In my third semester, I was privileged to attend the course History of Literatures in English: Reading the Canon and Beyond at the same time as when the world celebrated Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary. The focus of this lecture was three of Shakespeare’s tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. Despite having read and analyzed Hamlet in my AP English class, I found it delightsome to partake in a class that focused specifically on the features of Shakespeare’s plays and how they have influenced later generations. The examination of Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead underlined the significance of Shakespeare’s impact. As with Hamlet, I had already studied this play during my AP English course; however, I valued reading
When I was a young student, my first English professor taught me the alphabet. After one year, he taught me to put those letters together to make words, sentences, and finally paragraphs in essays. During the high school I learn to write short paragraphs, with ought putting in the correct structure .When I moved in America I stared the course of English as a Second Language and I finished with success last year. My professor advise me that when I starts the English 101 my writing it will be more fulfil and more structural. He has right as when I arrived in English 101, I realized there was more to do not just writing words on paper.
When I was in the second grade we had a new student in our class named Yvonne. Yvonne had recently arrived from Haiti and knew very little English. Due to the fact that she didn’t understand English a whole lot, the other kids in my class thought it would be funny to call her names and bully her. One day we were at electives. Our class was divided into two, some going to Dance others going to Drama. The doors were across from each other so we could see what was happening. I was in Dance, as well as Yvonne. We were practicing our routine for Ciara’s “1, 2 step”. Yvonne was quick to pick up the dance and was amazing at it, which I think made the other kids in our class resent her. Our instructor dismissed us 5 minutes early to pack up our things. I quickly went to my corner and grabbed my backpack. When I looked up I saw a bunch of girls surrounding Yvonne. I remember hearing them calling her names like ‘ugly’ and ‘loser’. I noticed that no one moved to defend her. One of the girls actually pushed her to the ground and took her backpack dumping all her things on the floor; that’s when I acted. I pushed my way through the girls and placed myself in front of Yvonne. I grabbed her backpack out of the girl’s hand pushed her and called her a ‘mean witch for making fun of Yvonne’. I also told the other girls that if they messed with Yvonne, they would have to
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (R and G…) by Tom Stoppard is a transformation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that has been greatly influenced due to an external contextual shift. The sixteenth century Elizabethan historical and social context, accentuating a time of questioning had specific values which are transformed and altered in Stoppard’s Existential, post two-world wars twentieth century historical and social context. The processes of transformation that are evident allow the shifts in ideas, values and external contexts to be clearly depicted. This demonstrates the significance of the transformation allowing new interpretations and ideas about reality as opposed to appearance, death and the afterlife and life’s purpose to be
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, written in the 1960s by playwright Tom Stoppard, is a transforation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard effectively relocates Shakespeare’s play to the 1960s by reassessing and revaluating the themes and characters of Hamlet and considering core values and attitudes of the 1960s- a time significantly different to that of Shakespeare. He relies on the audience’s already established knowledge of Hamlet and transforms a revenge tragedy into an Absurd drama, which shifts the focus from royalty to common man. Within Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard uses a play within a play to blur the line that defines reality, and in doing so creates confusion both onstage- with his characters, and offstage-
After taking honors English for the past three school years, I now want the challenge of taking a higher level course: AP literature and composition. At this point in my high-school career, I’ve been able to take three advanced classes, and I want this class on my belt as well.
Despite knowing the powerlessness it would give him in doing so, Shakespeare surrendered thematic interpretations of Hamlet to the audience through their vassal characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Or perhaps, being the accomplished playwright that he was, the Bard recognized the inevitability the audience taking interpretative and critical power away from his written words. Regardless of the author’s support, future dramatic performances, Burlesques, and literary critiques reworked what he had already revised from popular stories into Hamlet. Having died in 1616, the Bard of Avon hardly has the last say on the interpretation of his works, and given the cultural significance and enduring story of Hamlet, no one may ever get the pleasure.
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is one of the most influential texts in western thought. Tom Stoppard took advantage of how widely known the play was and wrote his own play entitled, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, as a ploy off of the final lines of the play Hamlet. Stoppard’s play is “a play within a play” to some extent; he took two of Shakespeare’s flat characters and gave them life. The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead follows the story of Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in their journey through the play Hamlet. Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, displays many themes or messages, three of which being identity, motivation, and death.
Starting this class, I’ll be honest, I was afraid when I heard about AP Seminar. I didn’t really know how I got into the class because I know my writing isn’t as great as most kids in my class. AP Seminar involves a lot of hard work, and I felt as if my writing wasn’t good enough. Out of my 5 essays from last year, I only got one A. That one A didn’t make me feel smart though, and I didn’t understand why. Writing this now is difficult for me because I don’t know how to explain things in my own words. I heard a lot about how hard this class is and about the speeches. I can’t stand talking about speeches because that is my greatest fear. I still haven’t figured out my main writing strength, but what I do know is I am taking small steps into
Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a humorous piece of self-reflexive theater that draws upon Shakespeare's Hamlet as the source of the story. The actual device of self-reflexive theater is used so well in Stoppard's play that it reads like the love child of a play and a compelling critical essay. The play is academic yet conversationally phrased and it deepens our understanding of the original play but also criticizes it. The aspect of self-reflexive theater is used to comment on theater itself but also as a presentation of ideas and analysis that had previously had no place on the plot-centric set-up of stage and audience.
This essay will discuss several literary criticisms of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After skimming through several articles, I ended up with four peer-reviewed journal articles, each a different critical perspectives of the play: feminist, psychoanalytical/freudian, moral, and new historicism. My previous studies of Hamlet, as well as my rereading of the play this semester, has collectively given me a general knowledge of the text. My familiarity of the play made it easier for me to decipher the academic journals and see the connections each critic made with the play.
In the words of T.S. Eliot, “We can say of Shakespeare, that never has a man turned so little knowledge to such great account” (Eliot). The works of Shakespeare are known throughout the world as classic literary pieces. The lessons learned through reading Shakespeare have carried themselves and remain to be true although they have been around for hundreds of years. The style in which William Shakespeare wrote has influenced a great amount of the literature that has been written in the more recent past-- books that are read throughout schools in the United States today. It is necessary to read the work of William Shakespeare in schools today, not only because of the lessons in his work, but to understand the roots of some of today’s literature.
The influence of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is shown throughout Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Stoppard took two minor characters from Hamlet in order to give the audience the perspective of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Stoppard explores different themes throughout the play, examining the relationship between life and stage and free will versus determinism. Stoppard also explored the most important theme of all which is evident in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy; existentialism.
The tragic play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” by Stoppard were retold from the story of Shakespeare famous play “Hamlet”. The two insignificant characters in “Hamlet” became the protagonists in Stoppard’s play, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” and Hamlet as a minor character. The author’s different perspective of Shakespeare’s two minor characters made the audience realize that being control like a puppet by Hamlet might have led them to their death. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s presence effected the two protagonists’ life.
I am attempting English 101 for the 4th time this semester. My previous attempts at this course my education came after the needs of my social life. I simple focused on friends instead of what was the most important: my education. I have now decided my education should be my first priority. This semester I am focused on meeting this challenge, but with some help of course. I have expectations of my teacher, classmates, and most of all myself.
The dramatic presentation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead adapts the formal revenge tragedy of Hamlet to a more contemporary Absurdist black comedy. Resounding with the original through its intertextual allusion, yet maintaining integrity as a separate text, the play illustrates Stoppard’s Post-modern existentialist context. This recognises that the 20th century absurdist audience no longer hold Elizabethan beliefs. Scenes are extracted from the Shakespearean Hamlet and reproduced for the contemporary context, relevant to the 1960s – described simply as: “we do onstage the things that happen off”. In this alternative world, Hamlet’s tragic hero status is marginalised, “the exterior and inward man fails to resemble”, while his