Home

Beckett

Camus

Dostoevsky

Ionesco

Sartre

Stoppard

Links

Quotes

Although not an existentialist writer, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead certainly illustrates existentialist thought. His theater of the absurd coincides on many levels with existentialist philosophy.

Theater of the absurd asks, "is there meaning in my existence?" while existentialism retorts, "human existence is replete with lack of fulfillment, emptiness, and frustration." Stoppard ingrains humor into his play as he explores this concept of man’s meaningless. The characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern basically dally around on stage aloof of the murderous turmoil that has erupted. C. E. Bigsby, critic of Stoppard, notes that "Man, in other words, is a minor character in a drama which he cannot understand." To the existentialist, Ros and Guil are men leading purposeless lives and who strive for no goals. At the moment of death, Guil notes that his life has amounted to nothing: "But why, was it all for this?"

Existentialism also emphasizes individual choice, and Stoppard’s theater of the absurd is bound to make any of Ros and Guil’s choices meaningless. On the boat to England, Ros and Guil make a choice to jump in a barrel, but they still end up arriving in England to die; they have an existentialist individual freedom of choice (movement on the boat) and an existentialist meaningless life that is unalterable (the boat’s course).

Existentialism suggests that choice is always possible, and Stoppard’s theater of the absurd again mocks man’s choices. Ros and Guil’s coin always lands on tails despite their choice to always choose heads. This again shows that their lives are meaningless and they accomplish nothing through their choices.