Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Act 2 Summary & Analysis

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet's conversation continues from the previous scene, though what they're saying is at first indecipherable. The first discernable line is Hamlet's: "S'blood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out." There sounds a flourish from the Tragedians' band and Guildenstern notes that they're "the players." Hamlet once again welcomes Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, says they must all continue being fashionable and ceremonious, and notes his "uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived" since he is only mad when the wind blows "north north-west" and when it blows south, he knows "a hawk from a handsaw."

Polonius enters and calls out to them. Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that Polonius is a baby, and then walks upstage with Rosencrantz. Polonius says he has news for Hamlet and Hamlet mimics him saying, "I have news to tell you…When Roscius was an actor in Rome." Hamlet and Polonius exit.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are reluctant to speak, hemming and hawing between them. Guildenstern suggests that they "made some headway" but Rosencrantz says that Hamlet "made us look ridiculous." They assess their interaction with the prince in terms of the questions game, which, Rosencrantz points out, Hamlet beat them at by a long shot. "He murdered us," Rosencrantz notes. Guildenstern tries to look on the bright side, saying that they at least got Hamlet's "symptoms" but Rosencrantz insists that those didn't make any sense.

Remembering Hamlet's comments about the wind's direction, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to figure out which way is South, wondering if it's in the direction of the audience. They can't figure it out and their attempts to orient themselves by the sun, by the direction of their own travels, and by licking their fingers (to test the wind) all prove frustratingly futile. "You seem to have no conception of where we stand!" Guildenstern shouts at Rosencrantz, "You won't find the answer written down for you in the bowl of a compass."

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern give up on the question of direction and wonder instead whether someone will come on stage. Rosencrantz suggests that Guildenstern shout in order to intrigue someone into coming on, bit Guildenstern refuses, explaining that they are "condemned" to "their own pace" and that if they act spontaneously they will ruin the "order" – "at least, let us hope so." Then he notes that, if he and Rosencrantz "happened to discover, or even suspect", that their own "spontaneity was part of [the others'] order" Rosencrantz and Guildenstern would "know that [they] were lost."

Rosencrantz shouts "Fire!" and, when Guildenstern leaps up, Rosencrantz says he's just "demonstrating the misuse of free speech. To prove that it exists." He looks for movement in the direction of the audience, doesn't see any, and says the audience should burn to death. He takes out a coin to toss but claims not to have looked to see which face it fell on. Guildenstern asks Rosencrantz what the last thing he remembers is and, when Rosencrantz says he doesn't want to think of it, Guildenstern reflects that "we cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us" so that they have no sign of their own progress except "a memory of the smell of smoke." Rosencrantz hides the coin between his fists and has Guildenstern guess which fist. When both his hands are empty and the coin isn't in his pocket or on the floor, Rosencrantz first laughs, then grows puzzled.

Polonius enters and exits with Hamlet and the Tragedians. Hamlet makes arrangements with the Player for a performance of The Murder of Gonzago the next night with a short speech written by Hamlet and inserted into it. Hamlet greets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and exits. "So you've caught up," Guildenstern says to the Player, who responds coldly, "Not yet, sir." Guildenstern and Rosencrantz banter back and forth, tossing off different expressions for being speechless ("lost for words," "tongue-tied," "a mute in a monologue," etc.)

The Player reveals the cause of his cold manner: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern left in the middle of the Tragedians' play, leading the Tragedians to act on for a while without any audience which caused them immense humiliation. In despair, the Player laments at great length about the players' loss of dignity: "to be tricked out of the single assumption which makes our existence viable – that somebody is watching…" After the Player's account, Guildenstern claps and good-naturedly comments on the Player's speech as if it were a professional performance.

Guildenstern and Rosencrantz tell the Player they've made it up to him by booking him a performance at court and coach him in how to perform for royalty: "a good clean show" with none of the "usual filth." But the Player informs them that the Tragedians' have "always" had a booking with the court and that he's been to court before. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are surprised and intrigued.

The Player starts to leave but Guildenstern tries first calmly, then desperately, to get him to stay and advise them on what to do. The Player tells them to relax, respond, stop asking so many questions, and to "act natural." When Guildenstern says he doesn't know whether the information he and Rosencrantz have been given is true, the Player tells them "Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true…One acts on assumptions." He asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern what their assumptions are and the three confusedly bounce possibilities for Hamlet's state off one another: "melancholy," "madness," "moods," moroseness." The exchange gradually devolves into nonsense: "stark raving sane," Rosencrantz concludes.

Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player next try to pinpoint the cause of Hamlet's state, a conversation that proves equally futile: "The old man thinks he's in love with his daughter," the Player says, but Rosencrantz is confused by the pronouns. Guildenstern barks out that nobody can leave because "all this strolling about is getting too arbitrary" but the Player insists he has lines to learn and Guildenstern relents. The Player exits. Rosencrantz shouts "Next!" and no one comes on stage. Guildenstern asks what he expected and Rosencrantz replies, "Something…someone…nothing."

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reflect on Rosencrantz's coin trick, which Guildenstern was impressed by. They decide to "think of the future," "to have one" since "one is…having it all the time…now…and now…" They then begin to discuss death and Rosencrantz reflects on how difficult it is to "think of yourself as actually dead" in a box since one can only think of oneself alive. He reflects it'd be better to be buried alive in a box as "you could lie there thinking—well, at least I'm not dead!" and could tell oneself that someone was going to come by and get one out. Guildenstern shouts at Rosencrantz to stop his musings: "You don't have to flog it to death!"

Rosencrantz continues: "Eternity is a terrible thought." He babbles on half-telling religious jokes, then stands up shouting offstage: "All right, we know you're in there! Come out talking!" Then he wonders what "became of the moment when one first knew about death" as he can't remember it. He suspects one must know about death at birth, before one even has words for it. He again shouts offstage: "Keep out, then! I forbid anyone to enter!" and, when again no one comes, remarks "That's better…"

At once, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, and Ophelia enter, behind Rosencrantz upstage. Claudius takes Rosencrantz by the elbow and they plunge deep into conversation. Stage directions note the context: "Shakespeare Act III, scene i." Still facing front, Guildenstern reflects, "Death followed by eternity…the worst of both worlds," then turns upstage to take Rosencrantz's place with Claudius while Gertrude asks Rosencrantz about their progress with Hamlet. Guildenstern joins in too. Rosencrantz, obviously lying, tells Gertrude that Hamlet asked few questions and answered all of theirs. In actual lines from Shakespeare's play, Rosencrantz reports that he and Guildenstern have enticed Hamlet with the Players and Gertrude thanks them. Telling Gertrude that he has sent for Hamlet to trick him into confronting Ophelia, Claudius leads everyone to exit but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Rosencrantz, announcing he's fed up with the others always going to and fro, makes to leave stage himself. He loses confidence. Looking offstage, he notices Hamlet's coming and runs back downstage to tell Guildenstern. Guildenstern laments ever getting Hamlet "into conversation." Hamlet enters and pauses, deciding whether or not to speak. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern watch and Rosencrantz observes half-heartedly that it's their chance to "accost him" but can't get himself to do it. He tells Guildenstern that their problem is that they're "overawed," and keep succumbing to the others' "personality."

Ophelia enters with a prayerbook. Hamlet greets her and they exit talking. Guildenstern sarcastically congratulates Rosencrantz on intercepting them, then orders Rosencrantz to "shut up and sit down. Stop being perverse." A female figure appearing to be the Queen enters and Rosencrantz ambushes her from behind, covers her eyes, and "with a desperate frivolity" asks "Guess who?!" The Player enters downstage and shouts for Alfred, who, it turns out, is the figure Rosencrantz mistook for the Queen. Rosencrantz approaches the Player and attempts to reach under the Player's foot, but the Player slams his foot down on Rosencrantz's hand. "I put my foot down," the Player says when Guildenstern asks what happened. Rosencrantz, confused, grabs Guildenstern and begs him not leave him.

More of the Tragedians enter, one dressed as a King. The Player explains they are doing a dress rehearsal and that, because they always use the same costumes, the players often "forget what they are supposed to be in." After some bumbling, the dress rehearsal begins with a dumbshow, which, the Player explains, makes the subsequent action easier to understand. In the dumbshow, the Player-Brother of the King poisons the Player-King to death and woos the widowed Player-Queen.

Ophelia enters wailing and followed by a hysterically shouting Hamlet. Then addressing her and the Tragedians as well (and looking pointedly at the Player-Queen and Player-Brother, Hamlet explains there will be no more marriage and that of those already married "all but one shall live… The rest shall keep as they are." He tells Ophelia to go to a nunnery and exits. Ophelia collapses. The Player-King starts his lines for the play.

Claudius and Polonius enter and lift Ophelia to her feet. The Tragedians leap back and incline their heads. Claudius speaks actual lines from Hamlet, musing on Hamlet's psychological state. He's not in love, Claudius thinks, and not mad, but his soul is plagued by a threatening melancholy that has persuaded Claudius to send Hamlet off to England. Claudius, Polonius, and Ophelia exit.

The Player claps his hands for attention and tells the Tragedians they're not "getting across." He calls for them to start Act Two and, when Guildenstern expresses surprise that the dumbshow hasn't just ended, the Player is astonished that Guildenstern would think it could end with "everyone on his feet. My goodness no—over your dead body." He explains to a bewildered Guildenstern that events have to "play themselves out to aesthetic, moral and logical conclusion" which always means that "everyone who is marked for death dies." "Marked?" Guildenstern asks. The Player speaks on despite Guildenstern's confusion and when Guildenstern asks who gets to decide what happens, the Player replies that it's "written." Guildenstern grabs him violently but the Player, unfazed, explains that there is "no choice involved. The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means."

The Player calls for the Tragedians to take up Act Two and the action begins. The Player-Queen and Player-Brother engage in a love scene. The Player explains that the Player-Brother has ascended to the throne and won the Player-Queen's heart without her knowing that he'd killed her husband, the Player-King. Rosencrantz protests saying an audience won't want to watch "filth." The Player insists that that's exactly what people want to watch.

The dumbshow continues with the Player narrating everything for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while now also playing Lucianus, the Player-Brother's nephew, who, devastated by his uncle's marriage to his mother, turns crazy and murderous. They act out a stylized version of Hamlet's "Closet Scene" (in which Hamlet confronts Gertrude and murders Polonius). Here, the Player-King stands in for the Polonius figure. The Player-Brother, guilty and fearful, hires "two spies" to take Lucianus to England with a letter for the King of England. They sail and arrive in England, but Lucianus has disappeared. The King of England (played by the Player-King) reads the letter and orders the two spies' deaths. "A twist of fate and cunning has put into their hands a letter that seals their deaths!" the Player explains. The two spies wear exactly the same coats as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern approach the spies thoughtfully, as if they recognize them, but can't put their finger on what the recognition is. "You must have mistaken me for someone else," Rosencrantz finally tells the spy dressed like him.

The Player calls the play "a slaughterhouse" and says it thus brings out the Tragedians' best. When Guildenstern protests that actors know nothing of death, the Player insists to the contrary. "[T]heir talent is dying" he says of the Tragedians. His own, he says, is to "extract significance from melodrama" where there is actually only meaninglessness. Guildenstern grows increasingly upset, exclaiming that death on stage is nothing like real death. The Player again contradicts him, pointing out that, when one of his actors was condemned to death, he had the execution performed on stage and that it "just wasn't convincing!" The audience jeered it. "Audiences know what to expect," the Player says, "and that is all they are prepared to believe in." The two spies act out death as lights fade and Guildenstern insists that death is not "gasps and blood and falling about…It's just a man failing to reappear." Rosencrantz claps for the spies. The lights black out.

Through the dark come shouts to "Give o'er the play" and cries for lights. The lights come on as a sunrise on a stage empty except for two figures lying down in the exact positions where the two spies died. The figures are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Still prone, they argue about which way is east. Guildenstern says "they're waiting to see what we're going to do" and that, as soon as they act, the others will come racing on to confuse them.

Before Rosencrantz can protest, Claudius calls Guildenstern's name from offstage. Claudius and Gertrude enter. Claudius explains that Hamlet has killed Polonius in madness and asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to go find Hamlet and bring the corpse to the chapel. Claudius and Gertrude exit. Alone on stage, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern procrastinate following Claudius' order and make numerous false starts to leave stage in search of Hamlet. Finally, seeing Hamlet approaching from offstage, they make traps with their belts for Hamlet to trip over coming on stage. Hamlet enters from the opposite end of stage dragging the corpse of Polonius and exits from the same side. "That was close," Rosencrantz says.

Confused again, Rosencrantz shouts for Hamlet, who comes on stage. They ask about the corpse, which Hamlet says he's compounded. When Rosencrantz asks where he put the corpse, Hamlet tells them not to believe "I can keep your counsel and not mine own." He calls Rosencrantz "a sponge…that soaks up the King's countenance, his rewards, his authorities" and warns Rosencrantz that the King will throw him away once he's done with him. He orders Guildenstern to bring him to the king. The three approach one side of the stage and Hamlet bows, presumably towards an approaching Claudius. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern follow and while they're deep in their bows, Hamlet turns and exits stage from the other direction. Claudius enters behind Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and demands, to their dismay, that they bring him Hamlet. They lie and say Hamlet is under guard right outside. Then, just as Claudius exits, Hamlet is escorted by a guard onstage and off, following Claudius.

Lighting changes to Exterior. Guildenstern, pensive, reflects that "it doesn't seem enough; to have breathed such significance." Rosencrantz reflects that it was "a trying episode" but that "they're done with us now." "Done what?" Guildenstern asks. Rosencrantz breezily dismisses everything, claiming not to care, then catches sight of Hamlet offstage. Guildenstern exclaims he knew it wasn't over and that they will be taking Hamlet to England.

Hamlet enters with a soldier who explains that the troops coming through are sent against Poland by Fortinbras of Norway. The soldier exits and Rosencrantz approaches Hamlet, asking if he'd like to go. Hamlet says he will in a minute but that Rosencrantz should go first. Hamlet turns to face upstage. Rosencrantz returns downstage. Guildenstern faces front and doesn't turn, asking Rosencrantz about what Hamlet's doing. Rosencrantz looks over his shoulder and reports that Hamlet's talking to himself. He starts to leave, pointing out that Hamlet gave them permission to. Guildenstern says, "I like to know where I am. Even if I don't know where I am, I like to know that. If we go there's no knowing." "No knowing what?" Rosencrantz asks. "If we'll ever come back," Guildenstern replies. Rosencrantz points out that they don't want to return, that once they leave they'll "be free." Guildenstern is skeptical, but follows Rosencrantz to exit. Blackout.