Absurd Theatre in Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead: A Comparison

Abstract

The current paper aims to compare Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, originally published in 1952, and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which was also published in the 1900s, specifically in 1966, by carefully considering the themes of the absurdity of existence, humor, and the meaninglessness of life to illustrate how these themes are represented by each of the playwrights in the theatre of the absurd in these two plays. In addition to how the cultural backgrounds of the authors play a role in the way they convey their thoughts throughout their plays and how this might affect how they deploy the themes mentioned above in their works. Thus, making it abundantly clear how similar themes can find their way into the works of different authors who don’t share the same cultural backgrounds but whom each may be seated in a position where their creativity may be stimulated in a similar manner, therefore, producing works that have common comparable elements.