The Value of Not Taking Things Too Seriously

In 1967, Tom Stoppard wrote his play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, after getting the idea while watching Hamlet. Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979, eight years after he got the idea while laying drunk in a field. These two works can be compared in their use of satire and cynicism.

In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Adams uses an alien, Ford Prefect, to create satire, since he often does not understand the human race, and asks questions about them. Through Rosencrantz's behavior and questions, Stoppard uses satire to examine human behavior in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Cynicism differs from satire because satire uses sarcasm to show human folly while cynicism shows contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality. Both Adams and Stoppard use a lot of cynicism in their works. Adams used it to show the flaws of conventional views of luck, humans' purpose and blind faith. In his play, Stoppard used cynicism to show that pessimism works and predestination exists.

In both Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, satire and cynicism are used to create humor. While Stoppard used two indecisive and confused men, Adams used an alien to create satire. Both authors use satire and cynicism and a good plot to create an entertaining story whose point is too not take things too seriously.

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