In this blog write a quotation from the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Then explain why you like these lines, how they are important to central themes in the play, or how the lines reflect back to something in Hamlet.
Guil: "The law of probability, it has been oddly asserted, is something to do with the proposition that if six monkeys.... if six monkeys were... (page12)"
These lines don't really portray any themes in the story, but they are funny in a sense that the probability of flipping a coin is the same probability of flipping a monkey and either them landing on heads or tails. I believe it to be quite amusing.
My name is Guildenstern, and this is Rosencrantz... I'm sorry - his name is Guildenstern, and I'm Rosencrantz" (p. 22)
I like this line because I found it funny that Rosencrantz confused himself with Guildenstern. This relates to Hamlet, because they are depicted as being really hard to distinguish from one another. During one scene in Hamlet, the King confuses the two and this seems to be a direct reference to the similarities between the two men.
"For some of us it is performance, for others, patronage. There are two sides of the same coin, or, let us say, being as there are so many of us, the same side of two coins. Don't clap too loudly - it's a very old."
I like these lines because it refers to the "play" in hamlet. It supports the theme of the play because i think its saying that for people life is just a performance to show others that you are content and happy.
Ros: To sum: your father, whom you love, dies, your are his heir, you come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before hie 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?
This lengthy quote is when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are taking to each other after meeting the King and before talking to Hamlet. They are wondering what may be wrong with Hamlet and act out what might happen in a talk with Hamlet (Guildenstern being Hamlet, Rosencrantz being himself). Rosencrantz then comes to this conclusion about Hamlet (father dead, fast remarriage, losing his throne) and then makes a, maybe sarcastic comment with "why are you acting in this extraordinary manner?" I thought this was pretty funny and reflects that someone other than Hamlet (or someone Hamlet told) got the reason why he is mad. Yet, they don't use this information and end up dead.
It must be the law of diminishing returns... I feel the spell about to be broken. (Energizing himself somewhat. He takes out a coin, spins it high, catches it, turns it over on the back of his hand, studies the coin- and tosses it to ROS. His energy deflates and he sits.) Well, it was an even chance... if my calculations are correct."
I kind of like this quote because G is totally unaware that their game is rigged with a double sided coin. G is putting his faith in a pre-existing idea that the game has fair odds. This is kind of the opposite of existentialism. Since existentialism involves starting with a “fresh slate” that nothing is really pre-existing G should have deduced the possibility that the game wasn’t fair. His previous experiences with R could have given him the experiences to know that R could have been trying something. As a reader I don’t personally know R but from what we have read so far and from the Hamlet play R and G should be fairly acquainted with each other. However, now that we have read more of the play we’ve discovered that R is not the brightest bird on the block. G probably must not have thought him intelligent enough to make up suck a trick hence his inability to notice blatant obviousness that foul play is in the works. This may result in why R and G are killed in the end.
These lines are also kind of humorous but its kind of hard to tell- that kind of relates to Hamlet despite not being connected to a central theme to the play.
"Another curious scientific phenomenon is that the fact that the fingernails grow after death, as does the beard."-Rosencrantz p. 18
While Rosencrantz was cutting his nails he make that statement almost frightened of the alternate universe that Guildenstern and him may have entered in. The reoccurring flipping of heads and other signs make them wonder if they have entered into a universe that is free of probability, for the law of probability have ceased working. So now Rosencratz, almost to scare Guildenstren from the rational he had begun to retrieve, states that even after death hair and nails continue to grow. He is inferring by this that the two of them could be dead, and they don't even know it! I like these lines because of the sense of comedy they give the play, even in a time of complete nervousness and scare of the two main characters. It connects to the question, what sort of world do we live in? Will the decisions we make really make us, do we really not have a purpose? The characters constantly questioning what they are doing makes me wonder if they question their purpose as well.
"List of possible explanations. One: I am willing it. Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past. Two: time has stopped dead, and the single experience of one coin being spun once has been repeated ninety times...On the whole, doubtful. Three: divine intervention, or retribution from above. Four: a spectacular vindication of the principle the each individual coin spun individually is as likely to come down on heads as tails and therefore should cause no surprise each individual time it does."
I really like this quote from Guildenstern. It starts the play off by being witty and showing how methodical Guildenstern is, an element of his character we certainly never saw in the original Hamlet. I also liked how the author used this speech to show off his existentialist viewpoint (By the way I don't particularly agree with existentialism.), making the fourth explanation sound the most logical; the one that enforces the idea that nothing is ever predetermined. Overall, I just thought the speech was well thought out and very witty under the circumstances.
"We've been caught up. Your smallest action sets off another somewhere else, and is set off by it. Keep and eye open, and ear cocked. Tread warily, follow instructions. We'll be all right." Guildenstern pg.39-40
I thought these lines connected back to the theme of existentialism because Guildenstern is telling Rosencrants that his actions will effect other people and other things. This idea that your actions effect other actions is a key part of existentialism, the rational behind decisions is that if everyone in the world did what I am doing, would it work? He is also telling Rosencrants to be wary of his surroundings and keep an eye our for suspicious things while they are in the castle. Existentialist ideas are found throught the book but this particular one really stood out to me.
“The only beginning is birth and the only end is death—if you can’t count on that, what can you count on?” (39) ~Guildenstern
I like this quote from Guildenstern because it is a really witty rhetorical question. This is an example of existentialism because there could be more to the human existence than just birth and death. So far, I think Guildenstern is my favorite character because he is so concerned about the deeper meanings of human existence.
Jaina Shah Player: Why, we grow rusty and you catch us at the very point of decadence-by this time tomorrow we might have forgotten everything we ever knew. That’s a thought, isn’t it? (He laughs generously.) We’d back where we started –Improvising.(22) I thought this quote was interesting and relates back to existentialism. This quote talks about how we grow rusty and existentialism also believe in self was born. Beside the point of existentialism, I also thought this quote shows that everyday is new day and people intended to forget past and move on next day. In the end we always belong where we started, without knowing it (destiny).
"Well...aren't you going to change into your costume?" "I never change out of it, sir." "Always in character." "That's it." - Guildenstern and the Player, 33-34
This quote relates to the play's theme of existentialism and how life has no purpose that is handed down from a higher power. Here, we can see that the Player finds purpose in his trade. He has a part to play, a costume to wear, entrances and exits, a role in the unfolding drama - all for the entertainment of the masses.
"Well, he's changed hasn't he...Something more than his father's death. He's always talking about us-there aren't two people living whom he dotes on more than us." pg. 40 This quotes is when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are talking about how Hamlet has changed and how much of it could be to the fact that so many horrible things have happened to him late. They express how Hamlet thinks highly of them and that seemed different to me then in Hamlet. Both wish to find the cause of the madness and fix it. I like this because this idea and look at the situation is way different then the look Hamlet had on the two guys. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a much nicer motive and approach then in the Hamlet play.
"The scientific approach to the examination of phenomena is a defense against the pure emotion of fear." pg. 17
This is what Guildenstern says to Rosencrantz as they are discussing the reason for their summoning to Denmark. I like this quote because it gives you some insight into the character Guidenstern's personality. It seems as though Guildenstern is constantly coming up with theories and spouts them off to Rosencrantz. It also seems like Guildenstern is smarter, and more of the leader of the two.
“There was a messenger …. that’s right. We were sent for. Syllogism the second: One, probability is a factor which operates within natural forces. Two, is a factor which operates within natural forces. Two, probability is not operating as a factor. Three, we are now within un-,sub-or supernatural forces.” (pg.17).
This quote is about why Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were sent for. They are trying to figure out the reason that they were sent for. One of the things that they decide is that they are in a other world and they were sent for because of some type of supernatural forces.
Player: "We keep to our usual stuff, more or less, only inside out. We do on stage the things, that are suppose to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else." (28)
I found this quote quite interesting to myself because of the last line explaining how every exit is an entrance to something/somewhere else. I think that is very true to life with our choices. If we choose to quit one action or commit an action then all the other choices we could of gone along with get closed yet more choices appear. This goes along with the whole existentialism idea that when we make a choice it eliminates all the other choices we could of made, making us who we are today.
Guildenstern: "But we both obey, and here to give up ourselves in the full bent, to lay out service freely at your feet, to be commanded" p 36
When I first read this quote it made me think of the philosophy of human beings, and how some people believe they were put on earth to worship God. In this quote, Guildenstern is saying that he will be commanded by Claudias and do exactly what he is told. This also relates to the book of Hamlet because a theme that continued on throughout that book was Hamlet trying to determine the purpose of life. In terms of existentialism, by Guildenstern saying he will always obey Claudias, he is not making decisions for himself, and therefore these decisions will affect who he becomes in the future.
"All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when soemthing nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque." -Guildenstern
In this, Guildenstern is reflecting on the idea that both he and Rosencrantz don't know, at this point, what part they are playing in the King's scheme to kill Hamlet, yet they chose to follow the King's orders. Even after they realize that their job is to kill Hamlet, they decide to follow along with the King's plans. This plays off of the theme of exestentialism throughout the book, that each decision we make builds our character and makes us who we are. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern chose to follow through with the King's plans and made the choice to betray Hamlet, making them the "bad guys" that they played in Hamlet.
I like this quote because of how it uses the idea that the truth of fate is impossible to grasp and when we get close to grasping it, it becomes an indefinable object.
“There is an art to the building up of suspense.” (12)
This is a line said by Guildenstern in the beginning of the story in response to the flipping coins. I thought that it related to Hamlet because that is all that Shakespeare’s works are, the building of suspense and plot twists. It could also be foreshadowing the rest of the story if there is a potential surprise for the reader.
My excellent good friends! How dost thou Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Hamlet pg 53
This is the same quote that Hamlet uses in the play Hamlet. He uses this quote the first time that he greets them, which is the same in this play. Also, Hamlet mixes up Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, which seems to happen everytimne they are greeted because they are very similar people. I just think that it is odd that this is the same quote from Hamlet.
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in it." (52)
This quote is when Polonius Is talking to Hamlet right before G and R actually talk to Hamlet for the first time in this book. I thought this was an interesting quote because it sounded very similar to something that was said in Hamlet. This quote reflects on Hamlet because he was acting crazy on purpose in his plot in that play.
"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." (38)
I like this quote because I thought it was funny and told the readers something about the characters. This quote relates to the central theme and back to Hamlet because people are always confusing Guildenstern and Rosencrantz because they are always together and talk so similarly.
"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see."
I like this quote because it gives a really good first impression of the Player. He is much different than the Player in Hamelt, Stoppard gives him much more character.
"Ros: Let me get it straight. Your father was king. You were his only son. Your father dies. You are of age. Your uncle becomes king." p.49
I think that this quote is significant to the book because it explains how the events that occur in Hamlet are tragic. It sums up how sketchy and strange the chain of events made claudius the king. It also shows how the decision that king claudius made to kill old king hamlet and marry the queen changed not only his life but hamlet, guildensterns, and rosencrantz, If Claudius hadn't killed the king hamlet wouldnt have had to act crazy and rosencrantz and guildenstern wouldnt have been called for.
Guil: "A weaker man might be moved to reexamine his faith, if in nothing else, at least the law of probability."
This quote comes after Rosencrantz flips a Heads with a coin 76 times straight. This is significant because its setting up the rest of the book and is setting this seen as a comedic yet thought provoking passage. I liked this line because, after flipping a Head that many times, one really would have to call into question the law of probability because the possibility of doing that is (1/75557863725914323419136)which is ridiculous, plus he continues on to get Heads 92 times which is (1/4951760157141521099596496896) chance. WHICH IS INSANE!
"Exactly, it's about asking the right questions and giving away as little as we can. It's a game." -Guildenstern Pg. 40
I liked this line because Guildenstern gets to the heart of manipulation in just two sentences. It is also ironic because it seems as if everything that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do in the play is a game. The lines go along with the theme that "everything is a game".
This relates to Hamlet because Hamlet was constantly trying to manipulate people by asking the right questions and not giving anything away. For him it also seemed like some sort of revenge game that he was playing. What Guildenstern says in those lines is something that sounds like it could've been said by Hamlet himself.
"I think I have it. A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself"- Guildenstern
I like this line because Guildenstern is making a good point. I feel that talking sense to yourself is the opposite of talking nonsense not to yourself.
I could see how these lines could somewhat relate back to Hamlet becasue Hamlet always makes sense of things in his head yet to others he speaks nonsense if it doesnt make sense to him at all.
"Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past." (Guildenstern)
I thought that this quote was rather profound, and a little difficult to wrap the head around. To me, what this is saying is that things have already been decided to be a certain way and that although he tries and believes he can do something about it, his efforts are fruitless. This ties into that idea of existentialism as it is acknowledged that things are set to be a certain way. It is talking about how fate cannot be escaped.
"The equanimity of your average tosser of coins depends upon a law, or rather a tendency, or let us say a probability, or at any rate a mathematically calculable chance, which ensures that he will not upset himself by losing too much nor upset his opponent by winning too often." -Guildenstern (pg. 18)
Guildenstern is referring to how people base much of their life on probability by saying they ensure they won't upset themself by losing to much or upsetting their opponent by winning too much. This piece of Guildenstern's soliloquy contributes to the theme of existentialist absurdity because people's rationale can be based off of probability which Stoppard considers absurd.
"Good. Year of your birth. Double it. Even numbers I win, odd numbers I lose." -Guil 31
I liked the irony of this statement as all numbers doubled come out to be even. It is a tricky way to win and clever, which is why I liked it. It also goes with the irony of the story as they face death in this play but alas, it is only a play so either way they aren't really going to die, their characters are.
Guil:
ReplyDelete"The law of probability, it has been oddly asserted, is something to do with the proposition that if six monkeys.... if six monkeys were... (page12)"
These lines don't really portray any themes in the story, but they are funny in a sense that the probability of flipping a coin is the same probability of flipping a monkey and either them landing on heads or tails. I believe it to be quite amusing.
Kiera Wesley
ReplyDeletep.3
My name is Guildenstern, and this is Rosencrantz... I'm sorry - his name is Guildenstern, and I'm Rosencrantz" (p. 22)
I like this line because I found it funny that Rosencrantz confused himself with Guildenstern. This relates to Hamlet, because they are depicted as being really hard to distinguish from one another. During one scene in Hamlet, the King confuses the two and this seems to be a direct reference to the similarities between the two men.
Lexy Kaftan
ReplyDelete"For some of us it is performance, for others, patronage. There are two sides of the same coin, or, let us say, being as there are so many of us, the same side of two coins. Don't clap too loudly - it's a very old."
I like these lines because it refers to the "play" in hamlet. It supports the theme of the play because i think its saying that for people life is just a performance to show others that you are content and happy.
Will Quattlebaum
ReplyDeleteRos: To sum: your father, whom you love, dies, your are his heir, you come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before hie 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?
This lengthy quote is when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are taking to each other after meeting the King and before talking to Hamlet. They are wondering what may be wrong with Hamlet and act out what might happen in a talk with Hamlet (Guildenstern being Hamlet, Rosencrantz being himself). Rosencrantz then comes to this conclusion about Hamlet (father dead, fast remarriage, losing his throne) and then makes a, maybe sarcastic comment with "why are you acting in this extraordinary manner?" I thought this was pretty funny and reflects that someone other than Hamlet (or someone Hamlet told) got the reason why he is mad. Yet, they don't use this information and end up dead.
Samielle Foltz
ReplyDeleteIt must be the law of diminishing returns... I feel the spell about to be broken. (Energizing himself somewhat. He takes out a coin, spins it high, catches it, turns it over on the back of his hand, studies the coin- and tosses it to ROS. His energy deflates and he sits.) Well, it was an even chance... if my calculations are correct."
I kind of like this quote because G is totally unaware that their game is rigged with a double sided coin. G is putting his faith in a pre-existing idea that the game has fair odds. This is kind of the opposite of existentialism. Since existentialism involves starting with a “fresh slate” that nothing is really pre-existing G should have deduced the possibility that the game wasn’t fair. His previous experiences with R could have given him the experiences to know that R could have been trying something. As a reader I don’t personally know R but from what we have read so far and from the Hamlet play R and G should be fairly acquainted with each other. However, now that we have read more of the play we’ve discovered that R is not the brightest bird on the block. G probably must not have thought him intelligent enough to make up suck a trick hence his inability to notice blatant obviousness that foul play is in the works. This may result in why R and G are killed in the end.
These lines are also kind of humorous but its kind of hard to tell- that kind of relates to Hamlet despite not being connected to a central theme to the play.
Sarah Hale:)
ReplyDelete"Another curious scientific phenomenon is that the fact that the fingernails grow after death, as does the beard."-Rosencrantz p. 18
While Rosencrantz was cutting his nails he make that statement almost frightened of the alternate universe that Guildenstern and him may have entered in. The reoccurring flipping of heads and other signs make them wonder if they have entered into a universe that is free of probability, for the law of probability have ceased working. So now Rosencratz, almost to scare Guildenstren from the rational he had begun to retrieve, states that even after death hair and nails continue to grow. He is inferring by this that the two of them could be dead, and they don't even know it! I like these lines because of the sense of comedy they give the play, even in a time of complete nervousness and scare of the two main characters. It connects to the question, what sort of world do we live in? Will the decisions we make really make us, do we really not have a purpose? The characters constantly questioning what they are doing makes me wonder if they question their purpose as well.
Jenn Hergert
ReplyDelete"List of possible explanations. One: I am willing it. Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past. Two: time has stopped dead, and the single experience of one coin being spun once has been repeated ninety times...On the whole, doubtful. Three: divine intervention, or retribution from above. Four: a spectacular vindication of the principle the each individual coin spun individually is as likely to come down on heads as tails and therefore should cause no surprise each individual time it does."
I really like this quote from Guildenstern. It starts the play off by being witty and showing how methodical Guildenstern is, an element of his character we certainly never saw in the original Hamlet. I also liked how the author used this speech to show off his existentialist viewpoint (By the way I don't particularly agree with existentialism.), making the fourth explanation sound the most logical; the one that enforces the idea that nothing is ever predetermined. Overall, I just thought the speech was well thought out and very witty under the circumstances.
Bridget Cook
ReplyDelete"We've been caught up. Your smallest action sets off another somewhere else, and is set off by it. Keep and eye open, and ear cocked. Tread warily, follow instructions. We'll be all right." Guildenstern pg.39-40
I thought these lines connected back to the theme of existentialism because Guildenstern is telling Rosencrants that his actions will effect other people and other things. This idea that your actions effect other actions is a key part of existentialism, the rational behind decisions is that if everyone in the world did what I am doing, would it work? He is also telling Rosencrants to be wary of his surroundings and keep an eye our for suspicious things while they are in the castle. Existentialist ideas are found throught the book but this particular one really stood out to me.
Savannah Guillen
ReplyDelete“The only beginning is birth and the only end is death—if you can’t count on that, what can you count on?” (39) ~Guildenstern
I like this quote from Guildenstern because it is a really witty rhetorical question. This is an example of existentialism because there could be more to the human existence than just birth and death. So far, I think Guildenstern is my favorite character because he is so concerned about the deeper meanings of human existence.
Jaina Shah
ReplyDeletePlayer: Why, we grow rusty and you catch us at the very point of decadence-by this time tomorrow we might have forgotten everything we ever knew. That’s a thought, isn’t it? (He laughs generously.) We’d back where we started –Improvising.(22)
I thought this quote was interesting and relates back to existentialism. This quote talks about how we grow rusty and existentialism also believe in self was born. Beside the point of existentialism, I also thought this quote shows that everyday is new day and people intended to forget past and move on next day. In the end we always belong where we started, without knowing it (destiny).
Derek Decker
ReplyDelete"Well...aren't you going to change into your costume?"
"I never change out of it, sir."
"Always in character."
"That's it." - Guildenstern and the Player, 33-34
This quote relates to the play's theme of existentialism and how life has no purpose that is handed down from a higher power. Here, we can see that the Player finds purpose in his trade. He has a part to play, a costume to wear, entrances and exits, a role in the unfolding drama - all for the entertainment of the masses.
Crystal Nybo
ReplyDelete"Well, he's changed hasn't he...Something more than his father's death. He's always talking about us-there aren't two people living whom he dotes on more than us." pg. 40
This quotes is when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are talking about how Hamlet has changed and how much of it could be to the fact that so many horrible things have happened to him late. They express how Hamlet thinks highly of them and that seemed different to me then in Hamlet. Both wish to find the cause of the madness and fix it. I like this because this idea and look at the situation is way different then the look Hamlet had on the two guys. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a much nicer motive and approach then in the Hamlet play.
Brody Hovatter
ReplyDelete"The scientific approach to the examination of phenomena is a defense against the pure emotion of fear." pg. 17
This is what Guildenstern says to Rosencrantz as they are discussing the reason for their summoning to Denmark. I like this quote because it gives you some insight into the character Guidenstern's personality. It seems as though Guildenstern is constantly coming up with theories and spouts them off to Rosencrantz. It also seems like Guildenstern is smarter, and more of the leader of the two.
Christine Nafziger
ReplyDelete“There was a messenger …. that’s right. We were sent for. Syllogism the second: One, probability is a factor which operates within natural forces. Two, is a factor which operates within natural forces. Two, probability is not operating as a factor. Three, we are now within un-,sub-or supernatural forces.” (pg.17).
This quote is about why Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were sent for. They are trying to figure out the reason that they were sent for. One of the things that they decide is that they are in a other world and they were sent for because of some type of supernatural forces.
Laura Ahlrep
ReplyDeletePlayer: "We keep to our usual stuff, more or less, only inside out. We do on stage the things, that are suppose to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else." (28)
I found this quote quite interesting to myself because of the last line explaining how every exit is an entrance to something/somewhere else. I think that is very true to life with our choices. If we choose to quit one action or commit an action then all the other choices we could of gone along with get closed yet more choices appear. This goes along with the whole existentialism idea that when we make a choice it eliminates all the other choices we could of made, making us who we are today.
Katie Martens
ReplyDeleteGuildenstern: "But we both obey, and here to give up ourselves in the full bent, to lay out service freely at your feet, to be commanded" p 36
When I first read this quote it made me think of the philosophy of human beings, and how some people believe they were put on earth to worship God. In this quote, Guildenstern is saying that he will be commanded by Claudias and do exactly what he is told. This also relates to the book of Hamlet because a theme that continued on throughout that book was Hamlet trying to determine the purpose of life. In terms of existentialism, by Guildenstern saying he will always obey Claudias, he is not making decisions for himself, and therefore these decisions will affect who he becomes in the future.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnna Billmaier
ReplyDelete"All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when soemthing nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque." -Guildenstern
In this, Guildenstern is reflecting on the idea that both he and Rosencrantz don't know, at this point, what part they are playing in the King's scheme to kill Hamlet, yet they chose to follow the King's orders. Even after they realize that their job is to kill Hamlet, they decide to follow along with the King's plans. This plays off of the theme of exestentialism throughout the book, that each decision we make builds our character and makes us who we are. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern chose to follow through with the King's plans and made the choice to betray Hamlet, making them the "bad guys" that they played in Hamlet.
I like this quote because of how it uses the idea that the truth of fate is impossible to grasp and when we get close to grasping it, it becomes an indefinable object.
Gina Chenoweth
ReplyDelete“There is an art to the building up of suspense.” (12)
This is a line said by Guildenstern in the beginning of the story in response to the flipping coins. I thought that it related to Hamlet because that is all that Shakespeare’s works are, the building of suspense and plot twists. It could also be foreshadowing the rest of the story if there is a potential surprise for the reader.
Erik Enselman
ReplyDeleteMy excellent good friends! How dost thou Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Hamlet pg 53
This is the same quote that Hamlet uses in the play Hamlet. He uses this quote the first time that he greets them, which is the same in this play. Also, Hamlet mixes up Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, which seems to happen everytimne they are greeted because they are very similar people. I just think that it is odd that this is the same quote from Hamlet.
Nik Toor
ReplyDelete"Though this be madness, yet there is method in it." (52)
This quote is when Polonius Is talking to Hamlet right before G and R actually talk to Hamlet for the first time in this book. I thought this was an interesting quote because it sounded very similar to something that was said in Hamlet. This quote reflects on Hamlet because he was acting crazy on purpose in his plot in that play.
Tori Weisel
ReplyDelete"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." (38)
I like this quote because I thought it was funny and told the readers something about the characters. This quote relates to the central theme and back to Hamlet because people are always confusing Guildenstern and Rosencrantz because they are always together and talk so similarly.
Mark Galambos
ReplyDelete"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see."
I like this quote because it gives a really good first impression of the Player. He is much different than the Player in Hamelt, Stoppard gives him much more character.
Denisse Manrique
ReplyDelete"Ros: Let me get it straight. Your father was king. You were his only son. Your father dies. You are of age. Your uncle becomes king." p.49
I think that this quote is significant to the book because it explains how the events that occur in Hamlet are tragic. It sums up how sketchy and strange the chain of events made claudius the king. It also shows how the decision that king claudius made to kill old king hamlet and marry the queen changed not only his life but hamlet, guildensterns, and rosencrantz, If Claudius hadn't killed the king hamlet wouldnt have had to act crazy and rosencrantz and guildenstern wouldnt have been called for.
Brian Gleadle
ReplyDeleteGuil: "A weaker man might be moved to reexamine his faith, if in nothing else, at least the law of probability."
This quote comes after Rosencrantz flips a Heads with a coin 76 times straight. This is significant because its setting up the rest of the book and is setting this seen as a comedic yet thought provoking passage. I liked this line because, after flipping a Head that many times, one really would have to call into question the law of probability because the possibility of doing that is (1/75557863725914323419136)which is ridiculous, plus he continues on to get Heads 92 times which is (1/4951760157141521099596496896) chance. WHICH IS INSANE!
"Exactly, it's about asking the right questions and giving away as little as we can. It's a game." -Guildenstern Pg. 40
ReplyDeleteI liked this line because Guildenstern gets to the heart of manipulation in just two sentences. It is also ironic because it seems as if everything that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do in the play is a game. The lines go along with the theme that "everything is a game".
This relates to Hamlet because Hamlet was constantly trying to manipulate people by asking the right questions and not giving anything away. For him it also seemed like some sort of revenge game that he was playing. What Guildenstern says in those lines is something that sounds like it could've been said by Hamlet himself.
Dan McMillan
ReplyDelete"I think I have it. A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself"- Guildenstern
I like this line because Guildenstern is making a good point. I feel that talking sense to yourself is the opposite of talking nonsense not to yourself.
I could see how these lines could somewhat relate back to Hamlet becasue Hamlet always makes sense of things in his head yet to others he speaks nonsense if it doesnt make sense to him at all.
Maxx Forde
ReplyDelete"Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past." (Guildenstern)
I thought that this quote was rather profound, and a little difficult to wrap the head around. To me, what this is saying is that things have already been decided to be a certain way and that although he tries and believes he can do something about it, his efforts are fruitless. This ties into that idea of existentialism as it is acknowledged that things are set to be a certain way. It is talking about how fate cannot be escaped.
April Dick
ReplyDelete"The equanimity of your average tosser of coins depends upon a law, or rather a tendency, or let us say a probability, or at any rate a mathematically calculable chance, which ensures that he will not upset himself by losing too much nor upset his opponent by winning too often." -Guildenstern (pg. 18)
Guildenstern is referring to how people base much of their life on probability by saying they ensure they won't upset themself by losing to much or upsetting their opponent by winning too much. This piece of Guildenstern's soliloquy contributes to the theme of existentialist absurdity because people's rationale can be based off of probability which Stoppard considers absurd.
Breanna Taylor
ReplyDelete"Good. Year of your birth. Double it. Even numbers I win, odd numbers I lose." -Guil 31
I liked the irony of this statement as all numbers doubled come out to be even. It is a tricky way to win and clever, which is why I liked it. It also goes with the irony of the story as they face death in this play but alas, it is only a play so either way they aren't really going to die, their characters are.