Renaissance subsidiary characters in main role in the twentieth century : in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead

In my thesis I will examine why the subsidiary characters of a Renaissance drama (Shakespeare's Hamlet) could become main characters in the twentieth century. I will prove that the reason why Rosencrantz an Guildenstern could take main roles in the twentieth century is that they are closer to the people of this era than the doer Hamlet, because they represent the uncertainty of human existence and the alienation from one's own self and the world that are phenomena of the last century. In the first part of my thesis I am going to represent a short summary of the background of the play. The second part will contain references that show how the view.point reversal of Hamlet gives contemporary meaning to the same story.