Nick_Austin_TX
03-29-2007, 01:53 AM
Watching this reminded of the Tom Stoppard play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosencrantz_%26_Guildenstern_Are_Dead)". I'm more familiar with the 1990 film adaptation.
In it two characters are intertwined with the chracters and events in Shakespeare's "Hamlet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet)" In the play,
The play concerns the misadventures and musings of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from William Shakespeare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare)'sHamlet who are friends of the Prince, focusing on their actions while the events of Hamlet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet) occur as background. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is structured as the inverse of Hamlet; the title characters are the leads, not minor players, and Hamlet himself has only a small part. The duo appears on stage here when they are off-stage in Shakespeare's play, with the exception of a few short scenes in which the dramatic events of both plays coincide. In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are used by the king in an attempt to find out about Hamlet's motives and to plot against him. Hamlet, however, mocks them derisively and outwits them, so that they, rather than he, are killed in the end. Thus from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's perspective, the action in Hamlet does not make much sense.The two characters, brought into being within the puzzling universe of the play, by an act of the playwright's creation, and those they encounter, often confuse their names, as they have interchangeable yet periodically unique identities. They are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world that is beyond their understanding; they cannot identify any reliable feature or the significance in words or events. Their own memories are not reliable or complete and they misunderstand each other as they stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications to themselves. They often state deep philosophical truths during their nonsensical ramblings, however they depart from these ideas as quickly as they come to them. At times Guildenstern appears to be more enlightened than Rosencrantz; at times both of them appear to be equally confounded by the events occurring around them.After the two characters witness a performance of The Murder of Gonzago, they find themselves on a boat taking Hamlet to England with the troupe that staged the performance. During the voyage, they are ambushed by pirates and lose their prisoner (Hamlet) before resigning themselves to their fate.Two themes in the play(according to the wiki author) are:
Existentialism - why are we here? Why should Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do anything unless someone asks them to? They find themselves as pawns in a gigantic game of chess, yet make no effort whatsoever to escape.
Free will vs. determinism - is it their choice to perform actions, or are they fated to live the way they do? The implication the play gives is that it does not matter what choices Rosencrantz and Guildenstern make, they are trapped within the logic of the play, and cannot escape, being fated to follow a destiny determined by the plot. Hamlet ends with the news of their deaths, so they have to die.The similarity between these two stories seems so uncanny.
Nick Scalan
Austin, TX
In it two characters are intertwined with the chracters and events in Shakespeare's "Hamlet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet)" In the play,
The play concerns the misadventures and musings of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from William Shakespeare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare)'sHamlet who are friends of the Prince, focusing on their actions while the events of Hamlet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet) occur as background. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is structured as the inverse of Hamlet; the title characters are the leads, not minor players, and Hamlet himself has only a small part. The duo appears on stage here when they are off-stage in Shakespeare's play, with the exception of a few short scenes in which the dramatic events of both plays coincide. In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are used by the king in an attempt to find out about Hamlet's motives and to plot against him. Hamlet, however, mocks them derisively and outwits them, so that they, rather than he, are killed in the end. Thus from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's perspective, the action in Hamlet does not make much sense.The two characters, brought into being within the puzzling universe of the play, by an act of the playwright's creation, and those they encounter, often confuse their names, as they have interchangeable yet periodically unique identities. They are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world that is beyond their understanding; they cannot identify any reliable feature or the significance in words or events. Their own memories are not reliable or complete and they misunderstand each other as they stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications to themselves. They often state deep philosophical truths during their nonsensical ramblings, however they depart from these ideas as quickly as they come to them. At times Guildenstern appears to be more enlightened than Rosencrantz; at times both of them appear to be equally confounded by the events occurring around them.After the two characters witness a performance of The Murder of Gonzago, they find themselves on a boat taking Hamlet to England with the troupe that staged the performance. During the voyage, they are ambushed by pirates and lose their prisoner (Hamlet) before resigning themselves to their fate.Two themes in the play(according to the wiki author) are:
Existentialism - why are we here? Why should Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do anything unless someone asks them to? They find themselves as pawns in a gigantic game of chess, yet make no effort whatsoever to escape.
Free will vs. determinism - is it their choice to perform actions, or are they fated to live the way they do? The implication the play gives is that it does not matter what choices Rosencrantz and Guildenstern make, they are trapped within the logic of the play, and cannot escape, being fated to follow a destiny determined by the plot. Hamlet ends with the news of their deaths, so they have to die.The similarity between these two stories seems so uncanny.
Nick Scalan
Austin, TX