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Pathos
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
Despite its inspiration from Shakespeare’s famed 17th-century play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead makes only minimal reference to setting. The work offers a new spin on Denmark’s Elsinore Castle, but it relies almost entirely upon the audience’s understanding of the Shakesperean classic to ground itself. Stoppard provides few other stage props or cues, leaving the characters to wander through stretches of negative space. Apart from descriptions of the ship’s upper and lower decks, the play leaves it up to the reader to construct its world. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz flip coins, banter, and speak with the Tragedians almost entirely against an unspecified stage background.
Related Themes:
