Hey /lit/.
What are some passages or literary devices that show the theme of 'the meaning of life' in ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead''.
>Plis halp.
Ah, the daily 'crossboarder wants us to do his homework' thread
smells like teen homework
>>7393347
Oh it's COLLEGE
Well that makes all the difference
>>7393347
why are you trying to pass an exam in something you don't want to learn which you have no aptitude for? that's probably the meaning of your life
>>7393361
Part of the core program. Need to pass English to study bio, which I truly like.
Also, I'm reading the book right now, at page 13. I've got this thread open in case I miss anything along the way.
>>7393354
Ooh ouch zow
Read Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus and Beckett's Waiting for Godot and you'll be able to grasp Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pretty well.
You're welcome.
>>7393396
I'd also add Plato's The Republic.
I think I'm starting to get a picture of the book, tell me if I'm wrong.
Is R&G's meaning of life that it is just up to fate?
>Coin flips
>Chance encounter with the payer and discussion about faith
>Guildenstern trying to convince himself that he has influence over the court
Or is it that we are all just figments of one another's imaginations?
>R&G can't remember anything before the start of the play
>Speech about the unicorns and how the more people witness them, the less their existence is significant, as they just become part of everyday reality.
>>7393396
>>7393404
Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't think I'll have time to read all of them. I sort of know what Waiting for Godot's about, I'll be on the lookout for similarities.
>>7393416
I doubt anyone here has read it tbqh.
>>7393426
but stoppard is such fun, why would you not?
>>7393431
It seams like it. I didn't think I'd be enjoying this play as much as I am.
>>7393431
Because it sounds like fanfiction of Hamlet.
>>7393433
He's much more relatable than Shakespeare for modern audiences. Someone who actually likes Shakespeare explaining Shakespeare to you is always better, like how when performers know what their lines mean, they sound much better than the performances where they just learnt the gobbledygook by rote.
>>7393434
...you know Hamlet is fanfiction of the Elizabethan fanfiction of Danish myth, right? I bet you feel better you read none of them now.
How about this one. For artists, art is their life.
>Express what they see and what they live, as well as the world's reality through it. eg.: prostitution scene
>The player is always in character meaning that life for him is one constant play. & that his plays are also his life.
>The fact that R&G couldn't remember anything before they were awakened by the messenger actually means that their life begun at the beginning of the play.
>>7393416
>>7393416
I was pulling your leg with the recommendations. They're legitimate, but obviously you won't read them if you're already asking for help here.
I'll put you on the right track though: it's absurdism. Running theme in absurdism is the inability for man to change the world around him and the uncaring nature of that world. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin to become aware of the fact that they're in a play and try for awhile to change it, but eventually resign themselves to it. Compare to Sisyphus, who has to push the big rock up the hill while it rolls back every time it nears the top anyway. It's pointless, but that doesn't mean it's meaningless.
>>7393636
Alright, thanks for the help.
>>7393636
Fate is a huge part of absurdism, right?
>«Wheels have been set in motion, and they have their own pace, to which we are... condemned. Each move is dictated by the previous one- that is the meaning of order. If we start being arbitrary it'll just be a shambles: at least, let us hope so. Because if we happened, just happened to discover, or even suspect, that our spontaneity was part of their order, we'd know that we were lost.»
