At first glance, you might think that the only things Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead have in common with William Shakespeare's Hamlet are Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the segments of Hamlet Stoppard pasted into his play. Looking more closely, however, one might observe that the most extreme absurdities of Stoppard's work derive from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Details of Stoppard's work that at first might be considered simply ridiculous improbabilities (such as the fact that they cannot remember their own names and the acceptance that they see their own death with them) later emerge as a mockery of the details disturbing than Hamlet. The derivation from Shakespeare's Hamlet that Stoppard imparts to his play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, is the lack of identity shared by both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In Hamlet, these characters are identified solely as Hamlet's childhood friends, are interchangeable with respect to characterization, and it is unclear whether they were aware that they were sending Hamlet to his death. In Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz introduces himself and his friend by saying, "My name is Guildenstern, and this is Rosencrantz." The lack of definition between the characters continues to such an extent that the reader has difficulty distinguishing between the two. Stoppard's emphasis on this lack of characterization seems to assert that these deaths, meaningless to Hamlet, should have been allowed to mean something to the audience (as far as Hamlet's character is concerned). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern could at least have been more clearly delineated in their intentions, whether malicious or simply ignorant of the truth. Another detail of Shakespeare's Hamlet that Stoppard exploits in his play is the unconditional way in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern accept directives from the king. In Hamlet these two are evoked; they come. They are asked to delve into the life of a childhood friend with whom they have not had contact for a long time; they try.