1.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead

ROS (coming forward, flattering shyly): Exhibitions... GUIL: I thought you were actors. PLAYER (dawning): Oh. Oh,
well, we are. We are. But there been much call - GUIL: You lost. Well, then - one of the Greeks, perhaps? You're
familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics? Matri, patri, fratri, sorrori, uxori
and it goes without saying - ROS: Saucy - GUIL: - Suicidal - hm? Maidens aspiring to godheads - ROS: And vice
versa - GUIL: Your kind of thing, is it? PLAYER: Well, no, I can't say it is, really. We're more of the blood, love and
rhetoric school. GUIL: Well, I'll leave the choice to you, if there is anything to choose between them. PLAYER:
They're hardly divisible, sir - well, I can do you blood and love without rhetoric, and I can do you blood and
rhetoric without love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can't do you love and rhetoric
without blood. Blood is compulsory - they're all blood, you see. GUIL: Is this what people want? PLAYER: It's what
we do. (Small pause. He turns away.) (GUIL touches Alfred on the shoulder.) GUIL (wry, gentle): Thank you, we'll
let you know. (The PLAYER has moved upstage. Alfred follows.) PLAYER (to TRAGEDIANS): Thirty-eight! ROS
(moving across, fascinated and hopeful): Position? PLAYER: Sir? ROS: One of your - tableaux? PLAYER: No, sir.
ROS: Oh. PLAYER (to TRAGEDIANS, now departing with their cart, already taking various props off it.) Entrances
there and there (indicating upstage). (The PLAYER has not moved his position for his last four lines. He does not
move now. GUIL waits.) GUIL: Well... aren't you going to change into costume? PLAYER: I never change out, sir.
GUIL: Always in character. PLAYER: That's it. (Pause.) GUIL: Aren't you going to - come on? PLAYER: I am on. GUIL:
But if you are on, you can't come on. Can you? PLAYER: I start on. GUIL: But it hasn't started. Go on. We'll look
out for you. PLAYER: I'll give you a wave. (He doesn't move. His immobility is now pointed and getting awkward.
Pause. ROS walks up to him till they are face to face.) ROS: Excuse me. (Pause. The PLAYER lifts his downstage
foot. It was covering GUIL's coin. ROS puts his foot on the coin. Smiles.) Thank you. (The PLAYER turns and goes.
ROS has bent for the coin.) GUIL (moving out): Come on. ROS: I say - that was lucky. GUIL (turning): What? ROS: It
was tails. (He tosses the coin to GUIL who catches it. Simultaneously - a lighting change sufficient to alter the
exterior mood into interior, but nothing violent.) And OPELIA runs on in some alarm, holding up her skirts -
followed by HAMLET. Note: The resemblance between HAMLET and The PLAYER is superficial but noticeable.
(OPHELIA has been sewing and she holds the garment. They are both mute. HAMLET, with his doublet all
unbraced, no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, ungartered and double-gyved to his ankle, pale as his shirt,
his knees knocking each other... and with a look so piteous, he takes her by the wrist and holds her hard, then he
goes to the length of his arm and with his other hand over his brow, falls to such perusal of her face as he would
draw it... At last, with a little shaking of his arm, and thrice his head waving up and down, he raises a sigh so
piteous and profound that it does seem to shatter all his bulk and end his being. That done he lets her go, and
with his head over his shoulder turned, he goes backwards without taking his eyes off her... she runs off in the
opposite direction.) (ROS and GUIL have frozen. GUIL unfreezes first. He jumps at ROS.) GUIL: Come on! (But a
flourish - enter CLAUDIUS and GERTRUDE, attended.) CLAUDIUS: Welcome, dear Rosencrantz... (he raises a hand
at GUIL while ROS bows - GUIL bows late and hurriedly.)... and Guildenstern. (He raises a hand at ROS while GUIL
bows to him - ROS is still straightening up from his previous bow and half way up he bows down again. With his
head down, he twists to look at GUIL, who is on the way up.) Moreover that we did much long to see you, The
need we have to use you did provoke Our hasty sanding. (ROS and GUIL still adjusting their clothing for
CLAUDIUS's presence.) Something have you heard Of Hamlet's transformation, so call it, Sith nor th'exterior nor
inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father's death, that thus hath put him

A) p.13 - the coin flipping scene; Guil talks about the law of probality

This scene is related to the Theatre of Absurd, but still it’s not a typical instance of it. The Theatre of Absurd
derives from existentialism, i.e. it questions identity and displays the absurdity of human conditions.
***While flipping the coin, Rosencrantz never questions why it keeps landing head up (even 92 times!). On the
other hand, Guil. worries that the two have entered an alternate universe because despite the law of probability,
it’s impossible that the coin turned head 92 times consecutively. He applies logic and tries to explain why the
phenomenon occurs and what are its implications. Acc. to him, the coin toss is violating the laws of reason and
probability. While Guildenstern is trying to figure out the coin-spinning phenomenon, Rosencrantz intermittently
inserts irrelevant information, such as how beards and fingernails continue growing after death. The sharp
contrast between their speeches and the different reactions reflect the different personalities of Ros. and Guil.
Guildernstern’s note reveals that he values knowledge, logic and meaning over wealth and tries to derive some
meaning or purpose from existence, while Rosencrantz’s attitude shows how he willingly accepts reality and the
fact that the world is absurd. Throughout the passage it is also evident that they are not paying attention to what
the other is doing and saying.
***By opening the play directly with the coin flipping scene, Stoppard establishes suspense and confusion. Since
there is neither previous context given, nor the characters are introduced, the audience is supposed to wonder
what is happening and why (suspense) and to provide answers for those questions, without any clues (confusion).
This is related to what was Stoppard’s main idea overall - reality is absurd, in which there are no laws governing
the action!

ROS (flaring): I haven't forgotten - how I used to remember my own name - and yours, oh ): I haven't forgotten -
how I used to remember my own name - and yours, oh yes! There were answers everywhere you looked. There
was no question about it - people knew who I was and if they didn't they asked and I told them. GUIL: You did,
the trouble is each of them is... plausible, without being instinctive. 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. A man standing in his saddle in the half-lit half-alive dawn banged on the shutters and
called two names. He was just a hat and the cloak levitating in the grey plume of his own breath, but when he
called we came. That much is certain - we came. ROS: Well I can tell you I'm sick to death of it. I don't care one
way or another, so why don't you make up your mind. GUIL: We can't afford anything quite so arbitrary. Nor did
we come all this way for a christening. All that - preceded us. But we are comparatively fortunate; we might have
been left to sift the whole field of human nomenclature, like two blind men looting a bazaar for their own
portraits... At least we are presented with alternatives. ROS: Well as from now - GUIL: - But not choice. ROS: You
made me look ridiculous in there. GUIL: I looked as ridiculous as you did. ROS (an anguished cry): Consistency is
all I ask! GUIL (low, wry rhetoric): Give us this day our daily mask. ROS (a dying fall): I want to go home. (Moves.)
Which way did we come in? I've lost my sense of direction. GUIL: The only beginning is birth and the only end is
death - if you can't count on that, what can you count on? (They connect again.) ROS: We don't owe anything to
anyone. GUIL: We've been caught up. Your smallest action sets off another somewhere else, and is set off by it.
Keep an eye open, an ear cocked. Tread warily, follow instructions. We'll be all right. ROS: For how long? GUIL: Till
events have played themselves out. There's a logic at work - it's all done for you, don't worry. Enjoy it. Relax. To
be taken in hand and led, like being a child again, even without the innocence, a child - It's like being given a
prize, an extra slice of childhood when you least expect it, as a prize for being good, or a compensation for never
having had one... Do I contradict myself? ROS: I don't remember. What have we got to go on? GUIL: We have
been briefed. Hamlet's transformation. What do you recollect? ROS: Well, he's changed, hasn't he? The exterior
and inward man fails to resemble - GUIL: Draw him on to pleasures - glean what afflicts him. ROS: Something
more than his father's death - GUIL: He's always talking about us - there aren't two people living whom he dotes
on more than us. ROS: We cheer him up - find out what's the matter - GUIL: Exactly, it's the matter of asking the
right questions and giving away as little as we can. It's a game. ROS: And then we can go? GUIL: And receive such
thanks as fits a king's remembrance. ROS: I like the sound of that. What do you think he means by remembrance?
GUIL: He doesn't forget his friends. ROS: Wouldn't you care to estimate? GUIL: Difficult to say, really - come kings
tend to be amnesiac, others I suppose - the opposite, whatever that is... ROS: Yes - but - GUIL: Elephantine...?
ROS: Hot how long - how much? GUIL: Retentive - he's a very retentive king, a royal retainer... ROS: What are you
playing at? GUIL: Words, words. They're all we have to go on. (Pause.) ROS: Shouldn't we be doing something -
constructive? GUIL: What did you have in mind?... A short, blunt human pyramid...? ROS: We could go. GUIL:
Where? ROS: After him. GUIL: Why? They've got us placed now - if we start moving around, we'll all be chasing
each other all night. (Hiatus.) ROS (at footlights): How very intriguing! (Turns.) I feel like a spectator - an appalling
business. The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a
minute... GUIL: See anyone? ROS: No. You? GUIL: No. (At footlights.) What a fine persecution - to be kept
intrigued without ever quite being enlightened... (Pause.) We've had no practice. ROS: We could play at
questions. GUIL: What good would that do? ROS: Practice! GUIL: Statement! One-love. ROS: Cheating! GUIL:
How? ROS: I hadn't started yet. GUIL: Statement. Two-love. ROS: Are you counting that? GUIL: What? ROS: Are
you counting that? GUIL: Foul! No repetitions. Three-love. First game to... ROS: I'm not going to play if you're
going to be like that. GUIL: Whose serve?
B) p. 17 - unicorn vs. horse
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter a debate as to whether the sounds they hear are real or an illusion.
Guildenstern answers the uncertainty with an illustration about a unicorn: a man sees a unicorn cross his path,
but as more and more people witness the event, it becomes apparent that it is just a horse with an arrow sticking
through its forehead.  If one person sees something and no one else witnesses the same thing, then the
person may question the reality of what he saw (logic). They’re trying to rationalize things once again (more
specifically Guil. tries to apply logic), but however their question, whether it was a unicorn or a horse, remains
without answer once again!

C) p. 18 - the Player’s speech and his importance

The Player introduces himself and make a list of the group’s dramatic specialties, including sexual performance, in
which they can participate for an extra fee. Ros. and Guil. are attracted, as well as repulsed by the Player’s offer.
***The Player is the leader of the Tragedians. Although at first sight only an actor, the Player is actually the only
one who’s in control of reality, more than anyone else in the play. All the time throughout the play, there’s a
double talk in the player’s speeches. Although The Player sounds funny, his humor is bitter and cynical (Theatre
of the Absurd - macabre, dark humor), i.e. he is the only one that actually knows the truth and knows how the
things will end up. The Player sees life as one big play and makes no distinction between life and art. (The Player
somehow realizes that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are actually two minor characters from
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a play in which they know what to do and why, while in this one, they do not. Ros. and
Guil. are actually never involved in the real action.) The Player also stands for the Chorus in Ancient Greek drama.
The role of the chorus was to comment. They know the truth of life as perceived in the Theatre of the Absurd.

D) p.92 - Guil’s final speech

After Ros. vanishes from the scene, Guil. realizes that is all alone and begins to cry for his friend, but he is unable
to remember if he is Guil. or Ros. Guil. leaves the stage by saying that he will do better next time, as he believes
that he will be given another chance to live. We do not see their death at the end of the play, it is not visualized,
but instead we find out that from the title itself, as well as from the English ambassador’s announcement at the
end of the play.
Even here, at the very end of play we can see that the whole play was in fact a metaphor for the absurdity of life.
Ros. and Guil. constantly make funny comments and they are unable to understand the circumstances and the
world itself. They struggle to develop their identities and keep asking questions, but without answer. They are in
a state of alarm all the time, because of ignorance. And we are ignorant in real life as well. Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are all of us!

2. Bingo

- Introduction (enclosures) - essay

A) p.39/40 - the baited bear and Sh. despair

Shakespeare remembers bear-baiting and tells her daughter Judith about violent scenes that took place
next to the theatre. A bloody scene is described, including images of bears chained up, bears blinded,
etc. He says that one can hear bear in the pit while his characters talk. He asks himself what does it cost
to stay alive and adds that he is stupefied by the suffering he has seen. By saying all these Shakespeare
reveals his inner state of mind and expresses his despair. The scenes is also related to the use of
violence in the play.
* This part is also an example of how Bond rewrites Shakespeare. Indifferent tone of his voice.
Description of images that come back to him after London - although bloody and cruel, the speech
sounds poetic.
* Shakespeare’s mood throughout the play - melancholic, detached, indifferent, passive (he doesn’t do
anything to prevent the young woman’s death, which is an example of his passivity). Everything’s so
emotionless in the play!

B) p.41 - the swan description

???

C) scene four - Ben Johnson and Shakespeare

This scene is set in a tavern. Ben Johnson and Shakespeare are drinking. Johnson has come to tell
Shakespeare that the Globe has burned down and to ask him what is he writing about. From their
conversation we can say that their attitude towards literature is unglamorous. Johnson even says that
he hates writing. He also recounts a life of violence compared with Shakespeare’s “serene” existence.

D) p.53 - Shakespeare’s walk to his home (after the tavern)

Shakespeare is walking home from the tavern through the fresh snow. In this scene we can see
Shakespeare talking to himself, in fact he barely talks to any other. He describes his house, the snow…
Through his speech he displays a beautiful, yet destructive image, related to his inner state of mind. A
passive observer, in a world of his own, alive, but dead inside. Once again, we can see Shakespeare’s
brooding mood! (showing deep unhappiness of thought)
E) scence six - final scene
In this final scene we can see Shakespeare in bed, half delirious, once again repeating the question “Was
anything done?!” (manifestation of his despair). Judith and her mother appear and they call for him. Sh.
does not respond at first, so they become hysterical, but once he slips his will to them under the door,
they leave. The son enters and admits that he shot the old man (his father), but when Combe enters,
the son hypocritically accuses him of shooting the old man. While they argue, Shakespeare takes poison
pills. Unaware that he is dying, Combe and the Son leave.
Similarly, Judith appears once again, but she doesn’t pay attention to her dying father, instead she
ransacks the room, looking for money or another will. This attitude is related to the fact that during
whole life Judith was treated unfairly and her father’s behavior that money can compensate for love,
perhaps led to her interest in money only!
* According to Bond, who describes Shakespeare’s last days, Shakespeare must have felt guilty of not
being compassionate with his fellow villagers. (Shakespeare sides with the landowners)

3. Lear

A) p. 3 - “I started this wall…”

It is in this moment that Lear introduces his wall, which stands as a symbol of his reign, as well as a reference to
power. In this speech, Lear states that he build the wall for the safety of his people, but it also represents the
success of his governance. Lear’s daughter provide another interpretation of the wall. For Bodice, the wall is an
obstacle that can cause war or economic collapse, and moreover it enslaves people. However, as the play
progresses Lear’s attitude towards the wall changes as well, i.e. the meaning of the wall fluctuate throughout the
play.

B) p.80 - “I know nothing, I can do nothing, I am nothing!”

Lear complains that he is still a prisoner, that there is a wall everywhere. He is trapped and he expresses his
despair. He asks if there is justice and whether the suffering is going to stop.