Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Author
Tom Stoppard. Before becoming a playwright, he was a drama critic.

Characters
Rosencrantz: A minor character from Hamlet. Called into being each time the play is performed, but does not understand his situation outside of his lines from the play. Can't think for himself. Spends most of his time trying and failing to figure out what's going on. Relies more on his emotions when making decisions.

Guildenstern: Another minor character from Hamlet. Situation similar to that of Rosencrantz, although he knows a little bit more. Still has difficulty understanding what is happening to him. Relies more on logic when making decisions.

Player: Lead actor of the troupe performing Hamlet. Knows exactly what is going on. Frequently hints at his knowledge to R and G. Like all of the actors, he relies on the presence of an audience.

Setting
Left intentionally vague by Stoppard. The play opens in "a place without any visible character."

Plot
Act One: R and G attempt to entertain themselves through a coin toss. They cannot remember what they are meant to be doing or where they came from. They meet the players, and win a bet for a performance.The events from Hamlet begin to occur. It is shown that R and G don't know anything other than their lines in the play. They attempt to figure out what they should be doing from the lines of the other characters. They try to figure out how to diagnose Hamlet. Hamlet makes his entrance.

Act Two: R and G fail miserably at understanding Hamlet. The Player offers some insight into the situation, but they remain confused. R and G watch the tragedians rehearsing their play, and argue with the Player about death. It is revealed that Hamlet has killed Polonius. R and G are told they will be escorting him to England.

Act Three: Once on the boat, R and G are confused about their location and whether or not they are alive. They do not know what to do once they arrive in England. G reads the letter from Claudius to the English King and discovers that Hamlet is going to be put to death. Hamlet switches the letters while R and G are sleeping. The Players make an appearance, as do the pirates. G finds out that the letter now says he and R are going to be put to death. He and the Player debate more about death. The Players leave. R and G try to understand why they are going to die, but cannot.

Narrative Voice
There is no specific narrator, as it is a play.

Motifs
Confusion: Circular time, identity, memory, "logic," reality, meta, lack of rules, direction, language, trust, eroticism.
Chance/Fate: Predestination, providence, death, control, direction, expectations, waiting.
Language: Repetition, imagery, malaphor, religion, meta.
Theater/Art: Criticism of theater, buying and selling, direction, performing, death, music, meta, eroticism.

Symbolism
The Boat: The boat can serve as a symbol for R and G's lives -- they can attempt to make choices in each of their incarnations, but in the end they are always headed to the same place.
Coins: The coin flipping illustrates the lack of chance in R and G's lives. While it should have a 50-50 chance of landing either heads or tails, the result is consistently heads. This lack of chance shows the lack of chances they have, and establishes that the rules of their world are different from the rules of our own.
England: England can be interpreted as Heaven, showing the providence that R and G search for but never find. They claim that they don't believe in England, and they do not know who the English King is, just as many people are unsure about their beliefs in Heaven and higher powers.

Quotes
Player: Decides? It is written. (80)
This quote illustrates one of Stoppard's key points: R and G have no choice as to their fate, but they are characters and not people. Their fates have already been written by Shakespeare, and now by Stoppard as well. However, since it is probably safe to assume that we are not characters in a book or play, we are not written and thus have free will.

Guil: Well, we'll know better next time. (126) 
R and G are trapped in a never-ending cycle of confusion, summoned back into being each time Hamlet is performed. G is slightly more aware of this than R, but since they are still characters he has no control and will thus never know better. While events may seem vaguely familiar, R and G will never actually learn anything from their experiences.

Guil: You can't not-be on a boat.
Ros: I've frequently not been on boats.
Guil: No, no, no -- what you've been is not on boats. (108)
I don't know that this has a great deal of meaning but it is possibly my favorite quote from any play ever, which has to count for something. It also serves to illustrate the unclear language found throughout the play.

Theme
Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead contrasts the confusion and language of the stage with the audience, commenting that because life is not a work of art we are not limited by the same laws of fate that characters are and can therefore exercise free will.

Stoppard makes a point to illustrate how little free will R and G have, through things like their inability to think for themselves and quotes like the Player's, which claims that "it is written." However, he also makes it clear that R and G are not real people. They are characters trapped on stage, as shown through the meta nature of many of R and G's exchanges with each other and with the Player. They cannot understand their surroundings, much less think for themselves. In contrast, the audience viewing the play is made up of real people, all of whom have free will and are capable of choosing (to some extent) their own fates.