-
Looking for HSC notes and resources? Check out our Notes & Resources page
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern.... (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Loz#1
- Start date
Buy the excel book
I bought the RAGAD and Hamlet excel book and i strongly recommend that you buy it. It explains the transformation between the two plays and the various themes, and makes some of the concepts in RAGAD easier to understand such as the theatre of the absurd.
I bought the RAGAD and Hamlet excel book and i strongly recommend that you buy it. It explains the transformation between the two plays and the various themes, and makes some of the concepts in RAGAD easier to understand such as the theatre of the absurd.
Remember that the topic is transformations, and a central theme of the module is to explore the changes in the context in which both texts were written, and how they're reflected in the text. Look at the differences between Hamlet & Ros and Guil, and how they reflect context.
As to the play itself, that point (as I see it) is largely that Ros and Guil keep trying to control everything, they try to understand what's going on (particularly with regard to Guil trying to understand death), yet at the end of the day, they are insignificant, they are nothing - they are all of us, and we are nothing. There's no grand plan, just here and now, and even then, we'll never figure out what's going on.
As to the play itself, that point (as I see it) is largely that Ros and Guil keep trying to control everything, they try to understand what's going on (particularly with regard to Guil trying to understand death), yet at the end of the day, they are insignificant, they are nothing - they are all of us, and we are nothing. There's no grand plan, just here and now, and even then, we'll never figure out what's going on.
kini mini
Active Member
The Excel book is a good starting point I agree, it has a good overview of the points you need to understand this transformations topic . I'm willing to post my notes and material on this but it would be better if you read them after you'd formed your own opinion.
. I'm willing to post my notes and material on this but it would be better if you read them after you'd formed your own opinion.
Ragerunner
Your friendly HSC guide
when reading the ending of that book i am confused at it.
like R&G read the letter that they instead are going to be executed yet they still carry the mission to execute themselves ? weird.
you should watch the video. its pretty hilarious
like R&G read the letter that they instead are going to be executed yet they still carry the mission to execute themselves ? weird.
you should watch the video. its pretty hilarious
Also (and this is just my opinion), it's also the realisation that the only fate in their lives is that they live and die - that "the only beginning is birth, and the only end is death". The idea that, though death is a deal, and not something to be made light of, it's inevitable, and that to delay it would be merely to continue their purposeless existance - Ros says at the end that "to tell you the truth, I'm relieved", or something of the sort.
It's a weird mix of having no control, yet in a practical sense, having a great degree of control, a paradox that serves only to highlight that lack of control.
![+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+](/data/avatars/m/2/2831.jpg?1559318848){kind=avatar}
+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+
Jaded Member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2003
- Messages
- 898
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2003
Originally posted by Ragerunner
when reading the ending of that book i am confused at it.
like R&G read the letter that they instead are going to be executed yet they still carry the mission to execute themselves ? weird.
you should watch the video. its pretty hilarious
they can't NOT carry on with the mission...
it's already been determined in the play Hamlet that they're gonna die, and they can't change that. (how can you change the past)
kinda cute.. for them, it's their future, yet it's already happened so it's in the past.. ah well... =)
i think the dramatic irony there is quite important; they're so lost and helpless and directionless on stage, but we know that they're in a play with a predermined ending. The Player also knows he's in a play, but he's more accepting of that fact, so he cruises through life more easily...
Constip8edSkunk
Joga Bonito
yep, i think apart from portraying a lack of control on their behalf and their preordained fate, R & G is "relieved" coz they are finally able to escape their confussion and lack of direction portrayed throughout the play. It is an release. The letter finally gives them a purpose and direction; something which they can hold on2 and can comprehend - contrasting wif all the shakespearean muddle in which they are totally out of depth
bookboy18
Knight of the PIGhood
I just read up on existentialism and its beliefs
God, talk about depressing. No wonder so many people commit suicide with these beliefs running around.
God, talk about depressing. No wonder so many people commit suicide with these beliefs running around.
Constip8edSkunk
Joga Bonito
JOHNNY!!!!
Yep, It's Matrix Reloaded alright