How Does Shakespeare Control Characters?

Every author controls the subject of their novel, how their novel reads, and what they choose to emphasize and what they choose to downplay in their novel. Characters can contemplate their will to do things, but they can never be in in complete control of their actions. Authors write the exposition; they write the climax, and the write the dénouement. No character has absolute power over their actions. Authors act, to varying degrees, as the God of their novel. As God they control characters’ outcomes; they determine characters’ fates. In Hamlet, Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare, Beckett and Stoppard, respectively, act as God determining the fates of each one of their characters, leading them to understand …show more content…
Stoppard is modeling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead off of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet; therefore, there are several restrictions on what direction Stoppard can take the play. Like Waiting for Godot, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a play about non-sense. Non-sense gives the reader the idea that life is out of our grasp. Fate has complete control over the outcomes of our lives. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern often show up in places such as the palace, clueless to how they got there or why they are there. The two do not seem to yield any power over their lives. Just as in Waiting for Godot and Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do recognize free will is possible – “Free to move, free to speak, extemporize, and yet. We have not been cut loose. Out truancy is defined by one fixed star, and our drift represents merely a slight change of angle to it: we may seize the moment, toss it around while the moments pass, a short dahs here, an exploration” (101). Neither character takes advantage of his free will in instances more important than something as trivial as moving or speaking non-sense. Estragon and Vladimir want to help Hamlet and listen to his story as their friend. They want to save him by destroying the letter that contains word from the king ordering Hamlet’s execution in England. Once again readers wonder would it even be possible for these character or Stoppard to allow Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to follow through with any of these thoughts? Their free will unlike in the other two plays is even more limited. Stoppard does not have the power to rewrite their destinies. They cannot save Hamlet he is fated to die by the poisoned sword. Stoppard must follow the plot of Hamlet. Before the play has even begun Rosencrantz and