Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Masterplots II: Drama)
At a glance:
- Author: Tom Stoppard
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Absurdist/play of ideas
- Time of Work: The Elizabethan period
- Setting: Denmark
- Principal Characters: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, The Player, Alfred, Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude
- Genres: Existential literature, Drama, Problem play, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: Language or languages, Acting or actors, Communication, Religion, Denmark or Danish people, Sixteenth century, Existentialism, Drama or dramatists, Comedy, Mortality, Shakespeare, William, or Shakespearean plays
- Locales: Denmark
The Play
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead focuses on two minor characters from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (pr. c.1600-1601) and presents their dilemma at finding themselves trapped in a series of dramatic events over which they have no control. Act 1 opens with the two “passing the time in a place without any visible character.” They are tossing coins, Rosencrantz calling heads and Guildenstern tails, and Rosencrantz’s purse is already stuffed with the coins he has won when the story begins. As toss after toss comes up heads,...
[The entire page is 2771 words long]
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