Reading "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead" beyond theatricalities.

• Main Author: Ong, Jean Rui Yun.
• Other Authors: Daniel Keith Jernigan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44380
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this essay, I will explore the similarities that we see in absurdities of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to our daily lives. Even while this play dismisses the traditions of realism, in some respects it portrays life’s situation more accurately than realist dramas. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern may just be characters on stage but their stage lives actually cause us to engage more than the theatricality that they appear to be performing. In addition, Stoppard also recognizes that language itself is incapable of bringing forward his intended meaning and consequently, that theatre is more than mere language. Even the Player agrees that the dumbshow, which is a form of acting, is “a device, really – it makes the action that follows more or less comprehensible; you understand, we are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.” (Stoppard 77)