A person is created by the experiences they go through and the things they learn throughout their life. It is about knowing who each individual is and what constitutes their identity. Writers of all types have been addressing the question of identity for thousands of years. A playwright who stands out in this regard is Shakespeare and his play Hamlet. The play continually questions who individuals are and what constitutes the person they are. Yet another play can be associated with Shakespeare's masterpiece, as Tom Stoppard takes the minor characters of Hamlet and develops them into something more in his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The 20th century reinvention of Hamlet's supporting characters contains three major messages or themes throughout the play, including identity, language, and human motivation. The play has a deep meaning hidden behind the comedic exterior and a shocking conclusion and each of these three themes adds to the ultimate message that the play invokes from its audience. The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead constantly displays a massage associated with the identity of the individual. the characters and the metaphor they represent in relation to the audience itself. At the very beginning of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are first introduced to the group of actors on the road, but as soon as the introduction takes place, the names are reversed and they are introduced by each other's name. This confusion of the two actors as to which is Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern helps the audience understand that the two actors on stage serve as a mirror to those watching the performance. Throughout the play the theme of identity resurfaces and the audience is left middle of paper......for those watching the performance. The audience must focus their attention on the events and words depicted on stage or screen, otherwise they will easily miss the double meaning Stoppard intended in each scene of the play. Human motivation is inseparable from the theme of life and death that runs through the play, for it is as the two are about to die that they realize that perhaps they could have made a different decision, that would allow them to stay alive and free, they only missed the opportunity to make that choice. Stoppard wanted his play to express more meaning and different messages to his audience, but he wanted them to research the play and pay close attention to the different meanings present so that they could get the most out of the play and those who don't understand work. away, not understanding how much they missed.