Open Prompt Part Two: 2004

2004 Prompt: Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

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     Often there is more to a question than simply an answer. Many questions go unanswered in Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the most important of them being the question of the purpose of life itself. Stoppard leaves this question of purpose unanswered, however, depending on the audience's interpretation of religious influence, a variety of answers can be offered after the curtains fall. Throughout the journey of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two henchmen of Hamlet's Denmark, the motif of inquisition embodies the wonder of the common man through the conclusions he forms and the uncertainty of his free will and place in the world. 

     One simple-minded and adventurous, the other power-assuming and arrogant, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern work together to characterize the image of human nature as well as the common man in the audience. At the beginning the play they are already traveling but they do not remember where they are going or why. As they try to remember the events of that morning, when someone had come to call them to Elsinore, the audience is given a distinct impression of their out-of-control lifestyle. Later, when they arrive in Elsinore, they are literally thrown into the middle of the scene between Hamlet and Ophelia in her bed-chamber. Apart from being inserted here and there into various scenes of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, a vast majority of the play consists of arbitrary wandering "off-stage", where the characters feed off of each other's disillusion and inquisition. Asking questions, exploring, and forming ideas, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern actively seek for an answer to the question of their purpose. It is not until they are on the ship to England that they directly address this question, and even there, at the threshold of death, they are forced to accept their undetermined fate. The title of the play gives the audience a predestined fate for the two characters, much like how the only guarantee one can find in their life is death. Similarly, death is the only thing that two people for certain will have in common, and is ironically the biggest uncertainty that humans encounter collectively. 

     Although there is not much to go on for the discussion of Tom Stoppard's religious influences in the text, two clear theological paths can be applied to the play. If God plays a large role in the actions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and their paths toward their deaths, then the conclusion of limited free will can be made. Much like how Rosencrantz explored the boundaries of the sides on the boat to England, life allows free will to be expressed across the open deck, but in the end God still brings His boat of life to Death's dock. This idea of Providence and predestination is a clear possibility that Stoppard was getting at, however, something that should not be over looked is the motif of repetition in the play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are actors. When the play is over, they are not really dead, and the theater box rattles along down the road to put on another show. This being said, the second option of interpretation could be that there is no God giving direction through Providence, but rather that unrestrained free will and circumstance control the life of an individual. This closely aligns with Existentialism, a common influence found in the literary works f Tom Stoppard's time. 

     Stoppard leaves this question of purpose unanswered a la fin. What is the point if we all end up re-living the same life over again, like the actors, and all our memories and relationships become meaningless and lost with death. Likewise, what is the purpose of following God's path if we are confined to His free-will and are unable to reach beyond the boundaries of Providence? The purpose of this play was not to create cynics of the world. Yes, it may have been written by a cynic, but the overall meaning of the play was left frayed and unraveled to force the audience to dig deep and consider their life's purpose as well as to force them to face the inevitability of death and what their life will mean when they arrive.