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Theo Logos's Reviews > Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by
by
Theo Logos's review
bookshelves: plays, audiobooks, read-more-than-once, reviewed, favorites
May 27, 2017
bookshelves: plays, audiobooks, read-more-than-once, reviewed, favorites
Read 2 times. Last read March 7, 2023 to March 10, 2023.
“One must think of the future.�
“It’s the normal thing.�
“To have one. One is, after all, having it all the time. Now. And now. And now.�
“It could go on forever � well, not forever, I suppose.�
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is absurd and profound. It’s tragic and comic. Its actors are idiot philosophers sparing over meaning, identity, purpose and death, and finding only the last. In other words, this play is a fairly good mirror of life. All the world’s a stage and all that.
“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us with nothing to show our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke and a presumption that once our eyes watered.�
Our protagonist are two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, aware only of their petty roles, lacking any other awareness or knowledge of what is going on around them. Between their scenes on stage, they use rapid fire word play jousting with each other and other minor characters (the players) trying vainly to deduce meaning and purpose, and to struggle against the determinism of their roles. Yet the grim truth of play’s ending is inexorable.
“No! It is not enough to be told so little, to such an end, and still finally to be denied an explanation.�
“It’s the normal thing.�
“To have one. One is, after all, having it all the time. Now. And now. And now.�
“It could go on forever � well, not forever, I suppose.�
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is absurd and profound. It’s tragic and comic. Its actors are idiot philosophers sparing over meaning, identity, purpose and death, and finding only the last. In other words, this play is a fairly good mirror of life. All the world’s a stage and all that.
“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us with nothing to show our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke and a presumption that once our eyes watered.�
Our protagonist are two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, aware only of their petty roles, lacking any other awareness or knowledge of what is going on around them. Between their scenes on stage, they use rapid fire word play jousting with each other and other minor characters (the players) trying vainly to deduce meaning and purpose, and to struggle against the determinism of their roles. Yet the grim truth of play’s ending is inexorable.
“No! It is not enough to be told so little, to such an end, and still finally to be denied an explanation.�
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Reading Progress
August 8, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
August 8, 2016
– Shelved
August 8, 2016
– Shelved as:
plays
May 23, 2017
–
Started Reading
May 27, 2017
–
Finished Reading
March 7, 2023
–
Started Reading
March 7, 2023
– Shelved as:
audiobooks
March 7, 2023
– Shelved as:
read-more-than-once
March 10, 2023
– Shelved as:
reviewed
March 10, 2023
–
Finished Reading
March 26, 2023
– Shelved as:
favorites
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Sheryl, I jotted down so many quotes that the hardest part of writing the review was picking between them. The play is a goldmine of wit.
😉