Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Comparative Essay

The film of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is perceived as unusual modification of the Hamlet play. This kind of unusual alteration is evident in these two plays as the action is presented in Hamlet play was later told by the characters in the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, these two plays are slightly different in terms of performance; for example, characters in Hamlet play are just minor ones while the characters in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are major ones as they undertake their roles effectively. Indeed the two plays have both similarities and differences which are observed with regards to their characters, themes and contrasting plots. The kind of performance used in the two plays present a clear comparison of the two pieces of work. The play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is observed to be having several mistakes thus making it unpopular among audience as compared to Hamlet. Due to that, some scholars consider it inferior when compared to Hamlet and such audiences also argue that this play is disappointing as it entails boring dialogues, uninteresting plot and complex introduction. The analysis of the two films reveals that they have both similarities and differences in terms of their performance styles.

Hamlet vs. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

The play of Hamlet is performed by William Shakespeare and it is one of the classic plays acted by Shakespeare. The play is comprised of the main character who struggles to contain a conflict while the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is a by-product of Hamlet whose main characters struggle to contain multiple conflicts as well as tying to establish the source of such conflicts (Hopkins, 677). In the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the story is performed in a kind of chaotic world where all characters do not have any control over while the world where Hamlet is performed is as well chaotic but the characters have control over it. The kind of situation that Hamlet goes through is exaggerated in the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the play seems extremely complex, absolutely different and has little involved perspective. Therefore, the play is performed in that manner which makes the audience assume they already view it and is able to observe and understand the two plays in a new light (Mostafalou, Abouzar and Hossein, 325).

Stoppard uses theater as a lens through which the rest of the thematic issues are refracted in the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Several philosophical musings messages are replaced by bodies of actions in the play. For example, the play’s cinematic self-reflexivity is filtered through its correlation to theater. Also, another example is in the case of repeated performance failure joke where theatric and scientific converge is frequent and the scientific discoveries of Rosencrantz are made visible to audience as well as himself and not to Guildenstern (Hateley, 118). However, Guildenstern is not impressed at all by those scientific discoveries. Moreover, the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is as well characterized by a complex interplay amidst verbal registers of meaning, science, visual and theater. In fact, this play is rendered via faster edits upon meeting Tragedians so as to demonstrate the kind of verbal catalogue provided by Stoppard.  In this case, the Tragedians met then lead to a sense of theatrical or heightened reality to this film either verbally or visually.  

On the other hand, Shakespeare uses a lot of dialogues and speeches regarding death in his play thus making the audience interpret it as suicide contemplation. ‘’Don’t you think it would not be nice to die,’’ asks Hamlet (Bloom, 270). Hamlet is uttering these words to himself meaning the dialogue or speech used by Shakespeare in this play is perceived as a general reflection of a man’s condition as opposed to just being a specific expression of willing to die. Moreover, in the play of Hamlet, its persistent reallocation of object and subject positions or roles for audiences and actors portrays its audiences as firmly concerned with considering issues of determination, agency and identity as the characters are. The existence of philosophical connections amidst being observed and observing in theatric ways and that transcend it is told through outbursts of the player. ‘’Don’t you understand the shame of being deceived, a postulation which makes our well-being endurable; meaning a person is observing.’’ Such statements reveal the play’s most concern which is to determine the connection amidst being known, knowing yourself and knowing other people.     

Moreover, the characters used in Hamlet play are portrayed as being fantastic, for example, R&G and Polonius are rats and scheming dunce respectively (Bloom, 265). Also, Claudius and Gertrude are described as devil incarnate and mobled respectively while others are said to be fairly neutral. On the other hand, in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, R&G is described as being almost helpless and the rest are said to be devil incarnate. However, the most important similarity of the two plays is observed in their characters. For example, Hamlet is observed to be full of faith in tragedians thus making him declare this play the thing (Hateley, 115). Also, he believes that certain characters are swagger and shouts, “I had thought that certain nature’s journeymen tried making men though failed to make them good, such men imitate humanity atrociously (Hamlet scene III).” However, Hamlet addresses them prior to the play as he observes that such men have the ability to generate natural actions as well as produce actions that are adequately enough to stir-up genuine feelings or emotions.

On the other hand, Guildenstern expresses slightly thinking. The actors are trusted by Guildy as he is able to throw them (Mostafalou, Abouzar and Hossein, 326). Also, Guildy does not tolerate lies even though Hamlet refers to him a liar thus making him to be put to death. In fact, basing an argument on death, the two plays display a similarity where dying is positively and totally one of the two. The performances of Stoppard and Shakespeare’s scenes are similar in the context of dialogue; however, this is so apparently to be the truth. Nonetheless, the most apparent similarity in these two plays is that both talks about death in details. “Have you ever thought of yourself lying dead in a box with lid at the top?’’ Rosencrantz asks Guildenstern (Mostafalou, Abouzar and Hossein, 327). This is just one of the very many conversations where death is talked about in the two plays. Hamlet is also having the same fears about the other characters such as Caesar, Alexander and Yorick.         

Conclusion

Indeed these two plays are just two sides of a coin because they explore a single theme from two angles. Regardless of whether the characters in the two plays are insane, but every one of them have similar predicament or are anti-hero in their personal rights concerning dying and death. However, all of them deal with their predicaments in their personal ways and differently as they maintain their own single-directional boats until the plays finish. The play of Hamlet is just manipulated by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as it replicates the initial play in pieces and adding more scenes. This play is acted just like behind the scenes meaning the play is looked to illustrate different perspectives. However, the play of Hamlet is well structured even though the character’s course of action and wellbeing might be confusing. Moreover, the play of Hamlet is structured in a manner that it does not confuse the audience especially about the events or time sequence. However, slight confusion is only observed with the characters but not externally within the scenes or within the entire play. On the other hand, the internal and external confusion exist in the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The internal confusion in the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is observed especially where the characters are questioning their whereabouts and why they are there. The characters also relate to the original play, Hamlet, and they ask themselves about how they can assist Hamlet avoid his madness. The general external chaos presented in the play of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reflects the abrupt and strange transition of scenes as well as the overall obscurity of things that lead to confusion amidst the characters and the audiences.           

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. “An essay by Harold Bloom” in Hamlet, edited by Burton Raffel, Yale University Press, 2003, pp. 264-279.

Hateley, Erica. “Hamlet through the Looking Glass: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” Screen Education, no. 67, 2012, pp. 115-120.

Hopkins, Justin B. "Hamlet by Wilma Theater, and: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Wilma Theater."Shakespeare Bulletin 33.4 (2015): 677-683.

Mostafalou, Abouzar, and Hossein Moradi. "Persistence of Baroque Trauerspiel in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as a Postmodern Literature: Rejection of Metanarrative."Journal of Language Teaching and Research

8.2 (2017): 322-328.