In act one of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, there is a short scene (beginning with the last line on page 44 and ending on page 45 with the line quoted above) in which Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are first elated and then disappointed. Why? What are they trying to do, and why are they unsuccessful?
In answering these questions, it may help you to imagine that you are explaining the scene to another student, perhaps a high-school classmate of yours, who read it quickly and thoughtlessly and found it baffling. You're trying to give her the key to the passage and to show her how it works in the lock.
Write up your answer and have it ready to turn in at the beginning of class on August 29. It should be legibly typed or set, double-spaced, with ample margins (I recommend an inch and a quarter at top, bottom, and sides), and printed single-sided. If it runs to more than one page, each page after the first should bear your surname and a page number in the upper right-hand corner.
I suggest that you will find it convenient to answer this question in about two hundred words, though I'll accept papers that are longer or shorter. Don't pad your answer.
This document is available on the World Wide Web as
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/courses/stoppard/consistency.xhtml
created May 27, 2002
last revised August 25, 2002