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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Anja Easterling Shakespearean Parallels and Affinities with the Theatre of the Absurd in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Umeå 1982 Anja Easterling Shakespearean Parallels and Affinities with the Theatre of the Absurd in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Doctoral Dissertation by due permission of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Umeå to be publicly discussed in the lecture hall F on January 17, 1983 at 10 a.m. for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Umeå 1982 ABSTRACT Author: Anja Easterling Title: Shakespearean Parallels and Affinities with the Theatre of the Absurd in Tom Stoppard's Rosen- crantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Address: Department of English/ Umeå University, S-901 87 Umeå, Sweden The study elucidates the relation of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to Hamlet on the one hand and to the Theatre of the Absurd on the other. The two plays chosen to represent the Theatre of the Absurd are Samuel Beckett1 s Waiting for Godot and Harold Pinter* s The Caretaker. Since Stoppard is admired as a master crafts­ man of language, the emphasis is on his use of language. The extent to which the use of the cliché characterizes the three absurd plays is examined. It is found that the lan­ guage area covered by the term cliche is not clearly de­ fined and that the term is not uniformly applied. The in­ quiry centres on finding features, such as repetition, music-hall passages and "ready-made" language, that could explain why the dialogue in the three plays might appear cliche-ridden and on comparing the three plays in respect of these features. The study further draws parallels between Stoppard's play and Waiting for Godot in the use of various techniques, such as misunderstandings, anticlimax and afterthought. It is found that there is often a conscious adoption by Stoppard of Beckett's techniques. To clarify the relation of Stoppard's play to Hamlet various aspects of the two plays are studied. These aspects include changes introduced into stereotyped expressions, punning, the use of parody and the handling of two specific motives, madness and death. Parallels are found in spite of the fact that several centuries separate the two plays, not least in respect to style, technique and language. Keywords: Stoppard, Tom, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet, Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot, Pinter, Harold, The Caretaker, The Theatre of the Absurd, absurd drama, cliche. ISBN 91-7174-116-X. Umeå, 1982. Distributed by Umeå Universitetsbibliotek, Box 718, S-901 10 Umeå, Sweden. Anja Easterling Shakespearean Parallels and Affinities with the Theatre of the Absurd in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Umeå 1982 ABSTRACT Author: Anja Easterling Title: Shakespearean Parallels and Affinities with the Theatre of the Absurd in Tom Stoppard's Rosen- crantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Address: Department of English, Umeå University, S-901 87 Umeå, Sweden The study elucidates the relation of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to Hamlet on the one hand and to the Theatre of the Absurd on the other. The two plays chosen to represent the Theatre of the Absurd are Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Harold Pinter's The Caretaker. Since Stoppard is admired as a master crafts­ man of language, the emphasis is on his use of language. The extent to which the use of the cliché characterizes the three absurd plays is examined. It is found that the lan­ guage area covered by the term cliché is not clearly de­ fined and that the term is not uniformly applied. The in­ quiry centres on finding features, such as repetition, music-hall passages and "ready-made" language, that could explain why the dialogue in the three plays might appear cliché-ridden and on comparing the three plays in respect of these features. The study further draws parallels between Stoppard's play and Waiting for Godot in the use of various techniques, such as misunderstandings, anticlimax and afterthought. It is found that there is often a conscious adoption by Stoppard of Beckett's techniques. To clarify the relation of Stoppard's play to Hamlet various aspects of the two plays are studied. These aspects include changes introduced into stereotyped expressions, punning, the use of parody and the handling of two specific motives, madness and death. Parallels are found in spite of the fact that several centuries separate the two plays, not least in respect to style, technique and language. Keywords: Stoppard, Tom, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet, Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot, Pinter, Harold, The Caretaker, The Theatre of the Absurd, absurd drama, cliché. ISBN 91-7174-116-X. Umeå, 1982. Distributed by Umeå Universitetsbibliotek, Box 718, S-901 10 Umeå, Sweden. To Edward, William and Elizabeth Jane TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. A Note on Absurdism and The Theatre of the Absurd 1 a. Absurdism ••••••••••• 1 b. The Theatre of the Absurd 4 2. Tom Stoppard and Rosencrantz and Guilden- stern Are Dead » 10 a. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . 11 3. The Structure of the Present Study and the Method Employed ........ 14 CHAPTER I. STEREOTYPY IN THE CARETAKER, WAIT­ ING FOR GODOT AND ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDEN- STERN ARE DEAD 1. The Cliche and Stereotypy 21 2. The Caretaker ^ 29 a. Repetition in The Caretaker *0 b. Ready-Made Elements and Idiosyncratic Speech 34 c. A Working-Class Restricted Code ••• 35 d. Collocational Conventionality ..... 36 e. Phrasal Verbs 38 f. Pinter's Handling of Various Codes 39 g. The Literary Uses of Stereo­ typy in The Caretaker ^ 40 3. Waiting for Godot 44 a. Waiting for Godot versus The Caretaker • • 45 b. Music-Hail Passages 48 c. Lack of Associative Links 49 d. Sentences of "Wonderful Shape" #... 51 e. Multiplicity of Levels ......... \ \\ 55 4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ^ ^ ^ 57 a. R&G versus The Caretaker and WFG 58 b. Music-Hall Passages 60 c. Contrived Verbal Links 63 d. Aphoristic Speech 64 e. Repetition and Idiosyncratic Speech 66 CHAPTER II. DEVIATIONS FROM STEREOTYPED EXPRESSIONS IN ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD 74 1. "Unidiomatic" Idioms 75 2. Collocational Unconventionality ••• 77 3. Disregarded Parallelism 78 4. Changes in Proverbs 78 5. Conflated Idioms 80 6. Jumbled Cliches 81 CHAPTER III. PROVERBS IN HAMLET 85 1. Proverbs with No Earlier Source than Shakespeare 87 2. Changes in Proverbs 89 3. Proverb-Puns 91 4. Fragments of Proverbs 93 5. Comic Proverbs 94 6. Strings of Proverbs 94 CHAPTER IV. PUNNING IN HAMLET AND ROSEN- CRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD 99 1. Hamlet 100 a. Thematic Punning ••••••••• 100 b. Clusters of Puns 102 c. Characters' Mental Processes and Punning 103 2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 105 a. Phrasal Puns 1°5 b. Bawdy Punning 108 c. Punning and Misunderstandings •• HO d. Punning in Clusters CHAPTER V. SOME PARALLELS BETWEEN ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD AND WAITING FOR GODOT 1. Flawed Communication H6 a. Misunderstandings 116 b. Two Monologues instead of Dialogue 119 2. Playful Treatment of Sentence Elements and Sentence Sequence ... 120 3. Frustrated Expectations and the Technique of Deflation ••• • 122 a. Incongruity between Lines 123 b. Unexpected and Surprising Comments 124 c. Deflation in Eloquent Speeches 126 d. Qualification and After­ thought ••••••••• 128 CHAPTER VI. PARODY IN HAMLET AND ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD 1. Hamlet ...... 133 a. Aeneas' Tale to Dido 134 b. Richard III and The Spanish Tragedy 156 c. Hamlet Parodying Other Characters' Speech 136 d. Osric's Style *37 e. Laertes1 Style *38 f. Claudius and the Queen Parodied 140 g. Shakespeare's Use of Logic 141 2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 143 a. Bratts Stoppard's Muse Is Ironie 144 b. The Juxtaposition of Hamlet and R&G an Ironic Technique .... 145 c. Beckett Parodied 147 d. Appraisal of Bratt's Analysis .. 149 e. Rhetorical Figures Parodied .... 152 f. Stoppard's Use of Logic 154 CHAPTER VII. TWO HAMLET MOTIVES, MADNESS AND DEATH, IN ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD 1. The Madness Motive ••••••• I63 a. Hamlet I63 b. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead I64 2. The Death Motive 168 a. Hamlet 168 b. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 169 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 176 APPENDIX I79 BIBLIOGRAPHY 201 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Docent Ingrid Melander, whose well- balanced and constructive criticism has been most useful and whose help has even extended to practi­ cal matters. I should also like to thank the members of the English Seminar at Umeå University, who have come up with suggestions for relevant sources? the people who have suggested pertinent reading to me include Britta Olinder, Gothenburg, and Anthony Wild, Kouvola, Finland. I also wish to thank my colleague, Hilary Hocking, for checking the English language, and Maria Hallquist, who at very short notice accepted the strenuous task of typing the manuscript. Luleå, November, 1982. Anja Easterling INTRODUCTION A Note on Absurdism and the Theatre of the Absurd In this study the terms absurdism and the Theatre of the Absurd will be frequently used. Absurdism could be said to be both a literary trend and a philosophy. Apart from its earliest antecedents, absurdism first surfaced in 20th-century France. In 1926 the novelist André Malraux wrote his often quoted line "au centre de l'homme européen, dominant les grands mouvements de sa vie, est une absurdité essentielle"."'' The two great philosophers of the absurd, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, wrote their most significant work from the point of view of absurdism in the thirties and forties. Martin Esslin, taking up a connection first made in an essay by Walter Stein between ab­ surdism and the work of certain playwrights, applied 2 the term to a group of dramatists.
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