The transformation of Hamlet into Rosencrantz and Guilden are Dead and themes that were explored by both plays.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is a play written in 1967 by Tom Stoppard. He took two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet and transformed them into the main characters of his play to explore the concept of fate, social corruption and verisimilitude in a modern fashion. This latter play, written almost three hundred years later, has changed the way the two characters in the original text have been viewed forever. While Shakespeare uses a style marked …

…needs to comprehend such changes by altering the styles and languages used in the text to appeal to his audiences. Even so, there are similarities between the two text in terms of themes and characters and while similar problems are dealt with in both plays, they are handled in greatly different ways. Tom Stoppard has successfully transformed the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet into a modern deadpan style of comedy that is more appealing to modern audiences.