Download HSC Notes: 2 Unit Related English: Tom Stoppard

HSC Notes: 2 Unit Related English: Tom Stoppard
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Note that Stoppard considers this a play to be experienced rather than studied.
Useful Quotes
Character Quote
Guildenstern's bag is nearly
empty.
Rosencrantz's bag is nearly
full.
Guil.
Guil.
Player
Player
Guil.
Explanation
Sets the mood of the play from the beginning. Defines
Rosencrantz as the optimist, and Guildenstern as, if not the
pessimist, then at least the realist.
After this quote Ros. starts rambling about beards. Emphasises
The scientific approach ... is a
the distinction between the two characters - Guil. is nervous
defence against the pure
about his situation and tries to rationalise it with scientific
emotion of fear.
method, Ros. is unconcerned: "what will happen, will happen".
You've been here before.
"Operating on two levels! How clever!" exclaims Rosencrantz,
And I know which way the and it is quite true: the Player, for a while at least, knows what
wind is blowing.
will happen and how the situation will turn out.
Events must play themselves
A comment on plays in general, this also foreshadows the
out to asthetic, moral, and
conclusions of "Hamlet".
logical conclusion.
We drift down time,
IE, hope is vital, but to be told exactly what will happen next is
clutching at straws ... but
deadly. To know that he has no control over what happens next
what good's a brick to a
would be destroy Guil. - which is why he is so desparate to
drowning man?
keep the level of spontaneity high.
Themes
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A sense of timelessness throughout the entire play, starting with the "place of no visible
character". Enhancing this sense, Ros. and Guil. can't remember their past: "We've only
got their word for it". Guil. also mentions strange times and places (for example, "A
Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty").
Guil. keeps trying to come to grips with the situation. "You said something about
getting caught up in the action," he says to the Player, hoping at least partially to get
some sense of purpose, but he is continually denied this sense. (In this case, the Player
interprets this obscenely). This ties in with the "Illusion vs Reality" theme of the play.
Some more quotes:
o Player: It is written. Guil, of course, wants to see the book (ie, too see either this
play script or Hamlet), but that would be "Cheating".
o Player: Uncertainty is the normal state. You're nobody special.
o There's a logic at work - it's all done for you, don't worry. Enjoy it. Relax.
o
o
Guil's constant questioning, and the questions games he plays with Ros. also
illustrate this point.
What's the game? Where are the rules?
Like the rest of us, Guil. would like a better idea of how things will turn out in the end.
Guil: From now on, reason will prevail.
Player: I have lines to learn.
Guil: Pass!
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We see from the start that Ros. and Guil. are aware that they are in a strange, controlled
world: the stage directions have the characters explore the boundaries of the stage;
chance is warped as a spun coin continually comes up heads. Guil.'s dogged persistence
parallels the real-life struggle everybody must eventually face, of trying to come to
grips with their environment, and make sense of their situation.
In a way Ros. and Guil. and Albert are similar: both are aware that they are in a sordid
world over which they have no control, and both are aware that they are under the
watchful eye of voyeurs: in Albert's case, the "audience" to the Player's productions, in
Ros. and Guil.'s case, the audience watching the play.
The play is full of dramatic irony.
Ros. He murdered us.
Ros. They'll have us hanging about 'till we're dead!
While Hamlet can speak of "words, words, words", as Guildenstern says, "They're all
we've got to go on".
Generally, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" is an attempt to "See the
chessboard from the pawn's point of view". In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are killed off in the most perfunctory way for doing what they'd been told. In Hamlet,
the audience is left with little sympathy for them - they betrayed their long-time friend!
- but in this play, Stoppard investigates what might have happened if things had been a
little different.
To remember
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
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Literary work is the sum of all its interpretations. No single interpretation is ever
"correct". "I never wrote plays for discussion" - Tom Stoppard. There are two schools
of thought on interpreting literature: the "avocado principle" - dig through the outer
layer until you get to the core - and the "onion principle": Keep finding layer upon layer
of meaning, but in the end, there is no single truth. Tom Stoppard, among many other
authors, claims to have had no single meaning in mind when writing R&G; in this
sense, then, the play is undoubtedly an onion.
R&G is an example of "Metatheatre", or "Theatre about Theatre".
As absurd and existentialist playwrights, parallels have been drawn between Stoppard
and Beckett. There are many differences, but here are two:
o While Beckett's characters in Waiting for Godot do their best to make time pass
quickly, Ros. and Guil. attempt to do something constructive with their time
o
(even if it is a "short, blunt human pyramid"). Instead of killing time, they
attempt to fill time.
Inevitably, Vladimir and Estragon (in Beckett's play) fall into silence. But
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" is held together by the affection Ros.
and Guil. have for each other, and instead of falling into silence, Ros. and Guil.
take to comforting each other.
Ms Fretze's "Yes Good Excellent" Learn-The-Lot Cheat Sheet
... in which my English teacher wrote down anything she could think of which might help us
in the exam. Most of this is obvious, and it is not by any means complete, but there might be
some things here that you've missed elsewhere.
Background: Absurd theatre, existentialism, theatre of criticism, experimental,
intellectual, making fun of Hamlet text, Waiting for Godot
Setting: "a place without any visible character"
Characters: R&G - two aspects of one person? Interchangeable, interdependent but
alone.
Ros. - Reality? Earthier, confused, reactive, obtuse.
Guil. - Illusion? Intellectual, cultured, abstract, poetic, philosophical, insecure,
questioning.
Both show self-awareness of the way things are in the human condition and they
"tragically" realise they cannot alter the way things are. The play consists of R&G's
quasi-philosophical speculation about why they are here and what their death will be
like.
Structure: Three acts, intertextuality of Hamlet, what is the climax? (Guil. "killing" the
player?) Boat scene / sea travel a theme that helps the central theme of
directionlessness
Themes: Self-awareness, death-awareness, fortune / destiny, acting, mirror on art, art vs
life, self-identity, existentialist philosophy, uncertainty of man's origin, unpredictability
of life, lack of control, fate / chance, inaction / filling in time with words / poor
communication / poor connections with people (Beats, pauses, ambiguity), futility of
human activity causes characters to abandon hope of any significant action, marking
time / passing time, purposelessness, failing memory, conflict of real world and
illusion, role-playing in life, man's isolation, life is a mystery, the only certainty is
death.
Language: Blank verse / prose, simple / complex, confused, ambiguous, frequent
references to fate ('wheels' in the "wheels within wheels" quote), rhetorical questions,
repetitions, witty banter / repartee (comic routine) short / long passages, word games,
biblical references, references to literature, echoes of the Hamlet text, breakdown of
language / communication, Act 3 (short and preoccupied with death - the end is near)
Player: Contrast in philosophies to R&G, sardonic, unquestioning, accepting, he
mirrors the conflict between real world and illusion, real, assertive, self-assured,
confident, never unclear about his identity ("Relax ... respond.")
Dramatic Techniques: Intertextuality of Hamlet, self-conscious use of stage (actors go
down to footlights, bring in audience to identify with R&G's dilemma, Hamlet spitting
in the audience (can he change his destiny?)), dumb-show, role-playing, pratfall, body
movement, coin tossing, experiments, lighting / blackout, music (drums / flutes suspense - in the constant Players' tune), sets (unreal), conjuring tricks (players in
barrels), silences / pauses / beats, word games, humour, stage directions (references to
directions shows awareness of being trapped in a theatrical situation).