Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as an Absurd Drama

Absurdism, one of the most exciting and creative movements in the modern theater, is a term applied to
a particular type of realistic drama which has absorbed theater audiences and critics for the past three
decades. One specific area, appropriately labeled "Theatre of the Absurd" by the American critic Martin
Esslin in the 1960's, offers its audience an existentialist point of view of the outside world and forces
them to consider the meaning of their existence in a world where there appears to be no true order or
meaning. Inching ever closer to a realistic representation of life, the evolution of absurdist drama from
Samuel Beckett to Tom Stoppard brings a new focus to absurdism and expands the role of philosophy
and metaphor in theatrical drama.

With the setting in Shakespeares Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead expands upon the
exploits of the two minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The play offers only brief
appearances of the major characters of the Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a pair of school
mates and childhood friends of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Based on the same period of time the
two minor characters are changed into major characters. They are the Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy
who finally get a chance to lead the roles in their life, but it looks similar like that of Waiting for Godot.
It presents a mixture of reality and illusion and fate plays its own role of leading these two characters
into death. The play adopted from Shakespeare takes its own form in a manner where the central
characters are thrown in a world where they are unable to comprehend anything.

As a play investigating the central, unknowable mysteries of existence death and mortal beings'
capacity for free will Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead charts the human struggle to make sense
of a universe characterized by utter randomness, harshness towards human life (the universe itself
could be seen as the dramatic "bloodbath" described by the Player), and complete apathy towards the
human condition. All human meaning is undermined by the meaninglessness of the environment
humans are forced to inhabit. The effort to make meaning thus grows increasingly absurd.

The play's use of language reflects the absurdity of human attempts to make meaning, incorporating
wordplay and pushing the bounds of sense to demonstrate how difficult it is to convey significance.
Dialogue in the play frequently replicates the coin toss revelation: what at first seems absurd is actually
reality, what seems false is revealed to be true. It's the play's mode of presentation that startles the
audience into a seemingly new perspective: the already known is seen anew, and seems unrecognizable.
As Guildenstern says: "All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner
of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque."

Thus, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern frequently misspeak or jumble common idiom, but, listened to
carefully, these "mistakes" describe the situation more accurately than the "right" phrasing might. "over
my head body!" Rosencrantz shouts in exasperation, "I tell you it's all stopping to a death, it's boding to
a depth, stepping to a head, it's all heading to a dead stop." Though they may first seem like mistakes,
his phrasings point out truths: 'head body' describes the living thinking being he is better than the
conventional ("correct") expression 'dead body' would; his mis-phrasings of the expression 'coming to a
head' end up illuminating the play's actual trajectory towards death. Later, Rosencrantz' description of
sunset as "The sun's going down. Or the earth's coming up" rings similarly true.

Furthermore, the play's many instances of mishearing and misunderstanding start to accrue their own
sense of accuracy: death, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern repeatedly remind the audience, is the
unknown, is beyond the grasp of human perception. When Rosencrantz tries to rationalize death by
comparing it to a boat, Guildenstern responds, "No, no, noDeath isnot. Death isn't... Death is the
ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat." By riddling the play with moments of lost
meaning, the play's script creates a linguistic experience 'not-understanding' akin to the
unimaginable not-being of death that renders life in the world so absurd.

The meaningless conversation of the two friends illustrates their meaningless existence and absurdism.
They are perplexed individuals and unable to be independent. They need something or somebody to
guide them in their life. In addition to that they had no memory of past happenings and their present
picture is also vague. In Act III, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discover that Hamlet is no more in
the boat, their journey becomes mission-less. The purpose of their journey is not solved as Hamlet is no
longer with them. Then Guildenstern says, Weve travelled too far, and our momentum has taken over;
we move idly towards eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation. Rosencrantz in
reply say, Be happy- if youre not even happy whats so good about surviving? Well be all right. I
suppose we just go on.

Albert Camus had pointed out that happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are
inseparable. In the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead the protagonists are clueless about
their destiny. They are happy as they entertain the readers by playing a lengthy tennis game and
sometimes tossing the coin to pass the time. It seems they are not able to comprehend what is going on
in the absurd world and by smiling or being comedic they are trying to hide their innermost feelings or
being absurd. The plight of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern mirrors humanity as a whole. While
elaborating on the aim of the Theatre of the Absurd, scholar and critic Martin Esslin had written, It is a
challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with
dignity, nobly, responsibly, precisely that is why in the last resort the Theatre of the Absurd does not
provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation. Indeed, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Dead is a play where Tom Stoppard not only followed every convention of the Theatre of the Absurd
but also enhanced its qualities.