Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Act II

by Tom Stoppard
Two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet become the stars of their own play, a meditation on chance, fortune, and the inevitability of fate.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act I, Act II, Act III

Here is a link to our lists for Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. appurtenance
    equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles
    The appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony.
  2. thwarted
    disappointingly unsuccessful
    Thwarted ambition—a sense of grievance, that’s my diagnosis.
  3. pragmatism
    the doctrine that practical consequences determine value
    Pragmatism?!—is that all you have to offer?
  4. viable
    capable of life or normal growth and development
    You don’t understand the humiliation of it—to be tricked out of the single assumption which makes our existence viable—that somebody is watching....
  5. nonplussed
    filled with bewilderment
    (They recoil nonplussed, his voice calms.)
  6. dissembling
    pretending with intention to deceive
    ROS leaps up, dissembling madly.
  7. unrequited
    not returned in kind
    Unrequited passion!
  8. quietus
    euphemism for death
    HAMLET enters upstage, and pauses, weighing up the pros and cons of making his quietus.
  9. orison
    reverent petition to a deity
    Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.
  10. sordid
    foul and run-down and repulsive
    Well, really—I mean, people want to be entertained—they don’t come expecting sordid and gratuitous filth.
  11. gratuitous
    unnecessary and unwarranted
    Well, really—I mean, people want to be entertained—they don’t come expecting sordid and gratuitous filth.
  12. arras
    a wall hanging of handwoven fabric with pictorial designs
    "The Closet Scene," Shakespeare Act III, scene iv) and very stylized reconstruction of a POLONIUS figure being stabbed behind the arras (the murdered KING to stand in for POLONIUS), while the PLAYER himself continues his breathless commentary for the benefit of ROS and GUIL.
  13. recant
    formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief
    Lucianus, nephew to the king... usurped by his uncle and shattered by his mother’s incestuous marriage . .. loses his reason... throwing the court into turmoil and disarray as he alternates between bitter melancholy and unrestricted lunacy ... staggering from the suicidal (a pose) to the homicidal (here he kills “POLONIUS”) ... he at last confronts his mother and in a scene of provocative ambiguity—(a somewhat oedipal embrace) begs her to repent and recant
  14. spurious
    plausible but false
    (Nods with spurious confidence.)
  15. autumnal
    characteristic of late maturity verging on decline
    Autumnal—nothing to do with leaves.
Created on Wed Oct 02 12:49:46 EDT 2013 (updated Wed Jul 02 16:48:42 EDT 2025)

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