1. Why open with a stupid game of chance? With a gambling game? A child's game? A game of simple statistics . . . that doesn't go very statistically?
2. Why is so much of this story surreal? So unbelievable? Beyond assigning it merely to the genre of Absurdism, which in itself, of course, is just a name, a genre, a device, . . . WHY does Stoppard do this? And all this obfuscation and abstraction from characters who are two very normal fellows from a normal, linear, straight-forward classic like Hamlet?
3. Yes, yes, I know . . . Alfred is a bit over the top, as far as social commentary goes. But what other social critiques emerge from this short, distracted, frenetic play?
4. Was it only me, or were you too also REALLY FEELING for Guildenstern as he reacted to and despaired over the very real and impending death waiting for him just a few leagues away? I was very tense and sympathetic. And then I realized, "Oh wait . . . !" And then I thought, "But then again . . . ."
And then I was like, "Oh that crafty Player, he was so right!"
5. Rosencrantz, even when he's most insane, is really quite sage. Consider: would you rather be buried alive in a coffin or be buried dead in a coffin? And how does this idea resonate within the larger context of the play, and of the "other" play, Hamlet?
6. So it's easy to fault Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for how they so easily muck up their interview with Hamlet and bumble their attempts to sleuth his real motive and "madness." But, honestly, how would you have done it? What would you have said to Hamlet, or done, to help the whole Royal family?
7. Do you think, by referencing us and yelling "Fire!" that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern REALLY know we are sitting there? If we can agree that's a Yes, then what does it mean that we're sitting there, just another "character" hanging around?
8. Ok, ok, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are crazy. But look at the whole thing from THEIR perspective. What do all the others, and this situation, look like to them?
9. Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern believe in God? Does Hamlet? Does Claudius? What is their world view, their philosophy on life?
10. I don't get his bad jokes. Do you? And what's with the sudden outbursts of color?
11. Why is it so easy to amass so many questions? What's the point of this play?
12. We know Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are similar. How are they so very different?
13. Time for me to get my AP on: what archetypal situations and issues are present here that would make for good lead-ins to open-ended AP essay questions?
14. Another one: as you know, literature is nothing without irony. What ironies are present here that slap one across the face, Guildenstern-style? Or that make you laugh?
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