In your first papers, many of you observed that the difficulty that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have in identifying themselves by name reflects their more general lack of self-understanding. It seems that Stoppard has deliberately, and for dramatic effect, deprived them of the kind of background knowledge and support that they need in order to fully understand their role and purpose.
As Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to understand their situation, could they learn anything relevant or useful from their interactions with the other characters? Does Stoppard, in effect, give them a fair chance for enlightenment, or does he use the other characters to deliberately reinforce the bewilderment of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
Write up your answer and have it ready to turn in at the beginning of class on September 5. 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 four hundred words, though I'll accept papers that are longer or shorter.
This document is available on the World Wide Web as
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/courses/stoppard/self-understanding.xhtml
created September 3, 2002
last revised September 3, 2002