questioning your situation at every turn.”

The two talk about Hamlet, and Rosencrantz describes his own fear of death, until Claudius and Gertrude arrive and inquire after the Prince. When Hamlet enters, in the middle of his “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Rosencrantz resolves to confront him but finds himself unable to speak. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern watch the players rehearse The Murder of Gonzago (the drama that Hamlet requests from them in Shakespeare’s play), and their rehearsal becomes the action of Hamlet itself, including the dumb show they will later perform for the court, Hamlet’s slaying of Polonius, and a foreshadowing of the pair’s own fate. There is a brief blackout and the play resumes at that point in Hamlet when Claudius leaves the performance of The Murder of Gonzago, horrified by its similarity to his own murderous actions. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern learn that Hamlet has indeed slain Polonius, and they are ordered by Claudius to take him to England along with a letter for the English King. The act ends with the pair on their way to England, still baffled by the course of events they seem powerless to resist.

Act 3 opens on board a ship bound for England. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern watch Hamlet furtively and speculate on their strange situation and its possible consequences. Once again, they prepare themselves by acting out their meeting with the King of England. In the process they open Claudius’ letter and learn that it asks the king to kill Hamlet. Stunned, the pair debate the issue and resolve to do nothing. When the two fall asleep, however, Hamlet steals the letter from them and replaces it with another. The following morning, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discover the actors hiding in barrels on the ship. The ship is set upon by pirates; Hamlet escapes, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern resolve to go on to England and see the king. Again they act out the encounter, open the new letter and see to their dismay that it now asks the king to kill them.

Guildenstern quarrels with The Player and stabs him, but the knife is a theatrical prop and his death is only a performance. The actors act out the final scenes from Hamlet—the poisonings, duels and deaths of the principal characters—and the lights dim around them until only Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are visible. Realizing that they are powerless to alter the course of their destiny, which has been predetermined by the action of the play, they resign themselves to their fate. First Rosencrantz and then Guildenstern disappears into the shadows, and the lights come up to reveal the last scene of Hamlet, with Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude and Laertes all lying dead on the stage. An ambassador from England enters and tells Horatio that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, and Horatio begins his final speech as “the play fades out, overtaken by darkness and music.”

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is also a play about the English language and its possibilities, and Tom Stoppard’s use of language is one of his most effective dramatic devices. As the characters grapple with their puzzling destiny, their exchanges provide some of the theater’s most dazzling displays of verbal acrobatics. Rapid-fire word games, clever punning, and skillful verbal wit mark the play’s dialogue, as they do all of Stoppard’s works, and the audience must remain alert and attentive to follow its intricate patterns.

Stoppard’s interweaving of Hamlet’s plot with his own is also skillful and effective, combining classic theater with modern as Shakespeare’s dialogue is intercut with his own and phrases from Hamlet recur in lines delivered by Stoppard’s characters. His use of the strolling players to convey those segments of Hamlet taking place out of view of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is both inventive and successful in presenting members of the audience with key points they must know for future reference. Additionally, serious scenes from Hamlet become comical in the light of the audience’s prior knowledge of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s utter lack of comprehension regarding how they came to be where they are and what they are to do now that they have arrived. Even Hamlet’s famous soliloquy is given an amusing slant as Rosencrantz attempts to speak with him and finds he is unable to do so—the result of the fact that a soliloquy must be delivered alone.

Stoppard also uses his characters themselves as dramatic devices. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Everyman doubled, caught up in the rush of history—in their case, theatrical history—and unable to resist its forward flow. The play suggests through them the confusion and isolation of life, a view that Stoppard shares with many of his contemporaries, including playwright Harold Pinter. Their reactions to the situation in which they find themselves are both varied and utterly human: They fear the worst, deny its existence, rationalize its mysteries, and distract themselves with details from its reality.

Although they seem at times interchangeable, and one of the play’s frequent sources of humor lies in the constant confusion of their names, there are subtle differences between the two. Rosencrantz is by nature more likely to avoid difficult questions than is his friend, and he ends his speculations on the nature of death with a series of frantic jokes. Guildenstern, on the other hand, recognizes early that something is amiss in their particular universe and makes repeated attempts— which Rosencrantz neatly sidesteps—to draw his companion’s attention to the fact.

The Player serves a very different function. As an actor, he belongs by rights in the play and experiences no unease over his situation, noting “I’ve been here before.” So have they all—each time Hamlet is performed—but only the professional actor has been granted an apparent awareness of that fact. The Player also serves as an occasional counselor and guide to the baffled pair, although his words of advice only confirm their worst fears that death lies at the end of their involuntary journey.

Elsinore Castle

Elsinore Castle. Apparent location of the play’s first act. Tom Stoppard’s stage directions for act 1 describe the scene as “Two Elizabethans passing the time in a place without any visible character.” The location seems to be a featureless place, neither indoors nor out, where the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discourse and toss coins. At length it becomes clear that this is an outdoor location close to the castle of Elsinore, because the traveling players approach them en route to the castle. However, Hamlet himself appears at the end of the act, so the setting may be within the castle itself. This anomaly is intentional, for the setting of the whole play is more one of “inner space” (inside the mind) than any physical place.

The second act makes use of some of Shakespeare’s original lines in Hamlet, with which it soon becomes obvious Stoppard’s play is dovetailing. However, Stoppard never makes the location clear (just as Shakespeare, with minimal stage directions, never makes his locations clear for Hamlet).

Ship

Ship. Apparent setting for act 3. Even more curious than the first two acts, this act is apparently set on a ship at sea—an inference the audience draws from the sound effects suggested by Stoppard, such as “soft sea sounds” and “ship timbers, wind in the rigging.” There are three large barrels on the deck (sufficient to hold one or two actors), and a few steps lead to an upper deck. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are taking Hamlet to England after the death of Polonius, perhaps. But at one point all the traveling players emerge from one of the barrels, and at the end of the play it is clear that the setting is, magically, not a ship but the Danish court.

Perhaps one is meant to assume (from the title) that the play is posthumous, with all the characters dead throughout, not just killed at the end of act 3.

The Tumultuous Sixties and Stoppard as a Political Playwright
The year 1966, like the rest of the mid-1960s, was a period of significant social and political upheaval. The U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War sparked global protests, with J. W. Fulbright, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioning the legality of America's military actions in Southeast Asia. Even Pope Paul VI called for an end to the conflict. In the United States, Betty Friedan founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) to advocate for women's equal rights, while the civil rights movement for African Americans led to race riots in cities like Cleveland, Chicago, and Atlanta. The 1964 Civil Rights Act faced open defiance from Southern states that refused to desegregate schools. James Meredith, the first black graduate of the University of Mississippi, was shot during a voting rights march in Mississippi. Meanwhile, Massachusetts voters elected Edward Brooke as the first black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. In England, Stoppard witnessed the country's response to Rhodesia's independence demands and escalating conflicts between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

Amidst this social and political chaos, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead showed no concern for the pressing issues of its time. For many years after his initial success, Stoppard appeared to write from an intentionally apolitical stance, humorously stating, "I must stop compromising my plays with this whiff of social application. They must be entirely untouched by any suspicion of usefulness. I should have the courage of my lack of convictions."

Consequently, his subsequent works—such as The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Jumpers (1972), and Travesties (1974)—were perceived by numerous critics as lacking in political and social consciousness. While his plays were lauded for their cleverness and intricate wordplay, they were often deemed superficial. Influential British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan encapsulated this view by describing Stoppard as "a cool, apolitical stylist," and likening Travesties to "a triple-decker bus that isn't going anywhere."

However, in the late 1970s, Stoppard responded to these critiques with a series of politically charged plays, beginning with Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (1977). This play, set in a Russian prison hospital, features an inmate imprisoned for his political beliefs. Professional Foul (1977), set in Czechoslovakia, explores the lives of political dissidents in a totalitarian regime. Night and Day (1978) is set in a fictional African nation and scrutinizes the role of the press in a dictatorship, while Cahoot's Macbeth (1979) addresses the repression of theatre in Czechoslovakia. Though these works are not considered major entries in Stoppard's body of work, they clearly illustrate his ability to tackle contemporary social and political issues.

The Tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was released in 1966, its potential ties to the Theatre of the Absurd were immediately recognized, partly due to Stoppard's deliberate nod to Beckett's renowned Waiting for Godot. However, later evaluations have indicated that Stoppard's relationship with this literary genre is more complex than initially perceived.

The Theatre of the Absurd emerged after World War II and thrived during the 1950s and early 1960s, particularly in France, through the works of Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, and Samuel Beckett. These playwrights rejected the idea of a logical and ordered universe, often depicting human existence as irrational and purposeless. To convey this perspective, they discarded traditional dramatic elements such as coherent plot structures, realistic characters, and rational dialogue, opting instead for surreal qualities that compelled audiences to confront absurdity directly.

In 1968, Stoppard acknowledged the influence that Beckett and other contemporaries had on his generation of writers, stating, "it seemed clear to us, that is to say the people who began writing about the same time that I did, about 1960, that you could do a lot more in the theatre than had been previously demonstrated. Waiting for Godot—there's just no telling what sort of effect it had on our society, who wrote because of it, or wrote in a different way because of it."

By the mid-1960s, the Theatre of the Absurd had diminished in its ability to shock and was already becoming outdated, with its last significant impact in America seen in the early works of Edward Albee. Despite this, in 1966 and 1967, many critics regarded Stoppard as a late representative of this absurdist tradition. Charles Marowitz, in May 1967, described Stoppard's play as "a blinding metaphor about the absurdity of life."

However, subsequent critiques suggest that Stoppard employs the Theatre of the Absurd more for comedic effect than for conveying philosophical concepts. Critics like William Gruber noted that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are presented with a chance for meaningful action (upon discovering the letter condemning Hamlet) but lack the bravery or character to act responsibly. In Beyond Absurdity: The Plays of Tom Stoppard (1979), Victor Cahn argues that "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a significant step in moving theatre out of the abyss of absurdity." While undoubtedly influenced by the absurdist theatre movement of the 1950s and early 1960s, Stoppard's debut major drama should not be too readily categorized under its label.

Comedy
One of the most notable aspects of Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is how it seamlessly weaves in and out of the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet, shifting its tone in the process. While Shakespeare's play contains moments of rich humor, it remains fundamentally serious and tragic. In contrast, Stoppard's rendition of the Shakespearean narrative is distinctly comedic, even verging on farce.

Stoppard's humor largely stems from the implicit contrast with Shakespeare's gravitas. As the most renowned tragedy by the most esteemed playwright in history, Hamlet evokes an image of profound seriousness. However, when Stoppard introduces his courtiers at the start of his play, they are casually flipping coins and conversing in modern, informal prose rather than Shakespearean verse. The ragtag troupe of tragedians further heightens the contrast with Shakespearean solemnity, particularly when financial desperation leads them to suggest a pornographic exploitation of young Alfred. Yet, when the two courtiers are drawn into the Shakespearean narrative and interact with characters speaking in blank verse, they adopt the same speech, creating a comedic effect through the stark contrast with their usual informal dialogue. Their inability to escape the Hamlet plot is humorous, as is their seemingly pretentious attempt to fit into it. Finally, they become comical once more when they revert to their non-heroic demeanor after the Hamlet characters exit. In their initial foray into the Shakespearean realm, Stoppard notes that the courtiers are "adjusting their clothing" before they speak. As they deliver lines from Shakespeare's play, their inflated style appears postured and implies a desperate ineptitude. Once back in their Stoppardian world, they are again comically unheroic, with Rosencrantz lamenting, "I want to go home," and Guildenstern comically attempting to assert control with unconvincing bravado.

While Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are comically foolish due to their apparent overwhelm by the Shakespearean world, they also exhibit a kind of comedic nobility as their ordinary presence eventually deflates the Shakespearean high seriousness. Their prosaic nature begins to attain its own form of nobility, making the Shakespearean characters appear exaggerated and even slightly absurd by comparison. This reaches its peak in Act III, when Hamlet is found lounging under a gaudily striped umbrella, a far cry from the classic Shakespearean image. Thus, Stoppard's play achieves a comedic triumph for the underdog, most clearly illustrated at the start of Act II when Rosencrantz remarks on Hamlet's esoteric language, saying, "half of what he said meant something else, and the other half didn't mean anything at all." Generations of readers and theatergoers, who have often struggled to grasp the challenging dialogue of "the world's greatest playwright and the world's greatest play," find humor in the ordinary man's candid observation.

Parody
As a source of humor in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, parody plays a significant role. Stoppard's numerous and subtle references to other literary works often involve parody, a style that typically mimics serious works to mock them. However, Stoppard's parodies are unique in that they are generally respectful and affectionate toward the original works rather than critical.

In addition to his parodic take on Shakespeare's Hamlet, Stoppard most clearly parodies Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. In Beckett's play, the main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, engage in word games and "pass the time" while waiting for someone who never arrives. Beckett's play opens on a nondescript country road, and Stoppard nods to this by beginning his play with "two Elizabethans [are] passing the time in a place without any visible character." This subtle reference is likely to be recognized by those familiar with Beckett's work. For those who might miss this allusion, Stoppard includes a more obvious reference later in the play. Near the end of Act II, Hamlet drags Polonius's body across the stage while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern use their belts to try and trap him. When Hamlet evades them, Rosencrantz's trousers fall, evoking a similar scene at the end of Waiting for Godot. This parody is not meant to satirize Beckett's play or its characters. Instead, it honors Beckett's genius and adds a layer of dignity to the comedic failures of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. With his friend's trousers around his ankles and facing another failure, Guildenstern remarks, "there's a limit to what two people can do."

Beyond the simple joy of recognition that such parodies provide to a knowledgeable audience, these parodies enhance the depth of Stoppard's text. Unlike Beckett's characters, who are seen as victims of an absurdist world, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inhabit a simpler world where death is a natural part of life rather than a tragedy. They suggest that if people can calm their minds, they will see that it is "silly to be depressed" by death, as it would be "just like being asleep in a box." When Rosencrantz celebrates eighty-five consecutive winning coin flips, exclaiming that he has "beaten the record," Guildenstern responds with "don't be absurd," a clever allusion to Beckett that speaks volumes to those who catch the joke.

1966: Vietnam escalates into a full-scale military conflict. By the end of the year, 389,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Vietnam, and the bombing of North Vietnam is extensive, despite mounting protests in the U.S. and internationally.

Today: The U.S. "defeat" in Vietnam continues to affect the national sense of self-esteem. Although diplomatic and cultural relations with Vietnam have been restored, the American memory of failure and humiliation persists.

1966: The Women's Liberation Movement gains momentum as Betty Friedan, author of the influential The Feminine Mystique in 1963, organizes the National Organization for Women (NOW) and becomes its first president.

Today: Women have secured a significant place in society. With the rise of two-income families and the proliferation of day-care facilities, women have taken on a dramatically increased role in the workforce, moving from domestic roles to direct competition with men, though female salaries remain statistically lower.

1966: The American Civil Rights Movement gains support from the sweeping 1964 Civil Rights Act, which faces opposition in several southern states resisting school integration. Alabama Governor George Wallace signs a state bill on September 2, prohibiting Alabama's public schools from following desegregation guidelines.

Today: African Americans enjoy significantly greater economic, social, and political mobility, and school integration is widespread in America. Former Governor Wallace, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 1968 and 1972, is now partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair following an assassination attempt in May 1972.

1966: French President Charles de Gaulle advocates for Europe to seek greater economic and political independence from the dominant influence of the United States and Russia. On March 11, he announces that France will withdraw its troops from NATO and requests that NATO remove all its bases and headquarters from French territory.

Today: Russia has significantly diminished in political, economic, and military power as various regions within the former Soviet Union assert their independence and Russia faces major economic challenges. The United States arguably dominates Europe most through its exportation of popular culture, with European countries eagerly adopting Western clothing, entertainment, and lifestyles.

1966: After eight years in power, South Africa's Prime Minister Henrik F. Verwoerd is assassinated on September 6 and is succeeded a week later by Balthazar Johannes Vorster, who pledges to continue the policies of apartheid (pronounced "ah-par-tate," a system of racial segregation and white dominance) in South Africa.

Today: After decades of resistance from the white minority, apartheid is dismantled in South Africa in 1996 when former political prisoner Nelson Mandela is elected president in a free election, and a new national constitution establishes a non-racial democracy.

1966: California's Bank of America introduces the BankAmericard, and New York's Marine Midland Bank responds by creating Master Charge, ushering in the era of the credit card. By the end of 1966, there are 2 million BankAmericard holders.

Today: BankAmericard is now known as Visa, and Master Charge has evolved into MasterCard. Credit cards have integrated into daily life on a global scale. In 1995, U.S. banks alone mailed out 2.7 billion credit card applications, averaging about 17 per American aged 18 to 64. The typical household credit card debt has surged from $649 in 1970 to almost $4,000 by 1996.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was adapted into a feature film in England in 1990, featuring Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz, Tim Roth as Guildenstern, and Richard Dreyfuss as the Player. Stoppard wrote the screenplay and also directed the film. The movie, presented in technicolor, has a runtime of 118 minutes. It can be rented from select video stores or purchased through Buena Vista Home Video or Facets Multimedia. Although it won the best picture award at the 1991 Venice Film Festival, it received a lukewarm response in the United States.

In 1972, Kenneth Friehling recorded a 38-minute audio commentary on the play for the Everett/Edwards Modern Drama Cassette Curriculum Series based in Deland, Florida.

Further Reading
Bareham, T., editor, Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers,Travesties: A Casebook, Macmillan, 1990.
Includes interviews with Stoppard, general evaluations of his work, reviews of early productions, and excerpts from critical studies.

Cahn, Victor L., Beyond Absurdity: The Plays of Tom Stoppard, Associated University Presses, 1979.
A comprehensive section on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, where Cahn contrasts Stoppard's play with the traditional Theatre of the Absurd.

Gordon, Robert, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, and The Real Thing: Text and Performance, Macmillan, 1991.
Part of a valuable series that emphasizes the performance aspects of plays. The sections on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead include one that describes and comments on its first professional production at the Old Vic in 1967.

Harty, III, John, editor, Tom Stoppard: A Casebook, Garland, 1988.
Three essays on the play, including crucial essays by William E. Gruber and J. Dennis Huston discussing how Stoppard utilizes Shakespearean text.

Hayman, Ronald, Contemporary Playwrights: Tom Stoppard, Heinemann, 1977.
A highly readable critical study that features a brief chapter on Stoppard's first major play and a valuable interview with the author.

Jenkins, Anthony, editor, Critical Essays on Tom Stoppard, G.K. Hall, 1990.
Contains four significant essays on the play and a particularly valuable interview with Stoppard.

Londre, Felicia Hardison, Tom Stoppard, Frederick Ungar, 1981.
A scholarly evaluation of Stoppard's work through the late 1970s, including a chapter on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Suitable for most students.

Matuz, Roger, editor, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 63, Gale, 1991.
A comprehensive collection of excerpts from the most significant criticism on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. An excellent starting point for an overview of the play's interpretations.

Perlette, John M., "Theatre at the Limit: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in Modern Drama, Vol. 28, no. 4, December, 1985, 659-69.
An essential essay for understanding the complexities of Stoppard's thematic treatment of death.

Rusinko, Susan, Tom Stoppard, Twayne, 1986.
A very accessible introduction to Stoppard that features a short chapter on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Sales, Roger, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Penguin, 1988.
A thorough, book-length analysis of the play, effectively summarizing and commenting on the actions of both Stoppard's and Shakespeare's plays, before contextualizing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead within Stoppard's other work and Beckett's Waiting for Godot.