The play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” was written by Tom Stoppard in 1967, at a time when existentialism was popular among many philosophically inclined people. Existentialism primarily focuses on the need for human beings to make rational choices that determine their meaning in life, despite existing 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 to effectively tell their side of the story. This is a play about two characters who are challenged by philosophical topics such as identity, destiny and free will. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an 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 final moments, in which they are baffled by their own deaths, neither character can understand the world around them . Rosencrantz and Guildenstern feel unable to make meaningful choices in their lives due to the constant confusion they find themselves in. An important issue concerns the fact that neither character is able to remember his own name. They constantly lose track of themselves and confuse their names, relating to Stoppard's notion of personal identity. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's journey demonstrates the preeminent role of chance in our lives and how it leads to almost paralyzing confusion when combined with the difficulty of discerning the desires and true intentions of others. Classifying and naming others can create stereotypes and limit your ability to find your own identity. Within the show, both Rose and Guildenstern are unaware of what their real names are. Names seem to give people identities, thus making it difficult for either of them to truly know who they are. “I have not forgotten – as I remembered my name – and yours, oh, yes! There were answers everywhere I looked. There was no doubt: people knew who I was and if they didn't know they asked me and I told them. Rosencrantz says this to Guildenstern to show him that he knows his own name when it is clear to the reader that he actually doesn't. Not knowing their names makes them both confused and less confident. By having two characters who seem to oscillate back and forth between identities, Stoppard questions the notion of identity in general. Other characters struggle to recognize individual identities and players create confusion among them; 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. While they are unable to achieve any redemptive goals, the audience is able to sympathize with the characters as they oscillate between awareness and understanding, without ever truly redeeming the latter. Stoppard's work also questions the specific identities of his characters and suggests that not only is the human self humble and powerless, but it may not even be a "self". The identities of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern prove extremely porous. They constantly lose track of themselves and confuse their own names, even their own body parts, as Rosencrantz thinks Guildenstern's leg is his in the dark,'.