Stoppard's Use of Theatre to Explore Ideas about Identity Hugo Cellier 12th Grade

Tom Stoppard uses theatre to portray characters whose existence solely revolve around Shakespeare’s Hamlet. They lack a defined identity and are indistinguishable, as would dictate the existential universe they are a part of.

In his play, Stoppard creates a life for secondary characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whose entire identity revolve around their purpose which is to participate in Shakespeare’s play. Therefore, the playwright creates a new perspective to an existing play, reinforcing ideas about his character’s identities. Upon receiving their instructions from Gertrude and Claudius and been given a purpose, Guil mispronounces a sentence, to which he exclaims never to have “seen those letters in that order before”, similar to a little kid who is discovering his entourage. Indeed, the pair have only truly been set into existence a couple minutes beforehand after being given their purpose with Hamlet and therefore are unable to remember the past. They have an “unremembered past” of their personal lives and Ros cannot even “remember his own name”, showing how his duty and professional life invades his personality. Perhaps Stoppard is trying to show how people’s identities are forged and...