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Home > English > Advanced > Module A: Comparative Study of Texts & Context > Elective 1: Transformations > Hamlet & Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
by Tom Stoppard
This unit was prepared by Gillian Herbert, Forster High School
An explanation of the elective
Gaining an understanding of each play
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:a short summary
The plots and characters of the two plays
Comparison of historical, social moral and religious contexts
Comparison of acting and theatrical conventions
An explanation of the elective
This elective is one of three within the module entitled Comparative study of texts and context. The module overall requires students to examine texts in relation to the different contexts in which they were written. Understanding the effects of social, cultural and historical contexts on an individual text should emerge through examining texts with similar themes written in different time contexts. The varied values of each context will also be reflected in the texts. Your study of the texts should include:
- language use
- consideration of audience and purpose
- analysis of the content, values and attitudes conveyed through a range of readings.
You may be required to write about these texts in different ways such as imaginative or interpretive compositions, and in a variety of forms such as an essay, imaginative re-creation in the role of a character, newspaper report, or letter.
In this particular elective, Transformations, we are looking at stories from the past being adapted to contemporary situations. In summary, two minor characters called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet are given the lead roles in a contemporary play with their own names: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead written by Tom Stoppard. Your task is to consider how the different context of each play generates a range of reflections about each play. In both cases the main characters are moving towards and reflecting on their own deaths.
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Key terms |
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| “Comparative” means finding similarities and differences between the two plays. | |
| “Context” means the situation in which each play was written. This includes the historical period, the type of society and the attitudes of its people, the type of stage presentation and audiences for whom the playwright was writing. | |
| “Transformations” means adapting a story to a new situation, using the benefits both of the inspiration of the original story and what can be added from the new context. |
Gaining an understanding of each play
It is important to remember that plays are written to be performed on stage. Any opportunity you have to see a production should be taken. Film versions are available also. However, the techniques of film production differ from those of the stage, and in the case of the film of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, it was made 24 years after the original play was written and is different from the original play. It is the original play in each case which you are studying.
The Hamlet Interviews is a useful video production about Hamlet. Its outline of the play’s story is helpful as you begin your study of the play. There is also a good analysis of Hamlet’s character which will be of value once you are more familiar with the play.
A short summary of each play, with an emphasis on the aspects common to both will help you begin your study of this elective. Hamlet has many themes and you will not have time to study all of them, so focus on those which also arise in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Hamlet: a short summary
Shakespeare wrote this play in 1600-1, based in itself on versions of the story written throughout the previous century, in particular that by Thomas Kyd. He used the Senecan Tragedy conventions of revenge, adultery, incest, murder, mutilation and general carnage and included features such as ghosts, insanity, suicide, a play-within-a play, all of which are to be found in Shakespeare’s play.
The play begins with Hamlet returning to his home from university because of the death of his father and the marriage of his mother to his uncle Claudius.
Hamlet is alerted to the presence at the castle (Elsinore) of a ghost who claims to be that of his father. The ghost tells Hamlet that he has been poisoned by his brother and then betrayed by the marriage of his beloved wife to the murderer. Hamlet is commanded by his father’s ghost to exact revenge against Claudius, but not to hurt his mother Gertrude.
Even before hearing this Hamlet has been distressed to the point of contemplating suicide about his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle. His depressed mood has been manifested in rather inconsistent treatment of his loved one, Ophelia, and in his dispirited appearance around Gertrude and Claudius. After hearing the ghost of his father he resolves to focus solely on revenge against Claudius.
Meanwhile Gertrude and Claudius, concerned about the change in Hamlet, have invited two friends of Hamlet called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spend some time trying to brighten his mood and discover what “afflicts him”.
From the moment they enter the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern speak on behalf of each other, as though they were one. When Hamlet first meets them he appears genuinely pleased to see them and is open with them about his lack of mirth. He welcomes their news that they have engaged some Players or city tragedians to provide him with some entertainment.
Hamlet uses the Players to construct a play within a play about a King being murdered. He intends to use the play to gauge Claudius’ reaction to assure himself that Claudius did indeed kill his father.
Claudius spies on a scene set up by Polonius between Ophelia and Hamlet. He becomes suspicious that something which may be dangerous to him is troubling Hamlet. He decides to send Hamlet to England, a decision confirmed after he sees the play that Hamlet has constructed in order to reveal his guilt. Claudius organises Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in whom Hamlet has now lost trust, to accompany Hamlet to England. Letters to be carried by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Claudius to the King of England request that he organise the death of Hamlet.
Before he leaves, Hamlet has a dramatic argument with his mother about her disloyalty to her first husband, Hamlet’s father. Polonius spies on this conversation, and Hamlet, believing him to be Claudius, kills him.
On board the ship Hamlet finds the letters and rewrites the instructions so that they read that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern should be put to death. Hamlet then returns to Denmark to take his revenge.
On his return he encounters the funeral procession of Ophelia who has drowned because of her sadness over her rejection by Hamlet and Hamlet’s killing of her father Polonius. Hamlet challenges Ophelia’s brother Laertes to a duel to prove which one of them loved Ophelia more.
Claudius sees yet another opportunity to rid himself of Hamlet and poisons the sword used by Laertes, as well as poisoning a drink provided for Hamlet during the duel.
Gertrude, however, drinks from the poisoned cup and dies. In the scuffle Laertes and Hamlet swap swords and are both cut with the poisoned one. Before he dies Hamlet also cuts Claudius with the sword.
Thus revenge is finally enacted, and all the key characters including Hamlet die.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: a short summary
This play was written in 1967 by Tom Stoppard and uses most of the characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However in this play, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the Players are the most important characters and the main characters fromHamlet are literally in the background most of the time.
The actual plot is different, however in it’s treatment of the issues. The meaning of life and the inevitability of death draw attention to the fact that these themes are also present in the original play by Shakespeare. All the themes discussed in Hamlet revenge, Hamlet’s “madness” and the madness of other characters and Hamlet’s procrastination can be linked to the themes of life and death.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead opens with the two main characters tossing coins and betting each time on the result, which happens to be “heads” 92 times in a row. The closeness between them indicated in Hamlet is immediately evident here by the uninterrupted repartee between them, even though they are frequently challenging and questioning each other while the coin tossing is taking place. They lead into a discussion of probability and the direction their lives are to take, alluding to Hamlet with mention of the fact that they have been sent for.
As they try to decide in which direction they have to travel, they hear music and the Players or tragedians that they meet in Hamlet appear. In identifying Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as an audience, the main Player has given them now some purpose, just as in Hamlet he provides Hamlet with the means to catch Claudius out. The difference is however that in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead the Player has an active role, whereas in Hamlet he responds to requests by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and then by Hamlet.
In the process of discussing how the Players are going to entertain Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the Player makes the important point that they “do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off stage. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look upon every exit being an entrance somewhere else.”
This is an important lead into the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who were mostly off-stage in Hamlet, will be on-stage in this play, whereas Hamlet will be mostly off-stage in this play after having been the central character in Hamlet.
The stage subsequently becomes the symbol of life (a reference to lines from other plays by Shakespeare, eg. “all the world’s a stage”) and through the character of the Player who has also assisted Hamlet in finding meaning, Stoppard is able to use his play to treat the theme that the direction in which life takes us is towards death.
Shortly after this discussion, Hamlet and Ophelia appear and mime the scene fromHamlet in which Hamlet questions the loyalty of women and effectively dismisses Ophelia from his life.
Immediately after this the actual scene where Gertrude and Claudius greet and welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern occurs, using the language of Shakespeare and also the difficulty of distinguishing between the personalities of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Thus, although as a pair they are given a purpose in life to “glean...what afflicts” Hamlet. They then continue to discuss their purpose in life through the game of asking each other questions and trying to avoid statements. This is followed by a game in which Guildenstern plays the part of Hamlet and Rosencrantz asks him pertinent questions relating to events in the original play, which again assist us in reflecting upon the original play.
At the end of Act One, Hamlet enters, engaged in a conversation with Polonius fromHamlet, and then greets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
At the opening of Act Two, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reflect on their conversation with Hamlet, exposing his state of mind at this point in Hamlet. They note that Hamlet has asked several rhetorical questions, and repeated himself. Soon afterwards some more interaction occurs between the Player and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are treated to some more of the former’s philosophies on life.
Then, left to themselves, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern introduce the subject of death. Rosencrantz starts this with the question, “Do you ever think of yourself as actually dead, lying in a box with a lid on it?” and then follows with his conclusion that “there’s only one direction, and time is its only measure”.
Some more interactions with characters from Hamlet follow, and the stage directions indicate that most of the time the latter characters are positioned upstage, allowing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to remain the focus of the audience.
A collage of the dumbshow from Hamlet, and the scene between Hamlet and Ophelia in which he rejects her follows, ending with the determination by Claudius that Hamlet should be sent to England. After the exit of the characters fromHamlet, the Player picks up the death theme, pointing out that his troupe are tragedians, who follow directions and no one escapes death: “…there is no choice involved. The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily”.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to counter this argument saying they want “a good story, with a beginning, a middle and an end”, and “I’d prefer art to mirror life,if it’s all the same to you”. The Player responds by miming, with some narration, scenes from Hamlet where Hamlet interviews his mother and kills Polonius, Claudius organises Hamlet’s trip to England with two ”smiling accomplices- friends-courtiers-two spies” (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) showing how a “twist of fate and cunning has put into their hands a letter that seals their deaths”.
This Act ends with references to the season of autumn (symbolising the move closer to the end of life - winter) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern preparing to escort Hamlet to England, which ironically is the scene before their deaths in Hamlet.
Act Three opens with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on board the ship taking Hamlet to England, bearing a letter from the Danish King to the English King, and feeling depressed that once this task is achieved they will be at a loose end again, with no sense of what direction they are heading into. They read the letter and realise that they carry the death warrant for Hamlet. They comment that the sun is going down and it will be dark soon. They also note that they are heading west, as they come to terms with the significance of the letter they are carrying.
In the background we see Hamlet exchange the letter for another, which we know from Hamlet, gives instructions that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are to be killed, not Hamlet himself.
It then becomes apparent from music they can hear, that the tragedians are also on board, in three large barrels. The Player launches into more philosophy, regarding, “Life is a gamble, at terrible odds - if it was a bet you wouldn’t take it.” Watching Hamlet spit into the audience, Rosencrantz reflects that “philosophical introspection is his (Hamlet’s) chief characteristic”.
Pirates attack the ship and all the characters hide in barrels. When the attack is over and they re-emerge, Hamlet has disappeared, giving Rosencrantz and Guildenstern the cue that without him they have no function in life.
They then re-discover the letter and its changed instruction that they are to be killed. Death and the purposelessness of their lives is now the focus of their discussion with the Player, who tries to give it some perspective by saying that he has acted death many times and ways and it is commonplace.
Still protesting, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern disappear, and the play ends with part of the last scene from Hamlet, where all the main characters lie dead and the Ambassador from England reports that as Hamlet requested Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
The plots and characters of the two plays
The short summary of Hamlet excludes details that do not relate to the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This may seem to give them more importance than they merit in the play. On the other hand it is difficult to be brief about the second play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, because of the many references to Hamlet. The plot is far less complex than that ofHamlet but an understanding of the play is dependent upon a comprehensive understanding of Hamlet..
Exercises on plot and character
1. Draw a mind-map of the characters in each play, placing the characters of each play’s title at the centre, and then showing how all the other characters relate to them and to each other.
2. Again, taking each play separately, rank the characters in each play in their order of importance, giving reasons. Your reasons should relate to the plot and the themes of each play. Then compare your two lists and make some conclusions about how Stoppard has used Shakespeare’s characters in his play.
3. Discuss how important Hamlet is in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, compared with how important Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in Hamlet.
4. Draw a diagram for each play that summarises the progress of the main characters in each towards their inevitable deaths.
5. To get a feel for the closeness of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act out the scenes in which they appear in Hamlet, and then in their own play, the coin-tossing scene, the question-game scene and any others you think may be relevant to this understanding.
6. Act out or mime the scenes in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead that come from Hamlet.
7. Write letters between the characters Hamlet, Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern explaining how you feel about each other, and
about life and the hand it has dealt you in general.
The themes of the two plays
After examining the themes that are common to both plays, consider the other themes in Hamlet and their links to these common themes. For example, does Hamlet’s procrastination inevitably lead to his death and those of others?
Exercises on themes
1. Examine the soliloquies in Hamlet for references to the desire to die, as opposed to the reasons for continuing to live.
2. “That life is a mystery and that this mystery ends in death are the two truths Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do discover as the play proceeds. Ultimately they develop an awareness of the lack of control they have over their lives.”
Collect quotes from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead that support this statement. In Act One you will find references to direction, probability, certainty and uncertainty. By the end of Act Two references to death begin, but the Player discusses how he makes meaning out of life. By Act Three there is a clear indication of awareness of death.
3. Your references in exercises (1) and (2) can now be examined together to make some connections between the themes of the two plays.
Comparison of the historical, social, moral and religious contexts
Hamlet
This play was written in the Elizabethan period in England. The monarch was well established and was also the head of the Church of England. Both the monarch and the church played a strong role in the lives of the people. This is reflected in Shakespeare’s plays in that the great majority of his characters are either monarchs or high-ranking members of their country’s nobility. His audiences were interested in the lives of these people whose lives seemed for the most part. far removed from their own Socially, a middle class was only just beginning to emerge with the development of trade, and the majority of people were poor and ill-educated. Hamlet’s scruples about suicide and about killing Claudius, despite the “justice” of revenge, reflect the strong Christian beliefs of the time.
In the Elizabethan world, order was the keynote of all things, and the hierarchical system of carefully arranged ranks of man was a part of this. The King was ordained to rule by God and men were empowered with reason so they could, even at the very last moment, be master of their fate. There was also a pagan view that men fall or prosper according to fate. One code of conduct recommended Christian charity and mercy to human beings, whereas another encouraged all men to strive for their own advantage.
Shakespeare’s plays were written for the common audience of that time, and his plays were popular. Plays were performed in palace courts where their audiences would include the most eminent and the most highly educated people in the country. They were also performed at the Inns of Court where their audiences would be professional lawyers, courtiers and their guests. In the public theatres, like the Globe, there would be a sprinkling of the nobility and the gentry, young apprentices, some foreigners, and a fair section of characters from low life, most of whom were illiterate. People moving from the country to the towns would also be in the audiences. Theatre going was popular universal entertainment.
The audiences enjoyed action such as duels, wrestling and fighting; they enjoyed ghosts and the supernatural; they enjoyed ceremonial processions such as that at the close of Hamlet; clowns, jesters and fools were also important. However there was also a love of the spoken word, which is not surprising in a time when printed books were not readily available and knowledge was mostly communicated orally.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Written in 1967, this play is not too far removed from your own lifetime and therefore it should not be necessary to detail historical, social, religious and moral differences from the times in which Hamlet was written. However, democratic governments and constitutional monarchies have obviously changed attitudes towards and interest in the nobility and the monarchy. This is reflected in the changed subject matter of literature.
While there is still some awareness of upper, middle and lower classes, there is more sympathy for and interest in the “common man” now, who may be defined as representative of the majority of people from the middle and lower classes, rather than the upper classes.
Consequently, literature turned its attention in the twentieth century to everyday people and their concerns. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two such people from Hamlet, but in their own play, they become the characters who are central to the audience’s interest.
Audiences in the twentieth century had many other sources of entertainment besides going to the theatre, so in a sense the audience for this play would be narrower than that for Hamlet. Most people can read and the printed word is readily available through books of all types and the print media. Radio, film at the cinema, videos, television and computers provide significant competition for live theatre. A playwright writes therefore for a small and fairly sophisticated and educated audience - people who consciously seek this form of entertainment, but not necessarily on a regular basis. Professional actors and theatre companies struggle to survive because of limited audiences. What does a playwright such as Stoppard have to do, therefore, to make his play a success.
Religious and moral attitudes in the twentieth century have changed since Hamlet was written. While many people in the English-speaking world would still call themselves Christians, attendance at and reverence for the church is very limited and it certainly does not have the influence on people that it has done in the past.
The 1960s, in fact, heralded the beginning of what was known as the “permissive society” which broadly meant that people’s religious and moral beliefs and practices were far more individual and not bound by conventions of their society.
Exercises on the historical, social, moral, religious significance of each play
| 1. Make a list of aspects of the plays’ structures, plots, characters and themes which demonstrate any of the points made above. Then make a comparison between the two plays on these grounds. | |
| 2. What aspects of Hamlet would appeal to an audience of Shakespeare’s time? | |
| 3. Given the diminished popularity of live theatre in 1967, what appeal would Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead have for an audience of this time? |
Comparison of acting and theatrical conventions
Information about Shakespeare’s theatre abounds, and attending a performance of any contemporary play should allow for some worthwhile comparisons. Draw a table of the differences and similarities, using the following ideas to guide your analysis:
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division into acts and scenes
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how the ending of a scene is signified
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the descriptions by the playwright of the settings of time and of place
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the stage directions given to the actors by the playwright, either directly, or implied through the content of the speeches
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managing effective exits and entrances
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the degree of realism needed for the staging of each play, such as the props and costumes required
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the size of the stage required to perform some of the simultaneous actions
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the provision of lighting and sound devices for each play, in the context in which it was written
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the assumed understandings of the audience by each playwright
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the type of audience the play was written for
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the structure of the plot of each play - aspects such as exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement or resolution
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the features expected by an audience, such as soliloquies, duels, comic relief, processions, play within the play.
The language of each play
There are some obvious differences from the outset in that Hamlet is mostly written as poetry, in blank verse, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is written as prose at a colloquial level. The sections from Hamlet which are incorporated into the second play are recognisable however, as they are faithfully quoted in their original form. The language style of each play would meet the expectations of the audience for whom it was written.
Both plays however are rich in the suggestive power of their language. The images of death throughout Hamlet, and the symbolic references to death which accumulate throughout Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, are worthy of very close attention, as they convey the meanings which link the two plays thematically.
Write down quotes from each play which have these references and images of death.
Examples will include this excerpt from Hamlet’s first soliloquy:
“O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,”
From Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, note references to heading “west” and “autumn” (near the end of Act Two), as well as repeated use of words such as “direction”, “death” and “tragedians”.
There is clever repartee between characters in both plays, but for the most part the pace of dialogue between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is faster than that ofHamlet. In both plays, an audience that delights in word play would be satisfied.
Sample assessment questions
1. Compare and contrast the ways in which the two plays Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead reflect the values of the contexts in which they were written.
Possible outcomes : 1, 2, 2A, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12A, 13.
2. Imagine you are Hamlet, Rosencrantz or Guildenstern. Using what you learn about the character in both plays, write a personal reflection on what life or death means to you, in the context of the plays.
Possible outcomes: 1, 6, 8, 10, 11,12, 12A.
3. Can Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead exist as a play in its own right, without the audience understanding Hamlet? Justify your opinion by a close examination of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Possible outcomes: 2, 2A, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 12A, 13.
4. You have just seen a performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, and you are a strong fan of Shakespeare’s plays. Write a letter to the editor of a reputable paper expressing your views about how Stoppard has used the characters from Shakepeare for a play of his own. You should refer to the value of Hamlet in your letter.
Possible outcomes: 1, 2, 2A, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12A, 13.
5. Write an explanation for Year 11 students describing how Rosencrantz and Guildensterna are dead has been derived from the play Hamlet.
Possible outcomes: 1, 2, 2A, 3, 8, 10, 12A, 13.
6. Write a script between Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of a conversation that might have occurred between them on the way to England had Rosencrantz and Guildenstern decided to destroy the letter bearing the instructions to kill Hamlet out of renewed loyalty to him. The conversation should cover the issue of the direction in life they are each taking at this point and why. Use information from both plays.
Possible outcomes: 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12A, 13.
Useful references
Ludowyk, E.F.C, Understanding Shakespeare, Cambridge University Press, 1962. Part One, The Background, is excellent on Shakespeare’s times, stage and audiences.
Schafer, Elizabeth, “Onstage and Offstage in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead”, Metaphor, NSW English Teachers’ Association Newsletter, August 1997, Issue 3. Elizabeth Schafer lectured in Drama at the Royal Holloway College, University of London.
Vonwiller, Benjamin,“The Spectre of Shakespeare in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead”, Sydney Studies pages 63-82
The Hamlet Interviews produced by Mirage Theatre in Taree. This can be purchased with the script from Bev Perks, P.O. Box 798, Taree, for $45. (Phone 6550 5612).
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