What's In a Game Anonymous 11th Grade

Tom Stoppard’s existential comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead deals with many coping mechanisms, all of which are employed by the titular characters in order to distract them from their bleak and inevitable realities. One such mechanism, around which the majority of the action which occurs outside the setting of Hamlet revolves, is the use of seemingly innocent games. Though the portrayal of a game or games may seem harmless and simple, in the context of Ros and Guil’s story, the definition of what is a game takes on a distinctly more sinister edge, and is in fact used to create a mirror of the two men’s inevitable deaths.

This play is existentialist in nature, all about decision or the lack thereof and defining identity. However, Ros and Guil refuse to define themselves. They are always waiting for the next player to come on and are unable to change the scenery themselves. Their lives are, from an existentialist point of view, not lives at all, as they never begin to define their essence. Their lack of ability to change their fate, paired with ridiculous occurrences such as a coin that continually flips to heads, forces audiences to realize from the beginning that the existence Ros and Guil lead is merely a pale...