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Restaurants and Guilelessness experience times of enlightenment, humor, and sorrow throughout their journey, leading them to ponder whether their livelihood actually has some sort of positive meaning. However, the ultimate gift of death crept up on them, without any explanation or hope, for all eternity. The ideas of existentialism are shown in the play through unstable identities, uncertain knowledge of the past, and anti-heroes Which lead to Rosenthal and Slenderness’s ultimate fate – their feared deaths. Unstable identities in the play contribute to the idea Of existentialism by making Restaurants and Guilelessness indistinguishable, emphasizing their need for meaning. When introducing themselves to the Player and the tragedians, Restaurants announces, “My name is Guilelessness, and this is Restaurants… ‘m sorry – his name is Guilelessness and I’m Restaurants” (Stoppard 22). Their own deprivation of identity shows that the meaning in their individual lives is lost, making them into cynical, unrecognizable objects.
In addition, they have lost their idiosyncrasies, creating a problem for other characters in distinguishing between the two, During a discussion about the King giving them an equal amount of money, Guilelessness exclaims that the king ‘Wouldn’t discriminate between [them]” (Stoppard 104), To the King, Ross and Guilt are simply n,vow objects that are willing to assist in any way possible; o him, there is no point in getting to know them individually.
The King’s lack of differentiation between the two shows that Ross and Guilt have lost a deeper meaning to the King, leading to the bereavement of identity, The ambiguous identities of Restaurants and Guilelessness obliged their characters to embody no purpose, inflicting the idea of existentialism. Ross and Soil’s doom deaths were caused by their nonexistent individuality. The pairs past also lead them through an existential drift, without meaning in their past, the pair still have nothing to go on.
The uncertainty of Restaurants and Slenderness’s past supplements the idea Of existentialism by making the play enigmatic. While walking along the path to Elisions Castle, Ross and Guilt attempt to comprehend What they are doing before making the expedition to the estate; Guilt asks Ross, N/hat’s the first thing you remember? ” and Ross replies, “Oh, let’s see… The first thing that comes into my head, you mean?… Ah. It’s no good, it’s gone” (Stoppard 16). Ross and Guilt are not able to recollect past events due to the fact that the prior matters adhered no meaning.
Even when Ross and Guilt are dying, they cannot recall what they have done to deserve this with Ross crying, ‘We’ve done nothing wrong! We didn’t harm anyone. Did we? ” and Guilt replies “l can’t remember” (Stoppard 125). At their dying second, Ross and Guilt are still unable to fathom what they have or have not done. Their past events are proven to be meaningless, leading them to an existential wandering containing no answers. Also through the use of anti-heroes, Stoppard made Restaurants and Guilelessness useless individuals Who could not carry out a duty Without the succor of one another.
An anti-hero, in some cases, considers his or herself to be incapable Of completing tasks While being corrupt, sullen, and disaffected. Restaurants and Guilelessness entrust each other to get through all dilemmas and yet they still become confused. When deciding what their next undertaking shall be, Guilt asks Ross, “What are we going to do now? ” and Ross replies, “I don’t know. What do you want to do? ” (Stoppard 17). Using a popular decision. Making device, Ross and Guilt reveal that they do not have the confidence to decide what to do and to execute the decision.
Confidence is an indicator of optimism, accessibility, and initiative; Ross and Guilt occupy none of these positive attributes, giving manifestation tot anti-heroes. Also, Ross and Guilt count on the Kings letter to get through the peregrination, with Guilt saying, “Everything is explained in the letter. We count on that’ (Stoppard 105). Ross and Guilt refer to the letter whenever a predicament arises, urging them to resolve the issue, With the letter epitomizing their fate, it is what they count on the most. The pair fails to envisage that one another and the letter were the ultimate factors that lead to their demise.
Restaurants and Guilelessness live up to the idea of anti-heroes in existentialism by being each other’s hopeless backbones and depending on the letter, which leads them to their fateful deaths. Through the utilization of vacillating identities, unforeseeable knowledge of the past, and anti-heroes, existentialism augmented Restaurants and Slenderness’s ultimate kismet – their anticipated deaths. Tom Stoppard leads Ross and Guilt through an obscure existence that turns out to encompass nothing. With this, the reader might ask, M’/hat is life Without purpose? ” – And one can say that it is certainly no life at all.