Rosencrantz & Guildenstern.... (1 Viewer)

[Loz#1]

What is the point? I find the play funny & I am enjoying it, but what is going on? It's confusing!

 

[lbft]

I've only read about the first 30 pages and it's quite confusing..

Has anybody read the Excel Hamlet/Ros&Guil guide? Is it any good?

 

[Beanie]

Buy the excel book

I bought the RAGAD and Hamlet excel book and i strongly recommend that you buy it. It explains the transformation between the two plays and the various themes, and makes some of the concepts in RAGAD easier to understand such as the theatre of the absurd.

 

[pranks85]

Remember that the topic is transformations, and a central theme of the module is to explore the changes in the context in which both texts were written, and how they're reflected in the text. Look at the differences between Hamlet & Ros and Guil, and how they reflect context.

As to the play itself, that point (as I see it) is largely that Ros and Guil keep trying to control everything, they try to understand what's going on (particularly with regard to Guil trying to understand death), yet at the end of the day, they are insignificant, they are nothing - they are all of us, and we are nothing. There's no grand plan, just here and now, and even then, we'll never figure out what's going on.

 

[kini mini]

The Excel book is a good starting point I agree, it has a good overview of the points you need to understand this transformations topic . I'm willing to post my notes and material on this but it would be better if you read them after you'd formed your own opinion.

 

[Ragerunner]

when reading the ending of that book i am confused at it.

like R&G read the letter that they instead are going to be executed yet they still carry the mission to execute themselves ? weird.

you should watch the video. its pretty hilarious

 

[ezzy85]

Originally posted by Ragerunner


you should watch the video. its pretty hilarious

ye, good actors. (especially tim roth and richard dreyfuss.)

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by Ragerunner
like R&G read the letter that they instead are going to be executed yet they still carry the mission to execute themselves ? weird.

well u'll soon understand why
its do to with their helplessness and lack of power/control
their deaths were "written"

 

[pranks85]

Originally posted by Minai


well u'll soon understand why
its do to with their helplessness and lack of power/control
their deaths were "written"

Also (and this is just my opinion), it's also the realisation that the only fate in their lives is that they live and die - that "the only beginning is birth, and the only end is death". The idea that, though death is a deal, and not something to be made light of, it's inevitable, and that to delay it would be merely to continue their purposeless existance - Ros says at the end that "to tell you the truth, I'm relieved", or something of the sort.

It's a weird mix of having no control, yet in a practical sense, having a great degree of control, a paradox that serves only to highlight that lack of control.

 

[+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+]

Originally posted by Ragerunner
when reading the ending of that book i am confused at it.

like R&G read the letter that they instead are going to be executed yet they still carry the mission to execute themselves ? weird.

you should watch the video. its pretty hilarious

they can't NOT carry on with the mission...
it's already been determined in the play Hamlet that they're gonna die, and they can't change that. (how can you change the past)
kinda cute.. for them, it's their future, yet it's already happened so it's in the past.. ah well... =)

i think the dramatic irony there is quite important; they're so lost and helpless and directionless on stage, but we know that they're in a play with a predermined ending. The Player also knows he's in a play, but he's more accepting of that fact, so he cruises through life more easily...

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

Originally posted by pranks85


Also (and this is just my opinion), it's also the realisation that the only fate in their lives is that they live and die - that "the only beginning is birth, and the only end is death". The idea that, though death is a deal, and not something to be made light of, it's inevitable, and that to delay it would be merely to continue their purposeless existance - Ros says at the end that "to tell you the truth, I'm relieved", or something of the sort.

It's a weird mix of having no control, yet in a practical sense, having a great degree of control, a paradox that serves only to highlight that lack of control.

yep, i think apart from portraying a lack of control on their behalf and their preordained fate, R & G is "relieved" coz they are finally able to escape their confussion and lack of direction portrayed throughout the play. It is an release. The letter finally gives them a purpose and direction; something which they can hold on2 and can comprehend - contrasting wif all the shakespearean muddle in which they are totally out of depth

 

[Newbie]

johnny !

its.....me.......JOHNNY!
w00t


anyway
matrix2 is pretty useful for RandG

 

[Loz#1]

Sweet, so you reckon the Excel book is worth me buying it? Coz if it helps, i'll buy it.

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by pranks85
It's a weird mix of having no control, yet in a practical sense, having a great degree of control, a paradox that serves only to highlight that lack of control.

I like that
I would've used that in my essay last yr

Loz: The excel is definately worth buying, it basically points u to how u should structure ur essay on this module

 

[bookboy18]

I just read up on existentialism and its beliefs

God, talk about depressing. No wonder so many people commit suicide with these beliefs running around.

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

JOHNNY!!!!

It's a weird mix of having no control, yet in a practical sense, having a great degree of control, a paradox that serves only to highlight that lack of control.

Yep, It's Matrix Reloaded alright