um I don't know if this will help but I'll have a go. My assessment on this module was on the transformation of one element and i did the main character, mostly talking about how Stoppard has shifted the focus from Hamlet to Ros and Guil in order to express the themes and vaules of Hamlet in a different way.
here are some paragraphs from my essay (sorry if its not quite what you're after)
In Hamlet Shakespeare has constructed his protagonist Hamlet as a fully rounded character. At the beginning of the play Hamlet is given a background and has a sense of identity and purpose. Language is used, particularly in soliloquies to capture Hamlet’s interior qualities such as his emotions “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” (I, ii, 133-4) and purpose “The play’s the thing. Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (II, ii 601-2) throughout the play. These soliloquies allow Shakespeare’s audience an insight into the intent and feelings of the protagonist and for this reason Hamlet has the makings of a real character. Conversely, in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Ros and Guil are simply devices that challenge the audience to ascribe their own meaning to characters.
When Stoppard transformed the protagonist of his play into Ros and Guil, the background of the characters is not only unknown to the audience of his play but also to the characters themselves. Ros and Guil cannot remember anything about themselves before the beginning of the play and have very limited knowledge of their purpose, only piecing it together from what they have been told. ‘“What have we got to go on? –Ros “We have been briefed. Hamlet’s transformation.” –Guil’ (Act 1). They themselves have no idea of their purpose and know only the little they are told by Claudius and Gertrude. As they have no background, their setting at Elsinore is also meaningless to them “Which way did we come in? I’ve lost my sense of direction.” –Ros (Act 1). Ros and Guil also do not have the same depth and range of emotions as Hamlet. “Are you happy? … I think so” (Act 1). This quote demonstrates that Ros and Guil are not self aware as is Hamlet. By using this technique of giving characters no background, which is often used in theatre of the absurd, and giving Ros and Guil no motives or self guided purpose Stoppard has transformed the element of a real character to the view that characters are not real, they are just constructs. Therefore through the actions and lack of purpose of the new protagonists audiences are challenge to construct their own meaning of not only the function of characters but of the play itself.
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Shakespeare created Hamlet as a character to represent the “modern man”, present in reality, who examines the meaning of being human and alive. He searches for the meaning of life and death in his soliloquies throughout the play most notably at the beginning of Act III in his “To be or not to be” soliloquy. In this soliloquy Hamlet questions what it means to be alive and dead and if there is a purpose in living at all. When Hamlet returns from his trip to England in Act V he returns as “Hamlet the Dane” with his answer. The answer is conveyed to the audience when Hamlet gives his speech to Horatio concerning “The readiness is all.” (V ii 216). This speech conveys Hamlet’s understanding of the meaning of life, which is that life has a meaning but it is not for us to know let things be and what comes will come. Shakespeare has used his protagonist to represent his view of the meaning of life and death in reality, and Stoppard has used his protagonists to represent his own view on the same question but the new protagonists have presented a different interpretation.
Stoppard’s new protagonists, Ros and Guil are also on a search for meaning. They ask the same questions as Hamlet about the meanings of life and death but arrive at different a different conclusion. Ros and Guil discuss what is means to be dead in Act 2 when they have their discussion around “Do you ever think of yourself as actually dead, lying in a box with a lid on it?” and establish that life’s only purpose is to move towards death. At the end of the play Ros and Guil still have not established a meaning of life or death different from the view they have had all along ie life has no meaning. This is because when creating the characters of Ros and Guil, Stoppard has used existentialism to underpin the genre his play is written in - theatre of the absurd. The changing of the protagonist from Hamlet to Ros and Guil has allowed Stoppard to present the existentialist view of life.
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Tom Stoppard has transformed the protagonist from Hamlet in Hamlet to Ros and Guil to give his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead an alternate meaning to Hamlet. By appropriating the protagonists, Stoppard allows the ideas present in Hamlet such as reality, illusion, the meaning of life and destiny to be viewed through a lens of absurdism. The different perspectives provided in this shift in perspective constructs the meaning of Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
