"How has the composer of the contemporary text used the earlier text to say something new? Answer the question in relation to the two prescribed texts that you have studied." The author Tom Stoppard of "Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead" has re-contextualised parts of the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare to make a post-modern play. Tom Stoppard has appropriated characters and issues from the play Hamlet and introduced the same topics into his version of …showed first 75 words of 1698 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1698 total…many question of why they are alive, and that there are no certainties in life. Through different issues, Stoppard has adapted and changed them to suit his play, mankind death no longer certain, and freedom where there really is no freedom "A play in a play." Lastly Tom Stoppard has changed the epic tale of the revenge and murder of Hamlet, into the slaughter of two innocent men, into the tragedy of Rosencrantz and Guildernstern.