Rosencratz & Guildenstern Are Dead
?Theres a divinity that shapes our ends,? is a theme that echoes through most of the Shakespearean play Hamlet and the new contemporary piece of work by Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Free will, as a concept, is discussed very existentially in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead since the whole play takes place in the midst of Hamlet itself, and thus Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are unable to actually break free of the destiny assigned to them by Shakespeare. Hamlet, himself a character in a play, enjoys a more free range of choices and decisions with which to shape his destiny, and these choices pre-dermine the path of other characters in the play.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, themselves actors, are able to discuss their options, and possible scenarios which they could take, but since they are bound by what Shakespeare wrote and pre-dermined for them, they have to follow that exact path.
Ros: How very intriguing! I fee like a spectator-an appalling business. The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come in a minute. (pg. 40)
While discussing passerby?s, Rosencrantz hits upon the very same dilemma that overhangs them throughout the whole play. They are
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