Character Analysis: Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

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Recommended: Compare stoppard's rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead with shakespeare's hamlet

Stoppard’s play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet through the eyes of two minor characters. In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters who are tasked with spying on Hamlet. Ultimately, they are killed when they arrive in England. Stoppard retells the story of Hamlet from the viewpoints of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Stoppard transfers not only the plot points, but several common themes and motifs from Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Stoppard manipulates the characters, actions, various themes, viewpoints, and perspectives from Hamlet to create a novel story that sheds a new light upon Hamlet.

In Hamlet, Hamlet is the main character and Rosencrantz and …show more content…

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a comedy- drama play. In Hamlet, the argument between Hamlet and Ophelia is a very serious and dramatic scene, but in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead the scene is comical scene in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are pretending to be Hamlet so they can be prepared to talk with him. The most dramatic scene in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is the end when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die. Hamlet is very heavy with small bits of comedy. The Gravedigger scene in Hamlet is the biggest comic relief section in the play; the two gravedigger’s make fun of the upper classes who will meet the same death as the lower classes. Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead maybe share certain plot points and themes, but the way they are portrayed is different in each one and that makes them two completely different …show more content…

When Hamlet sees Yorick’s skull in the graveyard, he realizes that everyone is mortal and that no one can avoid death. Hamlet says “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam—and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.” (Shakespeare 114). Hamlet is realizing after seeing Yorick’s skull that everyone dies and ends up in the ground decomposed, even Alexander the Great ended up dead.

In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not know what happens in the afterlife like Hamlet. When on the boat traveling to England Rosencrantz and Guildenstern talk about death and what it is and what it means. Rosencrantz says “Do you think death could possibly be a boat?”(Stoppard 108) Rosencrantz is wondering what will happen after death. The metaphor of death being a boat suggest that people are not in control of the boat and are not in control of their

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