The theme of violence and death in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Samuel Beckett's waiting for Godot

This study is concerned with the theme of violence and death in Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead within the framework of Theater of the Absurd, a literary genre that originated in Europe in the late 1940s after the Second World War. Basically, the paper centers on an analysis of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) with special emphasis on the theme of death and violence. Additionally, references will be made to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot (1949) to highlight the influence of Waiting for Godot on 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'. Through this comparative approach, one can gain insight into the way this theme is treated in plays written in the tradition of Absurd Drama. Though this research mainly focuses on the theme of death and violence, it also refers to other topics such as the absurd behaviour of the characters in both plays, making a point of the similarities and differences between them. Also covered in this study are these characters' confused identity, their lack of decision's making skills and their faith in existentialism. There are two main male characters in each play, who reflect the same way of looking at life, and suffer from being trapped in a meaningless and empty life.