The play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” was written by Tom Stoppard in 1967, at a time when existentialism was popular among many philosophers. Existentialism primarily focuses on the need for humans to make rational choices that determine their own meaning in life, even if they exist in an irrational universe. Stoppard takes the two minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and uses them as the main protagonists of his play and effectively tells their side of the story. It is a play about two characters confronting philosophical topics such as identity, destiny and free will. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two friends who are unsure of their identity and purpose. From the beginning of the play, where neither of them is able to remember where they are going or why, to their very last moments, where they are disoriented by their deaths, neither character can understand the world which surrounds them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern feel unable to make important choices in their lives due to the constant confusion they find themselves in. A significant problem concerns the fact that neither character is able to remember their own name. They constantly lose track of themselves and confuse their own names, which echoes Stoppard's notion of personal identity. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's journey demonstrates the predominant role of chance in our lives and how it leads to almost paralyzing confusion when coupled with the difficulty of discerning the desires and true intentions of others. Classifying and naming others can create stereotypes. and limit everyone’s ability to find their own identity. In the play, Rose and Guildenstern do not know their real names. Names seem to give people an identity, making it difficult for both of them to truly know who they are. “I have not forgotten – how I remembered my own name – and yours, oh, yes! There were answers everywhere you looked. There was no doubt about it – people knew who I was and if they didn't know, they asked me and I told them. Rosencrantz says this to Guildenstern to prove to him that he knows his own name when it is clear to the reader that he really does not. Not knowing their names makes them both confused and less confident in themselves. By presenting two characters who seem to oscillate between identities, Stoppard calls into question the notion of identity as a whole. Other characters struggle to recognize their individual identities and players sow confusion among themselves; Claudius and Hamlet confuse Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's conversation with the player confuses Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius' relationships with Ophelia. Stoppard humanizes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by filling them with a deeply rooted universal desire: the need to find meaning. Although they are unable to achieve any redemptive goal, the audience is able to empathize with the characters as they oscillate between conscience and understanding – without ever truly redeeming the latter. Stoppard's play also questions the specific identities of its characters and suggests that not only is the human self humble and powerless, but it may not even be a "me." The identities of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern prove extremely porous. They constantly lose track of themselves and, ".