The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare is one of the most influential texts in Western thought. Tom Stoppard took advantage of the play's notoriety and wrote his own play called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, as a ploy taken from the final lines of the play Hamlet. Stoppard's play is to some extent "a play within a play"; he took two of Shakespeare's flat characters and brought them to life. The play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead follows the story of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, on their journey through the play Hamlet. Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead displays many themes or messages, three of which are identity, motivation, and death. Identity becomes a major theme in this play and can be drawn from the very first lines of Hamlet himself: “Who is there? " During the play Hamlet and R&G Are Dead, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are continually mixed up, leaving the audience guessing who is who. Stoppard uses this to make us question our own identity, making us wonder "What is What makes us who we are? Is it their face? Or perhaps their name? These two factors distinguish us from others around us, but do we consider their identity as that? what they look like or what name they answer to? Some people tend to think that the clothes they wear or the money in their bank account define them as who they are. A different approach to thinking about one's identity is to. thinking about their DNA and history However, can one be defined by someone who lived before them? Does who they are automatically become who you are? more difficult as we delve deeper into the matter. If someone had just one thing to explain to another who they are, what... middle of paper ...... realizing their destiny once they arrive in England, Guildenstern said : “No… no… not for us. , not like that. Dying is not romantic, and death is not a game that will soon end... Death is nothing... Death is not... It is the absence of presence, nothing more... the endless time of never coming back... a gap that we cannot see, and when the wind blows over it, it makes no sound. » Death, motivation and identity are not only themes of R&G Are Dead, but can be seen as themes of one's own life. In life, they tend to “go through the motions.” Very few people actually live their lives, but it's hard to live a life you don't understand. Martin Luther King Jr. "Well, you can live to be 90, but you're just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is just the belated announcement of a previous death of the spirit.”