Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

by Tom Stoppard

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Frame Story 1 key example

Frame Story
Explanation and Analysis—Murder of Gonzago:

In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the play-within-a-play becomes a play-within-a-play-within-a-play. Hamlet’s Murder of Gonzago—one of literature’s iconic frame stories—remains in Stoppard’s adaptation, highlighting the human fallibility of its protagonists through its layers of meta-level self-reflections. It also presents a paradox about the nature of storytelling.