Study Guide by Arpita Karwa

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

replaces it with another one. Pirates attack the ship.

Hamlet goes missing. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
read the letter.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves in a

miserable situation. They hope they could change their
past and improve their deeds but accept that death is
their ultimate fate now. Guildenstern wants to get

m
another life in which he can live differently.

co
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an existential
tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard. It features the two side
characters from Shakespeare's play ‘Hamlet’ as protago-
nists.

Hamlet’s (the prince of Denmark) childhood friends

a.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are on the stage. They are
wearing Elizabeth’s costumes and tossing coins which land
w
‘heads’. The Player appears. He is leading The Tragedians
(a group of traveling male actors). The lights now shift to
another scene in Elsinore Castle.
r

Hamlet and Ophelia (Hamlet’s lover) run and leave the

stage. King Claudius and Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother,
ka

Claudius’s wife and Queen of Denmark) enter. They

welcome Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and inform them
that they have been called to find out why Hamlet is
behaving abnormally. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern strike
a conversation with Hamlet but in vain. Hamlet tells them
ta

that he only behaves abnormally when the winds turn

north.
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The Tragedians are rehearsing their play. Interestingly, the

pi

plot happens to be that of Rosencrantz's and Guilden-

stern's deaths. Hamlet asks Ophelia to become a nun, and
kills his father Polonius (also (Claudius’s adviser).
ar

Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to look for

Hamlet and Polonius’s body. They make no effort.
Hamlet himself appears after a while. King Claudius now
orders Hamlet to leave for England and Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to accompany him.

The three men leave England on a boat and are preparing

for their speech to the King of England. Meanwhile,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern open the letter Claudius
gave them. The letter orders Hamlet’s death. However,
they ignore it and sleep. Hamlet reads the letter and

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 Study Guide by Arpita Karwa

Mind Map

Summons

Rosencrantz
Carefree observer Suspicious of

Childhood
Friends

Gertrude Hamlet
Disgraced queen, Angry prince
mother of Hamlet

Suspicious of
Spouses
Guildenstern
Anxious philosopher Hires

Summons

Claudius The Player

Usurping king
Prophetic actor

Uncle and stepfather

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