Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and the play it was based on, Shakespeare's Hamlet, acting is a major theme and motif. Especially in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, acting signifies the falsity, absurdity, and superficiality of life. Therefore, acting and the staging of plays is a metaphor for living. However, acting also causes the audience to perceive the play in an entirely new way, especially in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. In Stoppard's play, the audience never truly suspends disbelief because even the main characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, refer to the audience directly and because the play has no outstanding plot. Both plays use acting to portray the futility and tragedy of life, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead does so in an almost slapstick way. Stoppard's play is a comedy that grossly exaggerates two minor characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet. While Shakespeare shows how acting and drama...
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