Summary
Hamlet claims to be mad only when the wind blows from
a certain direction, a statement that thoroughly puzzles Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern. Polonius comes in to say that the Tragedians have arrived,
and Hamlet and Polonius leave. Shyly, Guildenstern tells Rosencrantz
that he thinks they made some headway into figuring out why Hamlet
has been acting so strangely lately. But Rosencrantz angrily states
that they have learned nothing from talking to Hamlet, because Hamlet
beat them at their question-and-answer game. While Hamlet answered
just three questions, he asked twenty-seven. The answers he gave
were alternatively sarcastic and enigmatic, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
learned nothing and thus cannot conclude whether Hamlet is actually
mad. They then spend several minutes trying to figure out the direction
of the wind, with Rosencrantz playfully offering to lick Guildenstern’s
finger. Guildenstern angrily passes on Rosencrantz’s offer, then
muses that the pair are simply cogs in fate’s machine. Rosencrantz
flips a coin but does not tell Guildenstern whether the coin was
heads or tails.
Polonius enters with Hamlet and the Tragedians. Hamlet announces
that tomorrow the Tragedians will be performing a play, The
Murder of Gonzago. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern cryptically greet
the Player with a series of one-liners about words, but the Player
irritably responds by accusing the pair of abandoning his group
on the side of the road. That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern left
the actors without an audience deeply wounded the Player and his
men. As actors, the Player explains, their very identity depends on
whether someone is observing.
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player discuss the
play to be performed tomorrow, as well as possible causes for Hamlet’s
behavior and purported madness. The Player advises the two men to
“act natural,” because not knowing one’s place in the world is an
ordinary, natural feeling. The three men reach no conclusions about Hamlet,
and the Player leaves to memorize his lines. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
begin discussing death, specifically what happens when someone dies.
Rosencrantz considers life as one long march toward death, but then
he begins to despair over his lack of influence, having failed to
summon someone into the room to be interrogated by the pair. A group
enters.
Analysis
Stoppard uses the characters of and interaction between
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to make judgments about the figures
of “male buddies” so present in popular culture. While Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are not necessarily homosexual, their playful interaction
points to an ongoing flirtation between the two friends. Rosencrantz,
in particular, seems to enjoy baiting and teasing Guildenstern,
playfully luring his friend into verbal traps. For his part, Guildenstern
willingly starts conversations, although he knows that the answers
Rosencrantz gives to his questions will probably frustrate him.
Their interaction follows a familiar pattern of male duos in popular
culture: one partner has a somewhat wild and crazy personality,
while the other tends to have a more staid, stable demeanor, as
in the Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour movies,
for example, or in the routines performed by Laurel and Hardy. The non-jokey
partner is often referred to as the “straight man.” Whereas Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern both express an interest in the Player’s sexual
propositions, here Rosencrantz makes a direct sexual overture to
Guildenstern when he offers to lick his friend’s finger to determine
the direction of the wind. Guildenstern usually plays the “straight
man” to the dreamier, sillier Rosencrantz. Through this interaction,
Stoppard forces his readers to closely examine the push-pull undertones
that might be at work between “male buddies.”
As characters, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player
illustrate the slippery nature of identity. The Player appears to
be the only person capable of differentiating Rosencrantz from Guildenstern,
even though he never addresses either man by name. Nevertheless,
more than any other character, the Player understands that identity
can be manipulated and altered. As he explained in Act I, the Player
always stays in character, never taking off his costume. Still,
as an actor, he needs an audience to fully assume his identity,
a reminder that people distinctly influence the identity of other
people. Without an audience, an actor cannot be an actor. Without someone
to interrogate, Rosencrantz cannot remain assertive and angry, as
he has been since Hamlet left the scene. Hamlet might truly be insane,
or he might enjoy confusing his two friends, since they are so easily
confused. The Player tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to “act
natural,” an attempt to reassure the confused men that nobody really
knows who he or she is, precisely because identity is so flexible and
so dependent on other forces. Depending on the circumstances and
company, people act differently and thereby assume different identities.
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