SolarSystem wrote:
Hm, do you really consider Ben's Rosencrantz to be the dominant one in this scene? Okay, he has more text, he is talking and talking and talking and Guildenstern is just giving some short answers. But what is Rosencrantz talking about?
Ok, I think I didn't use the right word here. What I mean, in the play (and in the film) Rosencrantz is kind of a endearing fool - this is the way Oldman plays him - he is really dumb and always scolded by Guildernstern/Roth, who is the leader of the duo and the one who is trying all the time to figure out what is going on. In this scene, which admittedly is one of the few in the play when it is Rosencrantz who talks more, the impression is reverse, IMO: Rosencrantz is the excentric thinker and Guildenstern is trying to follow his train of thinking.
As for what Rosencrantz is talking about, it is very sharp and scary speech, although travested in a kind of comical form. He is pondering the fundamental question of what does it mean to be dead and notices - such a true statement - that we cannot really imagine this, because we tend to think about our being dead as if we were still alive (for example, we imagine how the people will react to our death or how will be our funeral) and not as a total no-existence and blackness without coscience. Once he (R.) understands that, he becomes more and more agitated and frightened, because he realizes that usually we prefere life - ANY life - to death. In life, we can always cling to hope, death is irreversible. However, an eternal life or an eternal conscience of death would be, in fact, both equally frightening. 
btw. the whole R & G are dead witht Oldman and Roth may be found on youtube. It is well worth watching it!
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