Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Ton Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and notes their similarities and key differences. The paper examines these characters' importance to Stoppard's work and highlights how trying to separate them into two individual people confuses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern themselves as well as the readers. The paper describes how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who nobody could ever tell apart, are swallowed up by their own lack of individuality.

From the Paper:

"The treasure that lies at the heart of Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead lies in the fact that the audience is intended to act as a foil for the author. We are to be "in the know" about the origin of the characters, and their purpose, both in this play and in Shakespeare's original Hamlet, from which the characters are drawn.
"In the original work the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are lackeys of Hamlet, merely walk-on players in the wider meaning of this Shakespeare story. For Tom Stoppard, the characters take a broader meaning and purpose."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Desmet,Christy & Robert Sawyer Shakespeare and Appropriation. Routledge. London. 1999 pp 191, 225
• Gussow,Mel Happiness, Chaos and Tom Stoppard. American Theatre. Volume: 12. Issue: 10. December 1995
• Mack, Maynard Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE. 1993
• Rowe, Nicholas, actor, quoted in Laughing for Eternity at Life's Curiosities; Go! Theatre. Coventry Evening Telegraph. June 17, 2005. Page Number: 71
• Shakespeare, William Hamlet

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