42 pages • 1 hour read
Tom StoppardRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Coins
Arguably the most powerful reoccurring symbol in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, coins signify many different concepts throughout the play. First and foremost, they symbolize absurdity. In the beginning of the play, every coin Guildenstern tosses lands on heads and defies the law of probability, which states that a coin should have “an even chance” of landing on heads or tails (8). The break in the law of probability cannot be explained by reason, and therefore coins are absurd elements within the play that come to represent the concept of absurdity as a whole.
Coins are also double-sided, which allows them to represent duality. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead features several dualities, such as the dichotomies between fate and chance, rationality and absurdity, acting and watching, intrigue and disgust, and sanity and insanity. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern also have dual natures; Guildenstern fluctuates between being sensible and being emotive while Rosencrantz is both optimistic and anxious.
Finally, coins grant Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a sense of comfort. The protagonists use coins to play games that cheer them up and pass the time amidst the chaos surrounding them. Thus, they symbolize a reprieve from absurdity, though they are absurdities themselves.
The Boat
The boat in Act III symbolizes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s passivity and surrender to fate. Early in the act, Guildenstern remarks, “Yes, I’m very fond of boats myself. I like the way they’re—contained. You don’t have to worry about which way to go, or whether to go at all—the question doesn’t arise because you’re on a boat, aren’t you?” (92). To him, a boat promises a desirable luxury: passivity. Boats carry passengers to their destination without forcing them to make any serious choices. Furthermore, once on a boat, one is “free to move, speak, extemporize” without being fully “cut loose” (93). Boats offer an illusion of freedom to those who are agonized by the thought of actual freedom.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have resigned themselves from making decisions, as the metaphorical boat of destiny transports them towards England, where they meet a grisly end. The false security offered by the boat allows them to believe that they “can do what [they] like and say what [they] like to whomever [they] like, without restriction” (107). Nevertheless, they have no say in where the boat goes and whether they live or die. The boat’s trajectory from Denmark—where the play begins and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are “born”—to England—where they die—reflects Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s passive trajectory from birth to death. Rosencrantz is therefore very astute to wonder if “death could possibly be on a boat” (100).
Barrels
The barrels in Act III symbolize novelty and randomness. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern first take interest in the barrels when they hear the hidden Tragedians’ music coming from inside them. Bored of the boat’s predictability, both protagonists welcome the music coming from the barrels as a reprieve from mundanity and a possible sign that their luck may change. Guildenstern muses, “Out of the void, finally, a sound; while on a boat (admittedly) outside (admittedly) the perfect and absolute silence of the wet lazy slap of water against water and the rolling creek of timber—breaks […] A thing like that could change the course of events” (104). The Tragedians’ unexpected appearance in the barrels suggests that spontaneity may exist in the deterministic universe of the play.
When pirates ambush the ship, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, the Player, and Hamlet hide in the barrels. The lights “dim to nothing while the sound of fighting continues” (109). After the pirates exit, the lights come back on, revealing the absence of the middle barrel and Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player in different barrels than before. This moment further exhibits the absurdity and randomness of the play’s universe.
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By Tom Stoppard
