"Give us this day our daily mask." This was the "prayer" Tom Stoppard allowed Guildenstern to say as a reminder that indeed, they were in a play and not real life. As one of Stoppard's most famous plays, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead portrays the embodiment of pure eccentrics. I haven't read any other play that can display such humorous criticism on such a profound, well-known play as Hamlet. Even though I didn't read Hamlet before reading Stoppard's play, it is evident that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are simple, minor characters that have no immediate or important purposes in the plot. This comedy gave off an impression that he simply wanted to create something no other playwright or novelist would ever think of or dare to do, and indeed that risk he took gave birth to one of the most exciting, enticing, and unique play.

As I began to...