Prompt Revision: Prompt #1

1982. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.

                In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding includes various scenes of violence to prove his idea that humans are evil and savage in nature. He does this by adding in scenes with excessive amounts of brutality as the plot progresses, thus showing the reader how the distance from civilization has turned the boys into savages. Being that the characters are still young, they are able to revert back to their natural instincts, according to Golding.

                An example of this is seen is when Jack decides to take some of the boys hunting. The thrill of the hunt causes them to acquire a thirst for blood and they become more violent and ruthless with their killing. As the story progresses the boys grow obsessed with hunting and begin to use brutal tactics and kill baby pigs for the sport of it. These extreme levels of violence in their hunt show the reader that the boys are losing their grip of right and wrong and are becoming savage in the lack of civilization.

               Golding’s use of violence continues when the all of the boys go to a feast at Jack’s part of the island. While there, the boys talk about the “beast” and how they plan to kill it. The excitement grows as they discuss how they will triumph over the beast, causing them to lose their sense of reason. By the time Simon walks in from the forest the boys completely lose control and violently attack him, calling him the “beast”. Nearly all the boys participate and ultimately kill Simon before taking notice of his identity. This scene of violence contributes to the idea that their separation from society has caused the boys to become primitive and savage.

                Another example of Golding’s strategic use of violence is during the climax of the story when Roger drops a boulder that hits Piggy and sends him airborne, and results in his head being crushed by the impact. This is the final and most powerful scene of violence used by Golding and its dramatic imagery gives the reader a sense of horror. The ferocity in this scene is used to emphasize how truly savage the boys have become since their initial arrival on the island. In addition to this, Golding’s targeting of Piggy creates a greater contrast—the one who maintained the ideas of society throughout the novel is being killed in the most savage way. This makes the brutality seem even more extreme, thus reiterating how horrible the boys have become in the absence of civilization.

                Golding uses these various scenes of violence to portray the overall theme and meaning of the novel, that without the rules of society, people would be evil in nature. The brutal acts represent the change in morality within the boys. The more horrific the action, the further they have grown from civilization and the more savage they have become. Since the violence becomes more extreme as the novel progresses, it reiterates the idea that detachment from society returns humans to their more primal state.

Summary and Analysis: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Author: This was play was written by Tom Stoppard. He was born on July 3^rd, 1937 in Zlin Czechoslovakia to a family that was forced to flee multiple homes in multiple countries during World War II. After his father’s death, his mother married a major in the British army and they all moved to England, whose culture Stoppard accepted as his own.

Setting: The play, although set in the “same” places as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, has a very basic setting. At the beginning of the first scene, the only setting description is “Two Elizabethans passing the time in a place without any visible character.” The setting in this play is very symbolic—it has no character because Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are described without character in Hamlet. The lack of description in itself represents how little depth went into the characters in their original form. Also, changes in setting are sudden and without transition. Stoppard only shows where the action happens and the characters seem to suddenly appear there, again a reflection of Shakespeare’s original play and how he did not show anything of these characters backgrounds or outside activities.

Plot: The plot of this play is difficult to identify, being that there is seemingly no goal for the action to follow along with. The play opens on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern walking and flipping coins. When it lands on heads Rosencrantz wins, and tails is Guildenstern. It only lands on heads and Guildenstern questions the probability of that. For a moment they forget what they’re doing there and then they remember that a messenger was sent to get them. Soon they come across a bunch of players who are desperate for money and offer up Alfred’s services for a few coins. They start betting against each other with the coins and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern win and then finally the coin lands tails up.

Suddenly Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are transported into Elsinore where they first see Hamlet and Ophelia go by and are then approached by Claudius and Gertrude who confuse their identities and ask them to find out what is wrong with Hamlet. After they leave, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern begin playing a game of question and answer and then decide to practice questioning one another in preparation of questioning Hamlet, however after a lot of confusion they end up deciding that Hamlet is upset because of the death of his father and his mother’s quick marriage.

Finally Rosencrantz and Guildenstern approach Hamlet who originally addresses them warmly, but also has difficulty identifying which is which. He then goes into a confusing speech for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, causing them to question whether or not he really is insane and Polonius comes in saying that the players have arrived and they enter. Hamlet says there will be a play the next day and the Player, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern discuss what might be wrong with Hamlet and then after the players leave, the two discuss death.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inform the other characters that Hamlet wants them to go to the play and they leave. Hamlet enters doing his “To be, or not to be” speech and Ophelia comes in as well and the two talk without noticing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The tragedians are performing their Hamlet parallel play and Ophelia enters with Hamlet telling her to go to a nunnery and then leaving. She cries and Claudius and Polonius take her away. After this, the Player talks about the story of Hamlet, the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and then the concept of the representation of death on stage.

The next day, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are asked to find Hamlet, who has killed Polonius. They find him and ask about the body, but he refuses to tell them anything and says they are just Claudius’s tools. Hamlet is brought back by guards. Outside, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discuss how they must take Hamlet to England. In the final act, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear on a boat to England but they cannot see and they begin to question whether or not they are still alive. Hamlet is sleeping near there and they decide to open the letter from Claudius to the king of England. After reading that it calls for the death of Hamlet, they don’t know what to do. The two go to bed, Hamlet switches the letter, and they awake to hearing music coming from barrels on the ship. It is the tragedians and then pirates charge the ship. After the pirates are gone, so is Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell the Player about the letter and rehearse what they are going to say, thus seeing that the letter now calls for their own death. Guildenstern stabs the Player who falls, but jumps back up, calling it a mediocre death. He then continues to describe the deaths that they can perform. At this, it is now Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whose deaths are coming and they realize it. Guildenstern questions how they ended up there and how they might have changed their fate. It is assumed that they die here because the scene switches to the end of Hamlet where all of the main characters are dead except for Horatio and the English Ambassadors come in and Horatio gives his speech.

Characters: The play includes only characters from the original play of Hamlet, however some with a different purpose and personality. Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and Horatio are all the same basic characters that they were originally. Altered characters are as follows:

Rosencrantz: Rosencrantz seems unintelligent on the surface and attempts to enjoy life and not question his surroundings—he just goes with it. He has many significant and meaningful lines, but he rarely intends them to be so insightful.

Guildenstern: Guildenstern questions the world around him from the beginning of the play. He clearly recognizes that things are not as they are supposed to be in his world. He seems to know (at least subconsciously) that they are a part of a play. He often makes comments in which he overestimates his own intelligence and ability to reason. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are often mistaken for one another and even lose track of their own identities.

Player: The Player has some of the most important lines of the play. He directly recognizes that he is an actor at all times and often tells the other characters that they are as well. He serves as a voice for Stoppard and gives Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hints about the false world around them and provides deep insight.

Voice: This play uses both dialogue and narrative voice to express the ideas of the author. Stoppard uses double meanings in most of the lines (both dialogue and description). He also uses symbolism through the “play-within-a-play”. This is supposed to show what they are all a part of. Stoppard also uses audience involvement to get across the idea that the audience should not feel for the characters. For example, Rosencrantz yells “Fire!” and then ridicules the audience for not reacting.

Quotes:

1. “Dying is not romantic, and death is not a game which will soon be over… Death is not anything… death is not… It’s the absence of presence, nothing more… the endless time of never coming back… a gap you can’t see and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound.” (pg 124). This is a significant quote because it is Stoppard’s way of telling the audience why they shouldn’t experience a sense of pain or loss when a character dies in a play—because nothing really happens to them. No one really experiences anything, so the audience should not feel anything for anyone.

1. “We keep to our usual stuff, more or less, only inside out. We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.” (pg 28). Despite being an inappropriate joke on the surface, this quote also describes what the players are doing on stage as they perform and what the implications of that are. They say that they are doing what the audience is supposed to be doing—questioning the reality of it all. Then they say that every exit is an entrance because the tragedians get off of their stage in the play and come on stage in the play that we see as the audience of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

1. “Death followed by eternity… the worst of both worlds. It is a terrible thought.” (pg 72). This is also a significant quote because it describes the characters’ situation. Every time the play is performed they all “die”, but they are all brought back again the next time that they perform—an eternity after death.

Theme: There seem to be many possible themes of this play. It could be a critique of Shakespeare’s disregard for some characters, it could be critiquing plays of Stoppard’s day, and it could also be that audiences should feel nothing for the characters in a play. 

Response to Course Materials #7

            Over the past few weeks we have finished Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, started The Ceremony, and worked on some AP practice with essays and multiple choice questions. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was really interesting to annotate because of how meaningless the lines were on the surface, and how profound they were when I took a closer look. It was also fun to read because of how it built on the story of Hamlet while still having its own plot line and meaning. It also critiqued Shakespeare’s work and other writers as well which I thought was interesting, again, because it was never directly on the surface. Doing the annotating for this will really help me to understand passages on the AP exam this May as well as in college classes on literature that I may take in the future. Although I honestly haven’t gotten very far in The Ceremony yet, what I have read is really interesting because of the differences from the Western literature that I have been accustomed to. It has really taught me the importance of knowing the background of the writer because it really does help when trying to understand the meaning of the work—and especially when attempting to annotate it. It’s also interesting because there is not a lot of dialogue and everything else that we have worked on was a play which makes it a little more difficult to annotate.
            The AP practice that we have been doing is going to be really helpful when it comes to the exam. Even though the annotations that we have done have helped met to better understand passages, I still found writing that essay on Wolsey’s speech to be quite challenging. I think that I am still struggling to identify certain aspects of literature, although the exercises that we do at the beginning of the hour most days are helping me with that. The multiple choice practice that we did with this same passage was really helpful as well. Having us write our own questions using the strategies that the actual AP exam uses really helps me to identify incorrect answers and select the right one. I've also noticed that these strategies are used on a lot of other tests that I take so it’s helping me in other classes as well.