Setting

Main Plot Points

Literary Merit

Tom Stoppard also provides a continuation of Hamlet's discussion on death and mortality.

This play uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to argue Shakepeare's view on death is flawed because nobody has actually experienced it. with the fact that no one knows the experience of death because nobody alive today has been dead. Tom Stoppard goes further to argue, through the use of these two characters, that Shakespeare (as an actor and playwright) thinks that just because he has "experienced" things like death on stage that he knows what they are actually like in real life.In this play none of the characters ever die on stage. Stoppard does this to further assert the idea that death cannot be properly portrayed by an actor. He also believes that Shakespeare romanticizes death too much. He uses the discussion between The Player and Guildenstern to say that Shakespeare romanticizes and glorifies death to much and that it is "not a game"(pg. 124)

Main Plot Points

The fact that anyone could take a play as well-known as Hamlet, and have success demands merit in itself. This play is a work of literary merit because it allows a different perspective on one of the most famous plays of all time. It shows minor roles from the original play in a different light and allows their characterization to extend beyond the original play.

Main Conflict

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to figure out their own purpose in the world while they work for the king and queen to learn the reason to Hamlet’s madness.

Characters

• The players have a dress rehearsal of the play and Ros and Guil discuss whether or not death can actually be presented in a play

• The king asks Ros and Guil to find Hamlet because he has murdered Polonius

• Ros and Guil find Hamlet and he charges them with betraying him to the king. The three of them are sent to England

• Ros and Guil wake up on the boat and read the letter the king sent with them for the king of England, which tells him to chop off Hamlet’s head

• They awake again to find that the tragedians have come aboard as stowaways because the king was upset with their play.

• Pirates attack the ship and the group hides in barrels, but when they wake up, Hamlet is gone, and the letter to the king now says to chop off Ros and Guil’s heads

• The player and the tragedians show all the ways they can kill and be killed, while having a deep discussion over death

• Stage goes black and lights back up to reveal the final scene of Hamlet, with bodies strewn everywhere and Horatio prepared to give a speech to Fortinbras

• Ros and Guil contemplate theory of probability while flipping coin

• Ros and Guil meet Player for first time and are offered to participate in a sexual performance with his group of “tragedians”

• Ros and Guil find themselves at the castle in Denmark, where the king has asked that they come to figure out what is wrong with Hamlet

• Ros and Guil make a game out of questioning each other to prepare for questioning Hamlet, which thoroughly confuses them

• Ros and Guil find Hamlet, question him, and feel completely defeated by him because they feel as though they gained nothing

• The tragedians and Hamlet come to an agreement on putting on a play the next day and Ros and Guil have a discussion over mortality.

Claudius- World’s worst Uncle/Brother. Kills Hamlet’s father and marries his mom. Not so swell dude.

Gertrude- Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark

Characters

Hamlet- Focus of the plot by the way Rozen and Guilden are trying to figure out what plauges him. Prince of Denmark. Look we all know who Hamlet is.

Characters

Tragedians- the group of actors that the player is the head of. All of their plays are sensationalistic, also double as prostitutes

Characters

Guildenstern- Along with Rosencrantz, he is trying to find out what is happening to Hamlet. Concerned with his place in life. He tries hard to understand his life. He more of a leader of the two

Rosencrantz- Childhood friend of Hamlet, is trying to find out why Hamlet is acting the way he is. Has a fear about what is going to happen to him but he plays it off with an almost carefree attitude towards everything. To an extent he copies Guildenstern.

Setting Cont.

There are three setting- 1st. woods, away from civilization. Very little description is given about the surroundings.

2nd- court of Denmark, going around talking to hamlet, Also a very disorienting place, constantly lost and just are waiting for other people to tell them where to go and what to do.

3rd- They, along with Hamlet, are on a boat heading to England. Out at sea, surrounded by vast expanses of water, but also on fixed course. This is very metaphorical because they are at the mercy of the wind.. which is a theme that is brought up a lot.

Characters

The Player- Head of a group of traveling actors. Charismatic leader, witty to a point that shows he is more intelligent than he seems at first. Desperate for money but only will earn it his own way.

Setting

This play, for the most part, has the same setting as Hamlet. It takes place in Denmark during Shakespearean times.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead