Despite deriving from the exact same setting, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Hamlet are very different in many ways, such as context, overall perspective, structure, conveyance, supposed truths, and message. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the plot has a specific structure which contains a beginning, middle, and end. By the conclusion of the story, the story or problem has been resolved. Most, if not all, parts of the story serve a specific purpose in its portrayal and more importantly result. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, the story’s structure focuses on the processes that occur in the story, not the results. Its plot is characterized by a lack of control and a sense of chaos, as shown by many scenes in the play, to share the awareness at the time of life’s lack of purpose. Guildenstern asks Rosencrantz for him to recall the “first thing that happened today” (17), despite hesitantly replying that they were sent for, an uncertainty in what their purpose is serving lingers in the air, and persists throughout most of the play.
Also, the perspectives displayed in both stories differ in their purpose. In Hamlet, the audience is emotionally invested and involved with Hamlet’s tale. Hamlet experiences melancholy and suffering, and death in the plot is characterized dramatically. In the conclusion, the experiences and emotions of the audience lead to catharsis because the loose ends have been tied. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the audience is distanced from whatever drama existed in Hamlet. Due to the randomness of the play, the audience is likely to not become as attached to the story’s characters, and it allows the audience to objectively analyze parts of Hamlet. After witnessing Hamlet performing one of his soliloquys, the two contemplate Hamlet’s sanity, Guildenstern concluding that “A man talking sense to himself is no