Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, written in the 1960s by playwright Tom Stoppard, is a transformation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Stoppard effectively relocates Shakespeare's play to the 1960s by reassessing and reevaluating the themes and characters of Hamlet and considering core values and attitudes of the 1960s- a time significantly different to that of Shakespeare. ... This change in orientation gives audiences a new perspective on Hamlet and a different interpretation of Shakespeare's most famous play. ... In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses his characters to show the power ...

• Word Count: 1077
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

During the scene, Shakespeare implements various dialogues and soliloquy to enhance the moods and achieve crucial dramatic purposes. ... Claudius accentuates the danger of Hamlet's madness to his subjects and proposes the plan to send Hamlet away. ... Claudius wants to secure his throne by sending Hamlet to England; hence this is foreshadowing future occurrences since Hamlet does get sent away. ... Moreover, the King demonstrates extreme irony when he at first desires Hamlet's stay in Elsinore, where he can keep an eye on Hamlet, and requests him not to return to Wittenberg. Yet now,...

• Word Count: 685
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The play follows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two side-characters from the revered Hamlet by William Shakespeare, who appear in the initial play briefly. If someone had read or seen a production of Hamlet, they would know that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two men assigned to kill Hamlet, who end up being outwitted by the prince and being executed themselves. Stoppard's play takes place at the same time as Shakespeare's play, but solely focuses on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's succession of events. ... This causes them to be unsure of how to act in the presence of Hamlet an...

• Word Count: 711
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is easy to compare these characters to the virgins of the modern day slasher movies simply because Tom Stoppard plucked them from one of the best slasher stories written, William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". ... The play portrays awareness of death as the ever-present yet ever-unknown constant in life and where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were in fact the last deaths the audience is to hear of in both Tom Stoppard's and Shakespeare's plays, had Shakespeare not written it that way death may have found these two characters first in true virgin fashion....

• Word Count: 787
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate