not give Rosencrantz’s words a logical pattern or structure makes them absurd with “no
Tom Stoppard decided to pick up where Shakespeare left off. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is the untold tale of two minor characters from the play Hamlet. A theme not covered much in Hamlet is existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, choices, possibilities, the unknown, and the vastness of the universe. It is the view that humans define their own meaning in life, despite existing in an irrational plane. Stoppard's work turns Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into helpless creatures, while the world around them carries on. They represent the antithesis of existentialism because they are unable to make any significant choices ("Rosencrantz …show more content…
In R & G, this principle is demonstrated through the characters’ use of language. One aspect of this is when Stoppard has the title duo “play at questions” (Stoppard 1.1). The two attempt to have a conversation entirely in question form until one of them cannot do it any longer. One significantly existentialist exchange of questions is when Rosencrantz seems to be getting bored with the game, or perhaps something deeper:
ROS: Where’s it going to …show more content…
By the end of the scene, it is repeated into obscurity, at which point “matter” does not matter. Stoppard’s use of repetition in this way conveys the existentialist idea that some things are insignificant in the world. Another aspect of this exchange is the sentence structure. The interrogative structure of each line conveys the contemplative nature of existentialist thinkers. A second example of existentialist dialogue is when Rosencrantz is confused about his purpose of being in the castle. He gets upset and says: “—over my step over my head body!—I tell you it’s all stopping to a death, it’s boding to a depth, stepping to a head, it’s all heading to a dead stop—” (Stoppard 1.1). He cannot form a sensible thought. Stoppard includes this misuse of words and jumbling of common phrases to emphasize the confusion in everyday life and meaninglessness of the English language itself. The irrational quality of Rosencrantz’s speech can be best described as a metaphor for human existence. Human existence might be described as 'absurd' in the sense that many existentialists argue that nature as a whole has no design, no reason for existing (“Existentialism”). The fact that Stoppard does not give Rosencrantz’s words a logical pattern or structure makes them absurd with “no