Hamlet Theme Of Identity In Hamlet

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In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the theme of identity is presented from the very beginning. The opening act of the play, paired with Hamlet’s subsequent soliloquies, give the foundation for a play where the major character’s identities are progressively constructed as the narrative advances. As the plot of Hamlet unfolds, each character is given the liberty to reveal their intended identity to the audience. As the story progresses, so does information about the identity of each character, but for some characters, even by the end of the play, their identities are never fully discovered. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of such characters from Hamlet whose identities were never fully evolved. For nearly 350 years, these characters were limited …show more content…
The focus of Stoppard’s play comes from the most notable “unscene” in Hamlet, the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In order for Stoppard’s play to make sense however, he relies on Hamlet for background context and thus embeds scenes from the original play into his play (King 12-13). This connection to Hamlet allows his play to fully develop and answer the vague and untold circumstance behind Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s death. The first appearance of Hamlet occurs in the middle of the first act of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead when Ros and Guil enter into the castle to see Claudius and Gertrude who had invited them over concern for Hamlet who had seemingly gone mad. Just like in the Hamlet, Claudius greets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and then the first 35 lines of act II scene II are quoted, taken directly from the original play, “Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Moreover that we much did long to see you, the need we have to use you did provoke our hasty sending...” (Shakespeare II.II.1-3). In the original play, after the first 35 lines, Ros and Guil depart. However, in Stoppard’s play, in order to create a larger role for the two, Ros and Guil do not depart and continue to converse until inversely, Claudius and Polonius are the ones to depart the stage instead. As is seen by this particular excerpt, Hamlet is used to background context by showing the reason for Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s presence and is thus a necessary component of Stoppard’s play. “Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead stimulates the audience to question the connection between identity and narrative because the stories, although entangled with each other, present significantly different identities for the
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