Need an argumentative essay on William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Needs to be 5 pages. Please no plagiarism.Download file to see previous pages... H

Need an argumentative essay on William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Needs to be 5 pages. Please no plagiarism.

Hamlet was written in 1601 Elizabethan era by Shakespeare having borrowed from Greek classic tragedies. The contexts of religion, natural chain of being, fortune, death, destiny and fate are echoed throughout the play in the represented values, dialogues, and themes. Written in 1964, Stoppard’s play is an existentialist and absurdist rendition of Hamlet. It contests traditional viewpoints, theatre, assumptions, and values of their then changing society by dramatizing a revenge tragedy, therefore, shifting the attention from royalty to the average person. The play becomes a statement to society reflecting existential concerns and ideas, increasing secularism, and defying authority. Fate as a theme constantly comes out in both texts. The belief in a higher power was dominant in the Elizabethan context, and the society widely accepted their fate as unchangeable. This blind acceptance of one’s circumstances as a result of suppression is represented severally throughout Shakespeare’s play. Stoppard’s play similarly represents fate negatively. Unlike Hamlet, fate is not a life fact in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and their fate is representative of the modern societal dangers and hopelessness. This places the play in a position that questions previously adopted ideologies concerning predetermined fate. The societies in both texts share death as a context. Stoppard’s play uses comic relief and vulgar humor to represent death. It questions the longstanding views of religion, heaven, the afterlife, and whether God exists. This has resulted in a growing secular society leading to the conception that God and death are the same. The theme of death remains constant as a reflection the 1960’s context of defying preset ideas, thus giving rise to existentialism and individualism. Death is considered and discussed as a key concern throughout Hamlet. This comes out clearly in Hamlet’s most known line which questions death and existence. The idea of Hamlet’s identity and humanism, and its association with death is a resounding thought in his third soliloquy. He is interested in finding the significance of his existence, and if the influence of fate on his life makes it less worth living. The overhanging idea of death throughout the play mirrors the beliefs of inevitable death during the Elizabethan era. This belief went beyond the modern perception of death and included ultimate acceptance and faith in God’s existence, religion and an afterlife. Rightful hierarchy and inheritance is highly regarded during Elizabethan England, and this is mirrored in the portrayal of a corrupt Denmark when the rightful king is murdered. The natural order is disrupted by the King’s murder, and the balance has to be restored to meet the Elizabethan expectations. Avenging his father becomes Hamlet’s destiny, and his destiny is conceded to the misconception of control and power of choice. Hamlet’s Christian morals are the cause of his dilemma owing to his belief in supernatural forces behind good and evil, and he decides to gather more compelling evidence and capture the king’s conscience as a result of his morals. The natural order and chain of being in Stoppard’s play is unbalanced. The confliction, thoughts and philosophies of the hero are silenced and are denied from the audience.