In reference to Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead, the Transformation from conventional to the radical is more a focus on the original Elizabethan style of Shakespeare's Hamlet and its conversion into the absurdist theatre of Tom Stoppard. ... Far from the Elizabethan style of theatre was Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead. Set in roughly the same time period as Hamlet but written in 1967, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead took two characters deemed too unimportant to feature in Shakespeare's Hamlet and centralizes them using an Absurdist mould...

• Word Count: 508
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends," is a theme that echoes through most of the Shakespearean play Hamlet and the new contemporary piece of work by Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Free will, as a concept, is discussed very existentially in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead since the whole play takes place in the midst of Hamlet itself, and thus Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are unable to actually break free of the destiny assigned to them by Shakespeare. ...

• Word Count: 560
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, written in the 1960s by playwright Tom Stoppard, is a transformation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. ... Language portrays meaning in both plays- the language of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead differs to that of Hamlet. ... Stoppard brings two relatively insignificant characters for Hamlet into focus in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. ... In Hamlet, there is clear distinction between reality and acting but this is not the case in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. ... Tom Stoppard is able to make clear statements about the society that has...

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

Stoppard broke the Shakespearean trait of righting wrongs by presenting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as an Absurdist piece with no resolution, no development, and no direction. ... Rosencrantz muses about death when he imagines being dead in a box. ... Yet one idea about death changes from Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. ... Similar to Hamlet, many of the questions within Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead are rhetorical. ... The transformation of Hamlet into Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead led to the change in how issues were presented to the audience....

• Word Count: 1181
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

It develops the character by mainly showing his incredible intellect, as it well portrays his vast knowledge of the dead. ... It shows his knowledge of the dead in line 162, "A tanner will last you nine years." ... Examples of this are shown in lines 165-168, " a" will keep out water a great while, and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. ... Also this imagery is expressed in the action the Gravedigger performs when he throws up skulls of the already dead and decayed. ...

• Word Count: 647
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The play starts outside the castle, where three guards witness the appearance of a Ghost who looks exactly like the dead old Hamlet. ... Hamlet speaks to the ghost, who claims to be the spirit of his dead father. ... And later on in the play the queen tells Laertes and the King the breaking news, Ophelia is dead. ...

• Word Count: 601
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Hamlet discloses his true feelings about his uncle after his father's death. Hamlet is upset with his mother for marrying only two months or so after his father's death. And on top of his mother marrying that soon, she marries his father's brother. Hamlet is not a happy person. He finds out that his...

• Word Count: 374
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

One's father's murderer is certainly someone one would want dead. Another reason Hamlet would wish Claudius dead is that Claudius marries and lusts with Hamlet's mother. ... (Act I, scene 2) Claudius thinks that Hamlet wants him dead because Hamlet wishes to take the throne. ...

• Word Count: 785
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Hate and revenge are an ongoing theme in the play Hamlet. All of the main characters show some type of hate in the play. Hamlet's hate for Claudius is the main focus during the entire play. There are lots of other characters that hate each other in the play, like Laertes hate for Hamlet at the en...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet is the prince of Denmark and the protagonist. Hamlet through out Hamlet is contemplating the revenge for his father's death. Hamlet is indecisive, hesitant, and contemplative yet at other times impulsive. In Hamlet, Shakespeare defines some of Hamlet's char...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: "He should the bearers"" (V, 2) Claudius: "" Then, venom, to thy work," (V, 2) Laertes: "They bleed on both sides"" (V, 2) Polonius: ""Dead for a ducat, dead," (III, 4) Ophelia: "What the fair Ophelia!" ... He never said that he wanted to be with his mother, but he was just mad that Claudius took the throne from him at the beginning of the play, not that his father was dead. ...

• Word Count: 650
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Claudius' awareness of Hamlet's agony over his dead father, results the king to believe that such level of depression is absurd; therefore, Hamlet's stepfather condemns his son's feelings striving for control over Hamlet's emotions. ... Unable to show any authentic sorrow for his recently dead brother, the king of Denmark opens his meeting with the lords in his castle in scene 2 with how his brother's death is "far hath discretion fought with nature" (1.2.5), after such "touching moment" the king moves on to discuss their political situation. ....

• Word Count: 1218
• Approx Pages: 5

His dead father, the King, sought Hamlet out so that he could discover the truth about, and get revenge for his father's death. ... Tragedy is almost a synonym to death in that by the end of both stories, every immediate member of Oedipus's family has died and everyone in Hamlet's immediate family, along with most of the people he cared about, is dead as well. ... Claudius is two-faced while Oedipus is anxious, until he finds his mother dead, then he becomes crazy and scratches his eyes out. ... Both stories ended with them "dead", one way or another. ...

• Word Count: 1038
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Claudius' awareness of Hamlet's agony over his dead father, results the king to believe that such level of depression is absurd; therefore, Hamlet's stepfather condemns his son's feelings striving for control over Hamlet's emotions. ... Unable to show any authentic sorrow for his recently dead brother, the king of Denmark opens his meeting with the lords in his castle in scene 2 with how his brother's death is "far hath discretion fought with nature" (1.2.5), after such "touching moment" the king moves on to discuss their political situation. ....

• Word Count: 1189
• Approx Pages: 5

People who Hamlet has friendly interactions with turn out to be dead because Hamlet's sense to kill is completely unstoppable. For instance, Polonius becomes a victim of Hamlet's wrath simply because he is in the wrong place at the wrong time, "Dead for a ducat, dead!... The only demand Hamlet has is for the man who murdered his father to be dead. ...

• Word Count: 1006
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Bernardo notes that the ghost is "In the same figure, like the king that's dead" and then questions himself "Looks it not like the king". ... Bernardo replies if it is really the late king's spirit why has it come back from the dead? ...

• Word Count: 466
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Loyalty, a noun meaning "the quality of being loyal toward someone or something, a strong feeling of support or allegiance, or faithfulness to one's cause, ideal, or government." In its purest form, loyalty is merely the adherence, or the duty one human being has to another. First off, what exactly ...

• Word Count: 582
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Claudius, both uncle and father to Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and the murderer and brother of the dead king. ... Claudius' speech can be compared to the poison poured in the dead king's ear - sly and swift. ...

• Word Count: 614
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

As a result of Hamlet's prolonged act of being mad, he does indeed become mad himself. As we know King Claudius murdered Hamlet Sr. Upon hearing the news of the true actions taken, Hamlet sets out to avenge his fathers murder. With all of his anger he is viewed as being mad by society, King and Que...

• Word Count: 493
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

He wanted Hamlet dead right away and decided to do this by planning a crooked fencing match which would result in Hamlet's death. ... An apparition of Hamlet's dead father comes to Hamlet and informs him that he was in fact, murdered. ... Hamlet wants the king dead and he will make sure that he be the one who kills him. ...

• Word Count: 1084
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

With this declaration of guilt, it confirms the claims of the dead King's ghost in the previous act. ... Feeling compelled to respond to the call of his dead father, he is faced with the decision to forgive and forget or seek revenge. ...

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

Hamlet - Act IV 1. Based on the short initial scene of Act IV, is it unclear if Gertrude truly believes Hamlet is mad or not. What it is clear is that the Queen seems to be more allied to her King than her own son. After her encounter with Hamlet which ends with Polonius' death, Gertrude does not he...

• Word Count: 833
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He could have stayed hidden, yet when he found out that it was Ophelia that was dead, he went out to say good bye to his love one last time. Seeing Ophelia dead was a reality shock to Hamlet, and his true feelings were brought out. ...

• Word Count: 644
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

This knowledge gives Macbeth a false sense of security because he believes that he cannot be harmed, yet Macduff was not of woman born, his mother was dead and a corpse when Macduff was born. ... Macbeth wonders why murder had taken place many times in the past before it was prevented by law -statute purged the gentle weal- and yet the dead are coming back. ...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He had virtually no one to live for: his love, Ophelia, was dead, as was his father, mother, and all their advisors. ... Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Claudius, on the other hand, are completely and unequivocally slaves to their passions, and they all end up dead. ...

• Word Count: 653
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School