Stoppard's absurd comedy, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a transformation of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy, Hamlet. Both contain common characters and events but are separated from their historical, social, and literary contexts. The works are also different in language, theatrical style, values, character and themes. Shakespeare's Hamlet and Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are different due to the different time periods. Shakespeare's Hamlet was written in 1602, in the Elizabethan era, when the Church of England was well established and the beginning of the Renaissance period had occurred. While Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead were written in the 1960s, a time of absurdism, existentialism and experimentation; life and authority were questioned and sex, drugs and rock and roll took over; everything was against the norm and there was no dominant church or monarchy. The purpose of the two plays is also very alternative. In Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead the goal is to leave the audience confused and with many questions, but in Hamlet the goal is very different, it is to entertain the spectators. In Stoppard's work Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are death, life, death and morality. are questioned, for example, when Guildenstern speaks to the Player, he explains death as: "It's just that a man doesn't reappear, that's all - now you see him, now you don't, and that's the only real thing" Even in the Hamlet this happens, Hamlet contemplates life, death and suicide, this is done through various soliloquies spread throughout the play, for example 'die, sleep- No more; and with a sleep to say that we end." The characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are very different; and obviously all roles are reversed. In the play Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the player all play very minor roles, sometimes they even get confused (for example when Claudius confuses them and Gertrude corrects him "Claudius: Thank you Rosencrantz, and kind Guildenstern. Gertrude: Thank you Guildenstern, and kind Rosencrantz ) While in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead the characters are all reversed and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern now share the main roles with the player Characters such as Hamlet and Ophelia now gain non-speaking roles or have their own scene behind the main scene in Rosencrantz and. Guildenstern. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a purpose, the purpose is to unconsciously help Claudius kill Hamlet,
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