Why does stoppard transform Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into the main charcters of his play?
             Stoppard considers his play; "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" is to be experienced rather than studied characterising his own work as 'retreating with style from chaos.' None-the-less, his play has been studied relentlessly since being written and first performed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August of 1966.
             Some critics would argue that Stoppard's play is simply a display of verbal and theatrical sophistication and that you leave the theatre filled with delight, but are not moved by the performance. I suggest that Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern delivers thought provoking comments concerning the values and attitudes of the 1960's. Stoppard effectively relocates Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' to the 1960's through the use of Hamlet's most insignificant characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, thus shifting the focus from royalty to the common man. Stoppard makes the content of the play more relevant and relatable to its audience in the 1960's.
             The 1960's were a time of confusion and turmoil. The US was involved in Vietnam; the world had witnessed two wars and exhausted all the possible governments available, none seeming to work. The National Organisation for Women (NOW) was founded by Betty Freidan to gain equal rights for women and the civil rights movement for American blacks spurred race riots.
             Stoppard's play reflects the mood of the era; unrest and confusion with no definites or certainties. He creates an atmosphere of confusion by deliberately altering the configuration of the play, from a well structured and rigid format common to the classic dramatic structure, to a chaotic and formless play, common to Absurd Theatre.
             By bringing two relatively insignificant characters from Hamlet into focus in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard i...