“Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced, no hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, ungartered and downgyved to his ankle, pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other...and with a a look so piteous...” (Stoppard 35)
- Through this description, Hamlet makes his first appearance in this play. He is introduced as this sickly, distressed character that appears before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The arrangement of his clothes are described through parallel structures and his complexion is compared to the color of a shirt, which is assumed to be white. His clothes, paleness, and the action with his knees portray the image of a disheveled, unhealthy, and desperate man.
“Atumnal... It is to do with a certain browness at the edges of the day...Russets and tangerine shades of old gold flushing the very outside edge of the senses...deeping shining ochres, burnt umber and parchments of baked earth - reflecting on itself and through itself, filtering the light.” (Stoppard 94)
- When Guildenstern remarks that it is autumn, Rosencrantz observes that there are no leaves on the ground. Guildenstern replies that autumn has “nothing to do with leaves.” The leaves may turn from green to orange to yellow to brown, but Guildenstern feels that the days can change colors too. The “edges” are the mornings and the nights, and the day allots more time for dark than for light. The description contains a variety of colors and paints a rich picture of golds and browns to describe the autumn day. The days become hazy and dimmer, just like the leaves.
“The perfect and absolute silence of the wet lazy slap of water against water and the rolling creak of timber - breaks” (Stoppard 112)
- Guildenstern is observing a sound he hears the morning after Hamlet alters the letter written by Claudius. He hears a tune by a pipe and compares it to the sounds of the water and timber. The image of water splashing against each other and the deep oak of the ship’s timber appears from the description. The water and wood are visualized even though the immediate sensory response is sound.