Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead
by Tom Stoppard, Fay Kanin, Michael Kanin, Bernhard Reitz · first published 1967
60% recommend40% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A witty, absurdist play that riffs on Hamlet from the minor characters' point of view, packed with wordplay and physical humor. Its treatment of death stands out, and it rewards being read aloud.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eve view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. In Tom Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.
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…"Shooting an elephant" and "A hanging" Stendahl: Red and Black James Joyce: A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man Andre Dumas: The Three Musketeers Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead I'll shut up, except to say that although I agree with some of the people on the thread that reading "great books" just because they're considered great is stupid, these books were all a joy. I remember…
on “Becoming "well read"” ↗Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard. This is a hilariously clever play so packed with verbal and physical humor that you almost have to read it aloud to yourself and move about your own living room to fully digest it. It explores…
on “Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?” ↗Tom Stoppard is an amazing playright. Arcadia and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are two of the greatest plays.
on “Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (2009)” ↗This discussion really reminds me of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which has the best view of death I've ever encountered. A specific line stands out: > No, no, no… Death is… not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. Well, perhaps…
on “Death is not the end: video games wrecked my idea of mortality” ↗If we're going to start discussing fan fiction, we should mention the best: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ROSENCRANTZ-GUILDENSTERN-ARE-DEAD-S...
on “My ranking of every Shakespeare play” ↗Almost everyone here will have seen a movie he was the screenwriter for or contributed to: Shakespeare in Love, Brazil, Empire of the Sun, even bits of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A lot of folks here will have read either Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead or Arcadia, which are still probably his best plays, and certainly the best introduction to his work. I personally also really like
on “Tom Stoppard has died” ↗And Tom Stoppard with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
on “Researchers find evidence of ChatGPT buzzwords turning up in everyday speech” ↗…grapple with their predecessors. Some of the truly great works have explicitly (through content or structure or character) had to kill off the Bard. Heck, one of my favorite plays is, "Rosencranz and Guildenstern are dead," which very clearly is killing off Shakespeare's characters. Not to say there isn't some truth in the article, but that the author seems to mistakenly believe that software is totally different than…
on “For the good of software, software must die” ↗…though. Has there ever been any major fan fiction work hailed as literary worthy? Maybe you'll find one or two examples. I doubt you'll find ten. Wide Sargasso Sea, Coetzee's Foe, and Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead all come immediately to mind. Re-imagining another author's work is a common enough tactic that I'd bet it wouldn't be very hard to find 10 excellent examples of literary fanfic. You might be able to…
on “Houston, We Have A Public Domain Problem” ↗Reminds me of the start of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead”, great absurdist play. https://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain...
on “Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?” ↗…Branagh's Henry V. * I actually like Mel Gibson's Hamlet. * Almost any Midsummer's Night Dream. It's just a fun play, even kids can enjoy it. * The Coen Bros' Macbeth on AppleTV * Rosencrantx and Guildenstern are Dead. Hamlet, but exits are entrances.
on “My ranking of every Shakespeare play” ↗I wrote an extended essay on “Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in high school… 1998-1999 period. I loved his screenplays even though I’m not a great fan of theatre in general. 88 is a ripe old age but it’s still deeply saddening.
on “Tom Stoppard has died” ↗> “Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead” I love that movie. Never got to see it on stage though, which I've read was superior.
on “Tom Stoppard has died” ↗Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a play by Tom Stoppard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosencrantz_and_Guildenstern_A... The 'There must have been a moment..." quote is from the play. However it is a very ironic play, and it's been…
on “Languages Which Almost Became CSS” ↗…https://web.archive.org/web/19970617084520/http://www.suck.c... For Goldhaber and Braun, we recall the line of Guildenstern in coming out the losers in a game of princes and kings from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: "There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said - no."
on “Ask HN: Who Is Firing?” ↗