R & G / Hamlet; sub-arguments HELP (1 Viewer)

[InsanityFreedom]

We were given this essay question:

While both plays examine the human condition, it is 'Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead' that most effectively portrays the nature of 'real' life through its absurdist context. Do you agree?

Can someone help me with my sub-arguments, please????!!!

 

[wuddie]

this has been a while for me, but i did study these books for my hsc. quite funny really.

i would advise you to go against that question and seek a balanced view on the two texts. while r+g makes a mockery of hamlet the play, i fail to see how that portrays 'real' life in any further degree than hamlet does.

i am refer you to my associate, bobness (that's his nick on bos), he is an expert in english literature. ask him.

 

[RubyJBrown]

Have a look at my thread which has dot point notes on R&G and Hamlet. It has notes both for and against this arguement. Called "Notes on Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". It discusses form, structure, issues and values portrayed in both texts and how they represent the respective contexts.

Hope this helps

 

[scaredytiger]

R&G makes reference to the way Hamlet is all fanfare. it is declaimatory(sp?) theatre, and has grand speeches, such as soliloquies to add emphasis to events. and Hamlet has three long speeches before he dies.

in contrast, ros and guil are much less "theatrical" in a sense. they wait around, talking in normal speech, trying to work out what is going on, and playing games to pass the time. and when they die, they fade from the stage, like a person fades from existence in the memories of the ones who loved them.

hope that helps.

 

[Bobness]

We were given this essay question:

While both plays examine the human condition, it is 'Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead' that most effectively portrays the nature of 'real' life through its absurdist context. Do you agree?

Can someone help me with my sub-arguments, please????!!!

HAHAHA i never saw this post many months ago, so while it may be too late to be of any help for the OP (although trials are fast approaching for most), hopefully other students can benefit.

Apart from the points you may address in your essay (which other posters in thread have covered quite well), to most succintly answer the question you would want to use the 'counter-intuitive' method which wuddie helpfully identified.

Ie say how Hamlet also portrays the nature of 'real' life due to the universal values and attitudes of hierarchy, philosophical perspectives towards life and death, and the expansive view of human life and its significance central to Renaissance humanism. (Note: both texts have these universal values, as well as context-specific issues such as a God-ordained identity supported by the Great Chain of Being in Hamlet).

However, also (seemingly paradoxically) Ros&Guil portrays the reality of life (notice how i've changed around the key words - this is what is needed in effective topic sentences) by exploring existentialist concerns within an absurdist framework. Kierkegaard's meditations upon nihilism resonate with the actual state of affairs in Stoppard's context, where this philosophy acts as a vehicle for our contemplations of human psyche and self. It functions also as a mirror (using another analogy) that reflects the postmodern view of loss of meaning, breakdown in social structures and fragmentation of language.

Essentially, both texts explore the question to varying degrees.