How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
Quote #1
PLAYER: We keep to our usual stuff, more or less, only inside out. We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else. (1.207)
Is the Player here making a statement not only about what his troupe does, but also about what Stoppard is doing in his play? Does his theory of many entrances and exits suggest that there is one inescapable reality or that there are just infinitely many different realities?
Quote #2
GUIL: Do you like being…an actor?
ALFRED: No, sir.
(GUIL looks around him, at the audience.)
GUIL: You and I, Alfred – we could create a dramatic precedent here. (1.246-248)
Assuming that the dramatic precedent would be two actors walking out of a play that they are paid to act in, how does Guil recognize that he is an actor? How can Guil for a moment seem to understand that he is just a character in a Stoppard play? Does he cease to be Guil at this moment and become the actor that plays him?
Quote #3
GUIL: Well…aren't you going to change into your costume?
PLAYER: I never change out of it, sir. (1.271-272)
When the player says that he never changes out of his costume, does this mean that he is attempting to treat reality as he would treat a play or that he is attempting to treat a play as most people treat reality?