Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Analysis

Author Tom Stoppard
Setting Some unknown wilderness, Elsinore, the pirate ship mentioned in Hamlet
(Main) Characters
-Rosencrantz: the stupid one of the friendship duo, easily confused but overall happier than Guil
-Guildenstern: the smarter one, worries about their situation, obsessed with fate versus free will
-The Player: witty, oversees a group of actors/prostitutes, seems to know all
Plot
At the beginning of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in some unknown location. Rosencrantz begins tossing a coin, and every time it lands on heads. Rosencrantz is content with this monotonous action, but Guildenstern is not. He struggles with the idea of chance and probability, with why those rules don't seem to work here. He then tries to figure out why him and Guil are travelling, but the only thing he can remember is that they were sent for by a messenger. This is around when the Tragedians appear. They offer sexual performances and sex. The Player and Guil start flipping a coin, and Guil wins the bet. Eventually the Tragedians begin to leave, and Ros reveals that the most recently-flipped one was actually tails (the first and only time!).

The scene changes, and Ros and Guil are now in Elsinore. Claudius explains why they were sent for, and Ros and Guil start trying to decide how to figure out what's wrong with Hamlet. Eventually, they decide that it's probably Hamlet's situation (the whole uncle-killing-father-and-marrying-mother mess), but even then they can't decide just how crazy he is. Hamlet announces that he'll be putting on a play, and the Tragedians enter. They parallel Claudius's murder and his marriage to Gertrude. Claudius leaves, but the play continues, paralleling events to come in Hamlet and even foreshadowing Ros and Guil's own deaths. Guildenstern and the Player start arguing over whether death can be represented effectively in acting. Guildenstern thinks that it can't be.

The following day, Ros and Guil are informed that Hamlet has killed Polonius. Hamlet is eventually caught and brought before Claudius, at which point Hamlet is forced to board a boat with Ros and Guil.

On the boat, Ros and Guil try to make sense of what's going on. They're confused as to whether they're alive or dead, where they're going, and what they'll do should they ever arrive. Ros and Guil read the letter that orders Hamlet's death, and they're unsure as to what to do. Later that night, Hamlet swaps their letter with the one he wrote, ordering the death of Ros and Guil. When Ros and Guil awake, they begin hearing music and suddenly the Tragedians appear. Then the pirates appear. Yay. There's a fiasco, and when everything is said and done Hamlet and the pirates are gone. Ros and Guil tell the Player about the letter. They show it to him, only for the Player to read that Ros and Guil are now the ones to be killed (gasp!). Guildenstern, in an attempt to be master of his own fate, takes a knife and stabs the Player. The Player pretends to die, and then pops up, revealing the "knife" was fake. Ros becomes scared of his looming death, and Guil laments on their inability to act.

The play ends with the final part of Hamlet, dead bodies and all.
Style
-no narrative voice (since it's a play) but very, VERY detailed stage directions
-lots of word play
-this play is extremely intertwined with Shakespeare's Hamlet
Quotes
"Words. Words. They're all we have to go on."
I obviously couldn't write this post without including this quote. As for importance, this statement comes across as extremely ironic and almost sad in a sense. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have so many problems communicating and getting their ideas across. Words and language constantly fails them. The fact that words are all they have to go on, and even then these words aren't reliable, is kind of sad.
"Audiences know what to expect, and that is all they are prepared to believe in."
First off, this quote is an example of how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern constantly played at breaking the fourth wall. This quote was also very thought-provoking for me. I think it's almost a comment on Shakespeare's Hamlet. While reading or watching the play, everyone knows it's a tragedy. Everyone knows there's a blood bath in the end, and that Hamlet does not survive. Everything is expected.
Theme
Fate versus free-will/chance. This theme comes up again and again throughout Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The most obvious example of this is the coin-tossing. It really bothers Guildenstern that the coin always lands on heads, because that means that the rules don't apply and that it is therefore fate determining events. The theme's also developed when the Player has his tragedians act out the events in Hamlet, and then the deaths of Ros and Guil that later occur. Since the Player clearly knows how the events will play out, this suggest that Ros and Guil's actions are not their own, and that therefore their deaths are brought on by fate.