brogan77 said:
Helpful. Really.
Now, I haven't started actually looking at the 'transformation' section of the course, so I won't be able to help much. We recently did an essay but it was a 'compare and contrast' rather then a transformation one. If you've only got 40-45 minutes, I'd concentrate on discussing:
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Context: how has society changed since Shakespeare and how has that influenced Stoppard's text (think about the World Wars, mass media, society status changes, the position of women, faith in God, justice etc.)
Two themes, three if you're a quick writer.
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Death: how it has been transformed to be tragic for the 'common man', death holds little justice, unlike in
Hamlet, it is no longer tragic and romantic etc. etc.
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Illusion vs. Reality:
Hamlet uses deceiving characters in a fairly certain world, RAGAD uses fairly ambiguous characters in an absurd world. Look at the way Stoppard has transformed
Hamlet's world into an existential landscape with no real values, there is no God and no monarch.
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Action vs. Inaction: Hamlet decides to postpone action, but is ultimately given the choice of whether or not to act. Ros and Guil, on the other hand, are not given the choice, they are fixed on a path that was determined by Shakespeare, that neither the characters, the audience, nor Stoppard himself can change.
Two techniques, three if you're fast
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Imagery: unlike Shakespeare, Stoppard does not need imagery and description to populate his bleak world,
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Soliloquy: used in Hamlet to reveal inner workings of a character's mind, Ros and Guil are not important enough to use soliloquies, neither are they ever alone
Also look at the way
your view of the original text has been transformed. Originally, when reading the parent text,
Hamlet, we are positioned to see Ros and Guil as traitorous, manipulative characters who want nothing more than to impress the King and Queen. In RAGAD, Stoppard transforms them into two characters that are merely hapless pawns, easily manipulated by those around them. Consider the way you now look at the language of Shakespeare. During RAGAD, Ros and the Player often indirectly comment on the play
Hamlet itself. For example, at one point Ros hears Hamlet say, "Oh, I could be bounded in a nutshell!" (or whatever the quote is) and exclaims "He's depressed! Denmark's a prison and he'd rather live in a nutshell." This enables the audience to look at
Hamlet in a new light. We take some of the phrases, the characters and even the plot itself in a more light-hearted view.
