Guildenstern Are Dead Comparison

The six plays that we have read for this semester could all be re-classified in any number of ways. However I have decided to take a look at some of the underlying themes that would potentially work together to unite otherwise seemingly unrelated plays. The easiest, and most obvious pair that I decided would work well together is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. Aside from the fact that both of these plays revolve around likeable male duos dabbling in tomfoolery, there are many other similarities that are difficult to go unnoticed when reading these texts. As far as set and stage directions go, in both Waiting for Godot and R&G are Dead the two main characters never leave the stage. …show more content…
Within these two stories there is a unifying theme in that both characters hold extreme and perverse desires. For Doctor Faustus, it is to gain all and ultimate power through selling his soul to the devil. He makes a contract with Satan which gains him the demon slave, Mephistopheles, who promises to answer any questions he has to ask about the universe. But in return he has to die in twenty four years, meaning his soul will be dragged to hell for all of eternity. In Hamlet, Hamlet has seen a vision of his father’s “ghost” appear to him outside of the castle’s courtyard. This spirit instructs Hamlet to seek out revenge on his behalf, ordering him to murder his uncle so that the throne will be back in suitable hands and all will be at peace. Of course both Hamlet and Faustus become infatuated with these poor decisions that they have made, resulting in them taking over their lives and minds. Secondly, both appear to struggle with an internal conflict throughout the course of these two plays. Hamlet, by trying to decide if he is mad, whether or not he should murder his uncle, and dealing with built up angst and anger that is continuing to bubble within him. Faustus, has similar feelings whenever Mephistopheles refuses to answer a question of Faustus’ (usually when the answer is God). Faustus also has some intense internal debate during the last scene of the play when he is minutes away from his eternal damnation. Finally, similarly related to the previous point, these two characters both held the amazing inability to make morally correct choices which ultimately resulted in both of their deaths. For Hamlet it was a series of poor decisions, like choosing not to kill Claudius when he had his chance in the garden, accidently killing Polonius, damning Ophelia off to a convent, or even choosing to listen to a ghost at all. Faustus, of course,