Tom Stoppard's Transformation In Hamlet

Hamlet Essay
Transformations require an imaginative reshaping of significant elements and thus it does not require to mirror the original source as there are no rules about the process. A transformation can stand on its own merit but its interpretation and understanding is enriched when the viewer is familiar with both the original text and the ways the new text has paid tribute to the original piece. It is highly engaging and interesting to view these parallels and allusions as transformations serve to reinforce the universality of the original text. Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (RAGAD) is highly stimulating transformations of Shakespeare’s famous Hamlet as he derives a different perspective on the events of Hamlet
Although Shakespeare’s context influences to view death as a pathway to eternity and an afterlife and Stoppard’s context influences nihilism and existentialism of no afterlife the resultant idea in both plays are very similar. Shakespeare explores the idea largely through his soliloquys whilst Stoppard examines it in conversation, trying to test its significance. Guil questions whether; “Death’s death, isn’t it?” while Ros reaches the same conclusion as Hamlet that life must surely be preferable to death when h says “life in a box is better than no life at all”. Here the concept of confinement becomes an extended metaphor for the lack of man’s control of his own life. Similarly free choice or destiny is an idea that is examined in both plays. Hamlet is full of self-reproach for his failure to act and his debilitating indecisions, and Ros mirrors this frustration when he asks Guil; “shouldn’t we be doing something constructive?” the failure of the protagonist in both plays to dedicate their own destinies or take action into their own hands helps develop the audiences perception of them as helpless victims in situations outside their control. Both Ros and Guil do a double take as they read the letters that seals their fate; “without delay of any kind, should those bearers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, put to sudden death.” Stoppard has sieved these techniques to establish that no one has any real control over the circumstances in their lives no matter what the age or context of society. This further concludes that no matter how many significant elements are transformed there must always be parallels that remain constant in both texts to provoke the viewer’s