The presence of metatheatrical elements in "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL FLUMINENSE

INSTITUTO DE LETRAS

DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS

 Maria Carolina Ramos Costa Cysneiros (116021037)

Teatro Inglês (GLE00509)

Vitor Alevato do Amaral

16 October 2019

First Assignment

  

In 500-600 words, write about the presence of metatheatrical elements in "Hamlet" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"

 Metatheatre (or metadrama) can be defined as the use of a play to draw attention to aspects related to the theatrical art itself, such as the processes of acting and writing. It is also referred to as “the play within the play” and constantly reminds the audience of the relationship between performance and reality. It is present in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (henceforth R & G), but not in the same way.^[a]

In Hamlet, many metatheatrical features are condensed in the main character’s actions, who not only is the play’s protagonist but also works as an actor, a playwright, a director and a critic in the play. Anguished about his father’s recent death which was shortly followed by his mother’s marriage to Claudius (the dead king’s brother), Hamlet is told by The Ghost (of his deceased father) that this situation was the result of an assassination plotted and executed by his uncle. The tragic hero uses fiction as a way to seek the truth and fulfil The Ghost’s revengeful task.

As an actor, Hamlet reveals only to his few trusted men the intention of putting on an “antic disposition” to begin his retribution (SHAKESPEARE^[b], 2003, I, v, ll. 169-180), making everyone else believe that he had lost his mind, for example in his interactions with Polonius (SHAKESPEARE, 2003, II, ii, ll. 170-214) and Ophelia (SHAKESPEARE, 2003, III, I, ll. 90-148).

Hamlet gives directions to the players who perform The Murder of Gonzago (SHAKESPEARE, 2003, III, ii, ll. 1-7), offers theatre critic when he comments on the rivalry between two companies and when he dismisses Polonius’ words about the different kinds of drama (SHAKESPEARE, 2003, II, ii, ll. 387-394). As a playwright, Hamlet replaces the letter given by Claudius to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, sealing their fates (SHAKESPEARE, 2003, V, ii, ll.12-47), and creates new lines for The Murder of Gonzago (SHAKESPEARE, 2003, III, ii, ll. 243-253). Shakespeare’s device of making Hamlet stage this inner play as a means to confirm Claudius’ crime is the most evident metadrama element in Hamlet.

Stoppard’s play approaches metatheatre differently. The ethical, moral and religious dilemmas of the Elizabethan world are not important and the main characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (henceforth Ros and Guil), two minor presences in Hamlet, are portrayed as alienated and depersonalized men who are supposed to follow instructions which they never seem to remember. The play is staged inside Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but Ros and Guil drift through existence and seem unaware of their roles as actual characters. In opposition to Hamlet’s will to act, there is no conscience of performance in Ros and Guil. Stoppard includes full excerpts of Hamlet in R & G and makes a great portion of his play unfolds while the Player puts on a dress rehearsal of The Murder of Gonzago (a play within a play within a play), when Ros and Guil fail to recognize themselves being played by two Tragedians – the Player calls them spies (STOPPARD, 1967, ps. 81-82).