Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Essay, Research Paper

As Shakespeare?s Hamlet is recounted from another point of view, in Tom

Stoppard?s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a new sense of witty comedy

is sprung forth from the classic play. In all actuality, the play is classified

as a tragic comedy, because although the dialogue and flow of the play is one of

a laid back comedy, the play does end in death. It?s as though the two,

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, put off a sort of dumb vibe, I mean they can?t

even get their names straight. In the end though, I would have to say that their

confusion is really the source of most of their stupidity. In one instance,

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, play a question and answer type game to sharpen up

on their skills for their upcoming encounter with Hamlet. In the Abbot and

Costello, ?Who?s on First? style, the two would throw out a series of

questions, confusing both the reader and themselves. Not only was the basis of

their questions comical, but also the manner in which they asked them and scored

themselves in a tennis-like way. Following this completely stupid question game

the two enacted a hypothetical encounter with Hamlet. It almost took all of

Rosencrantz?s brain power just to understand the fact that Guildenstern was

acting as Hamlet. The hilarious conversation ended up in Rosencrantz arriving at

the following conclusion, ?To sum up: your father, whom you love, dies, you

are his heir, you come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before his

young brother popped onto his throne and into his sheets, thereby offending both

legal and natural practice. Now why exactly are you behaving in this

extraordinary manner?? In Act II, the lonesome couple, encounter some an

acting group passing them by. In hope of a performance, Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern were quite surprised as to what the players had in mind. This scene

is sure to crack a few laughs wherever it?s performed. Here the two

misunderstand what type of entertainment the players have in store for them,

until he the head player suggests that they?d probably enjoy themselves more

if they get involve. Finally, Guildenstern realized what they were getting at

and clears up all the confusion with this statement, ?No enigma, no dignity,

nothing classical, portentous, only his?a comic pornographer and a rabble of

prostitutes.? These weren?t the only examples of comedy in the play, but I

found that both of these were very similar in the elements that made them funny.

In both cases, comedy was the result of ironic and witty dialogue. The play in

general was funny, and I it just goes to show how any story can change due to a

change in perspective.