Definition of Mood
Key Examples in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead tries laughing in the face of death. Its anxious, unstable mood largely reflects the difficulty of doing so: the play expects its readers to laugh along to its clumsy protagonist duo while pressing its awareness of their imminent mortality. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern weave from one side of the stage to the other and briefly lose hold of their pants as they await Hamlet. Rosencrantz forgets every other line. But as much as the work leans on the slapstick, it also reminds character and reader alike about the death that looms. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are fixed within a narrative fate that they can neither escape nor change. Both are forced to accept a death that was pre-ordained centuries before this version of them had ever graced the stage.