RGAD notes for AP lit

RGAD: Intro.
Existentialism: the individual as unique and alone in an indifferent, often hostile, environment; sense of meaningless; man’s inequality
Mood: tense; sense of foreboding
Characters: Rosencrantz; Guildenstern; players; Alfred; and various Hamlet characters
Allusion: to Hamlet
RGAD: Themes
Existential void: man can ask questions, but receives no answers; man is confused by several realms of reality
People lose their identity as they get caught up in life. Free will isn’t really free because we are moved by forces we don’t understand.
Man accepts. He is heroic because he submits to the forces he cannot understand.
RGAD: Themes
The protagonists (R & G) are puppets or absurd clowns. They are the heroes.
Death is just another realm; man dissolves into this darkness and disappears. Death is just the absence of being present.
Stoppard questions the presence of God or some power. No one can be sure…
RGAD: other important info.
Author: Tom Stoppard
Date: 1967
Play: tragi-comedy (both tragic and comical)
Play: a farce; theater of the absurd in terms of actions, plot, etc.
Setting: 12th c. Denmark; Elsinore
Devices: witty language; unknown focus; dialogue as repartee; word games
RGAD: act 1
RG seem confused as to their own identities. Why?
How do RG seem caught up in what they cannot control?
How does G. describe truth? (p. 39)
What do they think of Hamlet? Is it same or different from the orig. play?

RGAD: act 2
Who seems to be in control?
How do you know that RG are aware that they have no control? ( see p. 60)
What bothers the players? ( see p. 63)
What comments do RG make regarding the pornographic elements of the play? (see p. 65; 80)
How do they feel about life? (see p. 71)
What do RG want to know?
RGAD: act 2
What do RG realize on p. 79?
How do RG actually look at their own death at the end of the mime?
What feelings do RG have at the end of act 2? See p. 94…
RGAD: act 3
How do RG feel at the beginning of the act?
Are RG free of Hamlet and the other characters? How do you know?
Do they discover the letter? What happens?
Who else is on the boat? Why?
What do RG feel about their mission even after realizing the truth?
Review Ques.
Could RG have changed the outcome of their lives?
What generalizations can be made about the characters of RG?
How do you know RG are dead?
In what way is the play existential?
What comments are made about truth throughout the play?
Act 1
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are standing near Elsinore. They have been flipping a coin that continues to land exactly the same way for over 90 times eventually.
They discuss the fact that they have been “sent for” with no perception as to why.
They spend much of their down time in discussions regarding life, death, human nature, truth, etc. (existential ideas)
Act 1
Polonius, Gertrude, Claudius appear and suggest to R and G that they should determine the cause of Hamlet’s madness.
Uncertain of what to do, they practice together what they will say to Hamlet, play at “questions” game, etc.
When they meet Hamlet, he has the upper hand and they are disappointed with themselves.
Act 2
Hamlet and R & G have a conversation. They discuss the fact that they truly got little information from Hamlet.
They seem confused as to where they are or why they are there. This can be connected to the existentialist ideology.
They realize that they have little control over what is happening. “Wheels have been set in motion.”
Act 2
They hear Hamlet ask the players to perform the play.
The player also gives an philosophical statement with, “You don’t know the humiliation of it…to be tricked out of the single assumption which makes our existence viable---that somebody is watching.”
Death as a topic is discsussed, with Rosencrantz suggesting that death is really life, but in a box.
Act 2
Claudius and Gertrude question R & G. They try again to speak with Hamlet, but gain nothing.
The play is performed and the players explain what is happening in the dumb show that begins the play within the play.
R & G are sent to find the location of Polonius’s body. They seem confused again as to which way to go (again, existentialism). They see Hamlet dragging the body, but do nothing.
Finish off with, “I like to know where I am. Even if I don’t know where I am, I like to know that.”
Act 3
R & G wake up to sounds of the sea and darkness.
They seem nervous but also joyous at the freedom. “ Free to move, speak, extemporise, and yet. We have not been cut loose.”
They see Hamlet and know that they are holding a letter.
They seem to know that they are taking Hamlet to England, but have no idea of the consequences.
Act 3
They seem to have the notion that death is there, and that they should fear it. However, G. says that they should not give up. He suggests that death is “not being” and that it isn’t possible because they are on a boat. (He’s rationalizing that which cannot be rationalized.)
They hear music and realize that they players are on board, too. They say that they are in trouble for offending the king.
Act 3
They realize that Hamlet is gone. This brings up the additional realization that they are in big trouble. G says “death is not anything.” R says, “so that’s it, then, is it?”
They end with, “There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said---no. But somehow we missed it.”
R and G simply disappear. Last scene shows all of the dead bodies from the duel scene in Hamlet.