EMF Radiation Effect on Seedlings [Methods of Science Biology Final Project]

Oscar Steinhardt

Dr. Nunnery

Modes of Writing & Argumentation

May 24, 2019

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, the 1967 play by Tom Stoppard, focuses on the bond of two friends summoned to help Prince Hamlet in mourning his dead father. Taking place within the classic Shakespearean tragedy of Hamlet, and even sharing select scenes, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead’s genre is not as easily discernible as that of its parent play. Understanding the genre of a work helps mold the key questions a reader formulates in order to better digest the writing and understand why the characters act the way do. Deconstruction of the formal elements of both comedy and tragedy places Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead more firmly as a tragedy that employs humor as a device to access deeper meaning. Each of the main characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, presents a distinct attitude toward the obstacles they encounter, one seeking control with a pessimistic view and the other accepting and charmed by the oddity of his happenstances. A third character, The Player, drifts in and out of their journey, offering a tether to reality lending structure to the confusion and as the only character that seems to know what is going to happen next offers a peek into the knowledge that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern chase but cannot claim. As the play progresses, Stoppard incorporates comedic elements that add to the tragedy unfolding as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern become less polarized and disassociate from both their given roles and each other, becoming the flaw that leads to their own tragic end.

The discussions of determinism and questions of purpose and place that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern engage in are subservient to the structure in which they exist: pawns in a Shakespearean tragedy in which Hamlet sets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s fates in stone. Their friendship is the social network they exist within, as per the source material, which Stoppard in turn uses as the key to their downfall. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have no more agency in this play than they do in the world of Hamlet. Stoppard elevates these near invisible and nondescript characters into their own full-blown protagonists; yet, in their elevated position, they (similarly to Hamlet but much more overtly) have little control over and understanding of their surroundings. The mechanism of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s friendship lifts them, and thereby the play, into an intertextual network that relegates Hamlet as secondary to the structure of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, via the vessel of companionship. As minor characters in their parent play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are witness to the classic tragic arc that “afflicts” their friend Hamlet (60). Once a beloved Prince, Hamlet follows the formulaic story line of inclusion to alienation that typically leads to an untimely death. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s characters as a unit experience the same path of association to disassociation within their own plot line, also leading to presumed death. At the beginning of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are inseparable friends that act as a unit. Their bond deteriorates as they attempt to reconcile their life purpose, and as the optimistic side of the relationship turns fearful and dark, the pessimistic side, Guildenstern reaches further for meaning as he says, “Death’s death, isn’t it?” In response to which Rosencrantz “falls silent” and “starts to take off his belt,” which Guildenstern rebukes, admonisthing him, “No, no, no! – If we can’t learn by experience, what else have we got?” Then Rosencrantz “desists” (82). Once they are no longer fully distinct in their personality roles, The Player urges them to “Relax. Respond. That’s what people do,” considering that “You can’t go through life questioning your situation at every turn,” (60) suggesting that in doing so, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be able to let go of their struggles to find meaning. Instead of a disassociation from other people or society like Hamlet experiences, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern disassociate from each other when any modicum of their attitudinal distinction disappears, leading to their literal fading out of the play.

While Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are ridiculous characters that are placed in comedic situations and written to be laughed at, the play itself does not offer a classic comedic arc, suggesting from its form and the implied deaths at its end that it must instead be a tragedy. Instead, the humor serves to control the tone of the play, ensuring that things do not get too grim while simultaneously allowing the reader access to what would otherwise be confusing and hard to accept in the story. For example, the reader is as confused as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when they end up in the castle but have no idea how they got there. As per the stage direction, “He tosses the coin to Guil who catches it. Simultaneously – a lighting change sufficient to change the exterior mood to interior, but nothing violent… Ros and Guil have frozen. Guil unfreezes first. He jumps at Ros.” Guildenstern proclaims to Rosencrantz in a fed-up outburst “Come on” as the two attempt to quickly orient (30). What would otherwise be a frightening time gap associated with some sort of violent loss of memory is instead a humorous scene where the comedic tone offers a certain lightness to the absurdity of the circumstance offering entry to a deeper layer of their inability to break free from their pre-scripted world. Their constant banter, which is poignant once deconstructed, becomes accessible through their quick wit and nimble verbal gymnastics, as can be seen when Rosencrantz has “forgotten the question” that Guildenstern asks him specifically on the topic of forgetting, chiding, “You don’t get my meaning, what is the first thing you remember after all the things you have forgotten?” to which Rosencrantz responds with a simple “Oh I see. (Pause.) I have forgotten the question” (12). Within the lightness of silliness, the tragedy of isolation and hopelessness unfolds without the reader fully recognizing it until the end. In this way, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern embody different phases of friendship, with the earlier comedic tones ultimately contributing to the overall tragedy and poignancy of its dissolution.

Considering the tragedy of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, through the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Stoppard asks the reader to ponder the absurdity of their own situation and consider their own existence. A hallmark of the tragic motif is that a problem arises that is distinctly human, such as jealousy, unrequited love, or pride. In the case of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, the uniquely human problem is the question of who controls our decisions and the existential questions of existence. Also consistent with a tragedy, the conflict is internal rather than reacting to some outside force. Guildenstern’s frustration with seeking order and control is distinctly his internal struggle, one that he shares only with Rosencrantz. There are no clear heroes or villains in the play, but rather a mixture of personalities each with a bit of both. This structure most closely mirrors real life and in such creates a literary environment familiar and accessible for the reader. The question of predetermined fate that Stoppard challenges the reader to consider is dense, but by inserting lightness with comedic moments, he gives his readers relief from the heaviness of the existential challenge of being, as seen when Rosencrantz interrupts his own philosophical meltdown to joke that he “wouldn’t think about it, if [he] were [Guildenstern],” as he’d "only get depressed. (Pause.) Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where’s it going to end? (Pause, then brightly.) Two early Christians chance to meet in Heaven” (64). In a twist, rather than a clear traditionally tragic end of problem resolution typically through death, Stoppard leaves the reader shrouded in mystery as to what happens to the protagonists in their final scene. In breaking with the traditional tragic trope of death, Stoppard almost paradoxically makes the close of the play even more tragic. He denies the readers the comfort of a complete tragic arc, which often contains the promise of a better future such as the cleansing of the old monarchy in Hamlet and offering a bright future under Fortinbras. Instead, Stoppard sets up extended existential questions that reach beyond the text, as can be seen when Guildenstern remarks that at least they’ll “know better next time. Now you see me, now you – (and disappears)” (117). This mirrors the elements of humanity and life that suggest our own fruitless quest for knowledge in that there are no definitive answers to questions such as what happens at the end of life. Stoppard does not aim to tell a story with a sole moral outcome where avoidance of any single action would change everything - rather, he offers the reader an open-ended loop of flaws to consider, pointing process over outcome and, in doing so, delivers an accessible message for how to contemplate life and tackle mortality.

Despite the initial appearance of absurdity, the play’s parameters are known constructs, and the audience is continually reminded of them through the cast of Hamlet’s intermittent appearances and upon the dissipation of the only new parameter Stoppard adds to Shakespeare’s original plot: the relationship between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and how they balance one another as they seek meaning in their roles. The newfound complexity of their characters tethers them to mirroring real life, ultimately leading their differences to evaporate and therefore merge back with Shakespeare’s initial vision of classical theatrical tragedy. Within the structure of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are hampered by their relegation to one specific purpose in support of a grander production. They have no access to their own meaning, which is the challenge Stoppard chooses to expose, and, by doing so, to ask the audience to question their access to their own meaning. The absurd circumstances are only the surface of the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. Humor is used as the entry point to the true substance of the tragedy where the underlying pre-determined structure is exposed, and the only absurd action is the attempt to affect any outcome that varies from the overarching structure in which they are inextricably linked, the Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet.

Stoppard, Tom, and Henry Popkin. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Grove Press, an Imprint of Grove Atlantic, 2017.

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