Hamlet
... in the nature of human emotion. It examines the reality behind the mask as well as the quality of the mask itself. It follows the destiny of the prince of Denmark, Hamlet, who has vowed to avenge his father’s murder. Shakespeare provides a dramatic final battle scene that results in the death of Hamlet. Hamlet questions what he is told and therefore makes it a humanist text and reflects the thought of Elizabethan society at this time. Revenge was regarded as a sin and therefore a play containing revenge was highly entertaining due to the forbidden content. Hamlet is after revenge against his uncle for murdering his father. It looks at the themes of fate, human self-interest, death, appearances, individuality and identity. The use of soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays heightened the closeness between the audience and the actors, in which the character speaks truthfully to the audience. Asides were also used to get an insight of characters true feelings. Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are dead is an appropriation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are dead was written in the 1960’s a time when greater freedom was allowed in the writing and performance of plays. They became increasingly political and overtly critical of their social environment. Stoppard was influenced by the ideals of Existentialism; it stresses personal experience and responsibilities. He had the freedom of new technology such as lighting and props. People questioned the meaning of life because of the threat of a nuclear war. Stoppard’s play uses colloquial, comical language intersecting with the text of Hamlet. “I want to go home” is said by Rosencrantz after first meeting the king and queen and is said during an original scene from Shakespeare. It transforms two minor characters in Hamlet and follows their battle against destiny. It contains ideals of Existentialism. In the play Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are alone and separated from the rest of the world. They attempt to solve metaphysical problems about he nature of fate and the possibility of free will to provide meaning for their lives, but they can’t act for themselves as they are trapped within the conventions of Hamlet’s world. It is a comment of the world in which Stoppard is writing in. The plot moves nowhere outside Hamlet as they exist when they have someone to exist for and are not capable of being the source of their own identity. They try to convince themselves they have some freedom “We are not restricted. No boundaries are clearly defined, no inhibitions imposed”. Their fate is sealed in Hamlet in that they are destined to die from the beginning although they are unaware of this. Stoppard employed the use of asides in his play to distinguish between Rosencrantz and Guilderstern. Guilderstern makes small comment to himself or the audience that show his intelligence and fear of what is to come. An example is ‘Death followed by eternity ... the worst of both worlds. It is a terrible thought’. Stoppard’s transformation of the play Hamlet moves beyond a simple character transformation, into a play that has a life of its own separate to Shakespeare’s text. He has not only changed the main characters of Hamlet, but has changed the message and explored the themes from a different direction. Stoppard reveals the difference between appearance and reality, the powerful force of self-interest and the lack of control we have over our lives. By changing the title of the play Stoppard has shifted the power away from Hamlet. He is no longer the protagonist, but just a character and his problems are not taken seriously and have reduced significance. And we see the world of Hamlet through Rosencrantz and Guilderstern's eyes. Both plays were written by and for a different culture that have different belief systems and language. Hamlet shows the belief in the transition from Elizabethan to Renaissance society, the humanist exploration of individuality. Through the process of transformation, Stoppard’s text must reflect new context, and therefore is involved in an existentialist sear...