Bridge to

Science

This bridge is perhaps the least commonly seen bridge from literature, yet often it is the strongest one. The bridge from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is no exception. The fact that in the coin flipping game the coin always lands on heads is a blatant statement about science in general. We can say that a coin consistently landing on heads is a huge improbability. If a large enough sample were taken, the results would violate the First Law of Thermodynamics, which says that everything in the universe tends to proceed from a more ordered state, to a less ordered state unless energy is applied. In other words, the coin would only always land on heads if Rosencrantz or Guildenstern had turned it to heads during every toss. Looking back on this last statement, we see that this argument is totally irrelevant and ridiculous, but a closer inspection gives us insight into science in general.

Science tends to make rules about the world based on observation. For instance, we may say "if we flip a coin, it will always land on heads," or, more realistically, "if we drop an apple, it will fall to the earth with an acceleration of -9.8 meters per second per second." The point is that scientists use the world around them to make assumptions about how everything works. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a definite scientific aspect about them. They are constantly observing, and by their observations alone, they try to figure out exactly how the world works. In doing this, they deny anything that is not physically manifest. The most prevalent denial is that of a God or afterlife. In contrast to Hamlet, which is filled with references to God, Hell, and ghosts, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern know nothing of the metaphysical. Religion often offers an eternal life after death, whereas Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not have this eternal life and, therefore, are both spiritually dead now, and will soon be eternally dead. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are true scientists, who will not accept anything that is not physical and will immediately accept anything shown experimentally as gospel until it is disproved. Their irreverence for the power of nature leads to the fact that they are dead, because they must themselves believe that they are puppets of the universe. Stoppard shows us how incredibly ridiculous their view of the world is in their postulate that a coin will always land on heads when flipped. He portrays Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as feathers floating in the wind. Unlike Hamlet, who was constantly trying to shape reality, their view of the world caused them to be completely helpless in any environment. Stoppard shows us that even the most dedicated scientist must admit that it is would be folly to assume that everything in the universe, including ourselves, runs like clockwork. Just because we have never seen an apple fall up, we must have faith that anything is possible, otherwise we are dead like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Bridging back to history, we can look at what scientific developments were happening when Stoppard wrote the play. World War II had just ended and Stoppard had seen weapons of mass destruction come about. Due to the onset of the Cold War, humanity was able to destroy itself with its stockpile of I.C.B.M.s. Groups of scientist gathered together, focusing only on reality and what is, and created one of the most Godless devices ever conceived. In the words of Ian Malcom from Jurassic Park, "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think about whether or not they should." Debating about the rights of a teacher to introduce students to the concept of evolution and the Big Bang also came about in Stoppard's time. Scientific observation was tearing apart the fabric of religion, much as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern denied a Supreme Being or a purpose in life.