Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are Dead
Act II Study Questions
Act II Study Guide Questions
1. How would the audience
explain why Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern cannot
determine “which way they
c[a]me in”?
Act II Study Guide Questions
2. How might the placement of
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as
discussed in the previous question,
illustrate an existential idea?
Act II Study Guide Questions
3. How do Guildenstern’s ideas in
the passage beginning with
“Wheels have been set in
motion…” reveal his existential
angst?
Act II Study Guide Questions
4. How does the Player’s
rant reflect existential
angst?
Act II Study Guide Questions
5. The beginning of Act III, Scene I of Hamlet is omitted from
Stoppard’s play. It is as follows:
Claudius: And can you, by no drift of circumstance
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
Rosencrantz: He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Guildenstern: Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.
What are some reasons why Stoppard may have eliminated this text?
Act II Study Guide Questions
6. What does the Player say about
the realism and believability of art?
Why might this idea be true?
Act II Study Guide Questions
7. In the context of the play, why is
Guildenstern incorrect when he claims
that people learn by experience?
• Written by Stephanie Polukis
• Copyright © 2009 by Prestwick House Inc.,
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