Read the following passage and answer the question that follows: Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, draws on two previous theatrical works: Shakespeare's Hamlet and Samuel
Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead follows the "off-stage" exploits of two minor characters from Hamlet,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While the two main characters in Stoppard's play occasionally make brief appearances in "Hamlet," as scripted
in Shakespeare's original tragedy, the majority of the play takes place it
other parts of the castle where Hamlet is set. While "off stage" in this
way, the characters resemble the main characters in the absurdist Waiting for Godot. As in Beckett's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pass
the time by impersonating other characters, engaging in word play, and remaining silent for long periods of time. These same two characters
were also featured in a parody of Hamlet, the short comic play by W. S.
Gilbert entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Gilbert's play makes
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into central characters and alters the storyline of Hamlet.
The author of this passage chooses to describe four different playwrights in order to (5 points)