Turning Hamlet Inside out: Creating an Independent Drama in Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Mirza Khurram Naseem Baig and Safia Siddiqui

Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies, 2026, vol. 8, issue 1, 87-92

Abstract: Purpose: This study examines Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead as a dramatic work that reinterprets Shakespeare’s Hamlet by shifting attention from the protagonist to a couple of minor characters. This study investigates how the play questions the traditional ideas of tragedy, heroism, and dramatic authority by presenting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as modern anti-heroes caught in uncertainty and limited understanding.Literature: Studies offer valuable insights, they usually treat adaptation and absurdism as separate issues. This article, however, argues that Stoppard combines these traditions to create a new type of play that stands independent of them and presents Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as modern anti-heroes. By focusing on these marginal figures, the study shows how the play reinterprets the Shakespearean world and challenges the traditional idea of the heroic tragic protagonist.Findings: It can be argued that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is not simply a retelling or parody of Hamlet, but an independent and new dramatic work that reimagines Shakespeare’s play from a different perspective

Keywords: Theatre of the Absurd; Absurdism; Adaptation; Anti-hero; Existentialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:src:sbseec:v:8:y:2026:i:1:p:87-92

DOI: 10.26710/sbsee.v8i1.3718

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