Rosalin and Guiligan

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not dead... YET. Give us this day an answer to what in the world this book is talking about! I'm just kidding... But not really. So let's say this novel is super satirical. It is discussing human life like we are all on a stage. And we cannot escape that stage unless we are dead. The entire novel has no discussion of religion or God so we can go ahead and take that whole aspect out of the picture. What is the importance of living a stage life? Why is living life like it is a stage such a negative thing? I believe it is a discussion of how people control us rather than how we control ourselves. Why are Ros and Guil on the stage? Because someone put them there. Why can't they get off the stage? Because they have lines that someone has given them. They are controlled by the people around them but it seems like a force. The only problem with assuming that it is a force is that there is no "force." In this play, God is clearly not a main player as they discuss the dismal ending after death to be nothingness. What does it mean when they insist that death leads to nothing better? So life is one big play, we are on a stage, miserable, frightened of messing up, and all to just die in the end, the curtain falls, its over. Why even bother going to see a play when you know the end will come and you will no longer have connections with the people in the play and the images you saw will fade away into nothingness when that curtain falls? Because we are human. And these dismal facts make us human. Those who cannot act, die. They take their own lives, they take the lives of others, they try to survive on the happiness of others, they try to be someone else and by being someone else, do not act as themselves on that stage and they also die only in a different way: they are offstage. The only reason Ros and Guil have a play in because they were not frightened of being onstage. That is something that no all people have. Guil's philosophical nature and natural boldness keeps him on the stage and Ros's empathy and innocence keep him on stage. There are only some people who can survive the grueling thing that is living. Stoppard would like us to believe that we live for nothing but some of us have the will to do it anyway. We are much like soldiers. Soldiers fight to win one war knowing that they will fight in infinitely more wars as that is human nature. Those who are less than human cannot survive. This novel dicusses human nature in its simplest form: survival of the fittest. By using Ros and Guil, we are given the keys to living which are that their are none! You gotta do your best and understand that it may never be good enough.. really.