Metatheatre, a form of self-reflexivity in drama, plays a fundamental role in Shakespeare's Hamlet and in Tom Stoppard's parodic version, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Self-reflexivity is conveyed through metatheatrical scenes, or scenes staged as plays, “silent plays,” and the extensive commentary made on the mechanics and structural qualities of theater, in both works. In the Shakespearean original, characters consciously participate in moments such as the player's trial speech, Hamlet's instructions to the players, and their support in “The Mousetrap.” Hamlet also adopts the importance of linguistic expression over physical expression in theatre. Similarly, in Stoppard's work, the characters literally "play" with language and reduce it to its purely communicative purposes. Ros and Guild obsessively imitate Hamlet and various other characters throughout the text, and a "Mousetrap"-like production leaves the pair confused and questioning their existence. Although metatheatrical qualities are prominent in both Shakespeare's tragedy and Stoppard's tragicomedy, the function is divergent: in Hamlet, self-reflexivity is used to take revenge on Claudius' guilty soul and reveal the ultimate Truth, while in Stoppard's parody, the cast fails to recognize Truth and human purpose. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Hamlet is essentially a play about plays, as it blurs the line between the role of the actor and that of the character. Throughout the dialogue, references are made to the constructs of theater and acting techniques and, most significantly, to the inclusion of a "meta-drama", "The Mousetrap", in Act 3. Self-reflexivity reveals a of the game's main thematic concerns, the nature of acting and the distinction between acting and "real" life. This distinction can be placed primarily in the gang of "Players", a group of actors who participate in the production of the meta-play within the larger context of the play, Hamlet. This complexity arises from Hamlet's request of the Actor's famous speech: "I remember one saying that there were no concealments in the lines to make the subject savory, nor any importance in the sentence that might accuse the author of affectation, but he he defined an honest method, as healthy as it was sweet, and much more beautiful than beautiful... It was the story of Aeneas to Dido, and especially when he talks about the massacre of Priam." (Act 2, scene 2) Hamlet's description of aesthetically pleasing dialogue resembles the dialogue used by the characters themselves. This level of self-reflexivity transforms into Hamlet's requested "speech," "The Murder of Gonzago," the story inserted into the play Hamlet stages. The story follows similar circumstances to King Hamlet's murder; Prince Hamlet, after adding further lines, plots to reveal the corruption behind Claudius' actions: "The important thing is the play, / In which I will capture the king's conscience." (Act 2, Scene 2) Hamlet's intention for the meta- play is rooted in the vengeance of his father's spirit, which calls itself a "revenge tragedy." Interacting with the conventions associated with the genre, the show attempts to represent a life outside the theatre. The distinction between man and character continues in Hamlet's speech on the ambiguities of nature: "Oh, there are actors I have seen play - and heard others praise, and so highly - not to speak profanely of it, that neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of the Christian, of the pagan, nor of man, have so strutted and bellowed as to make me.