스토파드 극에 나타난 영화적 기법

Abstract

Tom Stoppard’s interest in cinema started long before he began writing plays, and has exercised a far-reaching influence on his playwriting. Therefore, it is very important to study the cinematic elements in his plays to examine the world of Stoppard’s works. On one hand, he brought an exact sense of sophisticated dialogue from theater into film. On the other hand, he brought an exact sense of structuring scenes from film into theater. In other words, he took good advantage of cinematic techniques to enhance his plays. Likewise, he instilled theatrical elements into his films. In short, to Stoppard, theater and film are not separate and different, but interdependent and coexistent. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Stoppard made the minor roles Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into main characters and reproduced dramatic events which are not enacted in Hamlet. Ultimately, he opposed the conventional world of Hamlet by reading and understanding the play from a different angle, and thereby questioned unquestionable universal truth. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Stoppard did not subvert Hamlet so as to destroy the dramatic narrative and point out the unjustifiable sacrifice of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. As stated earlier, what he intended to subvert is not so much Shakespeare himself as the unquestioned cultural and political authority granted tests such as Shakespeare’s. Stoppard’s textual revisions from a different viewpoint are consistent themes of Stoppard’s works. He makes good use of cinematic techniques to represent those alternative viewpoints effectively. Arcadia, which is hailed as Stoppard’s most brilliant and fascinating play, is not only a story of two contemporary researchers who try to find out what really happened in Sidley Park, but also an intellectual discourse about a variety of scientific, mathematical, and philosophical arguments. In Arcadia, Stoppard uses two different historical periods to elaborate plots and demonstrate that it is impossible to know what happened using fragments of the past. Arcadia abounds in contrasting or symmetrical characters. Through the symmetrical characters, he does not overtly show his own opinion of “who is right” or “who is wrong.” Instead, he metaphorically describes the modern world where there exist various ideas. He not only fosters audiences’ or readers’ dramatic interest but also stimulates their intellectual curiosity through contrasting, versatile ideas. The real intention of Stoppard’s writing is not to intentionally lead audiences or readers to disorder but to show them the diversity of our world where versatile theories are mixed with confusing human relations.