We All Live On
...ght and reappear later with the hanging assumption that time has gone by in their absence. Rosencrantz’ and Guildenstern’s first literal exit from the play is followed quickly by their reentry. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern also have many exits from their purpose. At the beginning of the play, they played a pointless game of coin toss in which heads was thrown eighty-five times in succession. When Claudius gave them some purpose, they ended the senseless games and dialogue to get on with more pressing matters. As soon as the appointed purpose was finished, they “exited” the state of action, and reentered into their meaningless existence. This happened numerous times in the play and showed how every exit is an entrance somewhere else. Rosencrantz’ and Guildenstern’s disappearance at the end of the play is assumed by many to be the end of them. This is again proven wrong when the Ambassador speaks their names. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are never seen, “lying in a box with a lid on it,” yet they are presumed dead by all. The ultimate exit (death) is followed by many entries of the deceased party. When someone who has passed on is thought about or talked about, it could be considered another entrance. This again goes to show how in the play, and in life that every exit is an entrance somewhere else. In death, it is the belief of almost all religions that a spirit or soul will enter some new form of life or afterlife. This, “entrance,” could consist of reincarnation, heaven, or any other form of, “life after death,” though the only truly proven afterlife is the memories that a...