The Fate of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
             In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Tom Stoppard tells the story of Hamlet through the eyes of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two seemingly insignificant characters who are unable to accomplish anything asked of them. At the end of Act III, as Guildenstern stands waiting execution, he states, "There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said – no." Rosencrantz and Guildenstern never had a chance to say no; Stoppard and the events that happen around them control their lives. They are actors, merely acting out their roles unable to escape the plot or their fate. Neither Rosencrantz nor Guildenstern knows where he is, why he's there or what he's supposed to do next, and the pair's efforts to find out these things are thwarted by the fact that they can only play themselves as written.
             Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent for in the play to accomplish one thing – find out what is wrong with Hamlet. They don't remember anything before the morning when a messenger woke them by banging on their door. Stoppard invented them at this very moment; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern awoke so that they could act in Stoppard's play. As Guildenstern awaits his death, he wonders if there was a moment when they could have changed the course of events. The answer to that question is no. If they were able to change their fate they wouldn't have been the same Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Stoppard intended for them to be. For the play to work the way that Stoppard intend for it to work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern must mess up everything they are asked to accomplish. The sequence of events wouldn't have been the same if Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had the ability to escape their death. Some people would argue that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were capable of changing their fate. They could say that if Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fi...