Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot and Tom Stoppards Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are

Dead ingeniously represent the Theatre of Absurd as both of these plays are set in surreal
environments, filled with nonsensical, illogical loops of events with preposterous and silly characters
(Module 11: Beckett & the Theatre of the Absurd).
The notion of time is a blurred, vague concept in Becketts play Waiting for Godot as the
two main characters have been apparently waiting for somebody named Godot for what may be
either an eternity or couple of days. Adding to the absurdity and surrealism, Vladimir and Estragon
seem to endlessly perform same meaningless tasks and frivolously exchange opinions on wide range
of topics with no conceptual relevancy to the story while trivially trying to commit suicide by
hanging:
VLADIMIR
It's for the kidneys. (Silence. Estragon looks attentively at the tree.) What do we do now?
ESTRAGON:
Wait.
VLADIMIR:
Yes, but while waiting.
ESTRAGON:
What about hanging ourselves?
VLADIMIR:
Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
ESTRAGON:
(highly excited). An erection!
VLADIMIR:
With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That's why they shriek when you
pull them up. Did you not know that?
ESTRAGON:
Let's hang ourselves immediately!
VLADIMIR:
From a bough? (They go towards the tree.) I wouldn't trust it.
ESTRAGON:
We can always try.
VLADIMIR:
Go ahead.
ESTRAGON:
After you.
VLADIMIR:
No no, you first.
ESTRAGON:
Why me?
VLADIMIR:
You're lighter than I am.
ESTRAGON:
Just so!
VLADIMIR:
I don't understand. (Waiting for Godot)

This almost incomprehensible and confusing stream of consciousness continues on
throughout the play with Vladimir and Estragon sitting under a lone tree, philosophically musing
about the existence of Godot and whether Christ wore boots or not.
Tom Stoppards Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead has more contextual mass, rather than
the stripped down Waiting For Godot, yet is as fantastically absurd and puzzling. Rosencrantz and
Guilderstern were two minor, almost irrelevant figures in Shakespeares Hamlet, but in this play
they are the main characters who are consciously aware of being in a theatrical creation, offering a
bizarre look into the minds of two fictitious childhood friends of the prince. Rosencrantz and
Guilderstern often either mistake their own identities or are blissfully unaware who or were they are,
while finishing each others sentences as if they are one person:
ROS: My name is Guildenstern, and this is Rosencrantz.
(GUIL confers briefly with him.)
(Without embarrassment.) I'm sorry - his names Guildenstern, and I'm
Rosencrantz.
PLAYER: A pleasure. We've played to bigger, of course, but quality
counts for something. I recognised you at once -
ROS: And who are we?
PLAYER: - as fellow artists.
ROS: I thought we were gentlemen. (Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead)

All of this provides a glimpse of absurd, hilarious madness that has overtaken the stage as
Ros and Guil grapple with intricacies and uncertainty of language:
PLAYER: Why?
GUIL: Ah. (To ROS.) Why?
ROS: Exactly.
GUIL: Exactly what? .
ROS: Exactly why.
GUIL: Exactly why what?
ROS: What?
GUIL: Why?
ROS: Why what, exactly?
GUIL: Why is he mad?!
ROS: I don't know!
(Beat.)
PLAYER: The old man thinks he's in love with his daughter.
ROS (appalled): Good God! We're out of our depth here.
PLAYER: No, no, no - he hasn't got a daughter - the old man thinks he's
in love with his daughter.
ROS: The old man is?
PLAYER: Hamlet, in love with the old man's daughter, the old man
thinks.
ROS: Ha! It's beginning to make sense! Unrequited passion!
(The PLAYER moves.)
GUIL (Fascist): Nobody leaves this room! (Pause, lamely.) Without a
very good reason.
PLAYER: Why not?
GUIL: All this strolling about is getting too arbitrary by half - I'm
rapidly losing my grip. From now on reason will prevail.
PLAYER: I have lines to learn (Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead)

Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot and Tom Stoppards Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead
have masterfully created worlds where time and space are put aside, dialogue is a practice in
gibberish and nonsense, surrounding settings are minimalistic or a surreal theatrical stage from
Hamlet, and main characters symbolically jest about the inherent incomprehensibility of the world
and boot apparel historical significance in the context of Jesus Christ and the Bible (Module 11:
Beckett & the Theatre of the Absurd).
Work Cited List
Babiak, Peter. "Module 11: Beckett & the Theatre of the Absurd." https://bb.embanet.com/.
N.p., n.d. Web. August 9th 2014.
<https://bb.embanet.com/bbcswebdav/courses/LSO275IE.20142.CENH/Course%20Documents
/module11/lso275_m11.html>.