Influence of Humanism on Shakespeare's Hamlet - Term Paper Example

Influence of Humanism on Shakespeare's Hamlet Introduction William Shakespeare wrote the tragic story of Hamlet. It is among the many played stories in theatre during the period of renaissance humanisms especially after16th century. Looking back in time, Shakespeare birth and writing of his plays occurred towards the end of the renaissance period in Europe. He lived from 1564 to 1610 at the 17th century during the end of the renaissance period that began in Italy from the 13th century (“Critical study,” oconnorshamlet.weebly.com). Having lived in the time he was influenced by both the traditional cultures of the classical antiquity and renewed interests especially in the humanistic philosophy following the renaissance movement. According to Grudin, humanism “implied not only such qualities as are associated with the modern word humanity—understanding, benevolence, compassion, mercy—but also such more aggressive characteristics as fortitude, judgment, prudence, eloquence, and even love of honour” (humanism.ws, par.3). As a scholar, renaissance humanism was more than imposing strict rules of practice, but instilling prudence, strong sense of human virtues and renew/reforming the existing ideas of their cultures, politics, religion and social aspect among others. From the Hamlet play, Shakespeare develops his major themes of revenge, madness and power but employs humanistic figures and ideas in the plots to make sense of the human nature in world. He is keen to use the principles and ideas of humanism to elaborate how people’s capability to make rational choices and move away from outdated restrictive ideas. He uses key humanistic figure, basically the prince of Hamlet, Horatio and employed humanistic texts to develop the Hamlet. The ideas of humanism are expressed in Shakespeare’s creativity of Hamlet plot, decision making of the main character (Hamlet) and the critical actions taken by humanistic characters. Shakespeare also involves a tenet of realism and psychological struggle in the human mind to elaborate the state mind and what influence his/her final decisions. Shakespeare hamlet entails further humanism ideas of self-awareness, introspection, musing, freedom of expression in thoughts, questioned political changes, multi-layered plays, borrowing from classical plays/plots/writings and using different psychological complexities. Description of humanistic figures in Hamlet Prince Hamlet He is the main character in Hamlet story and considered the humanist idealist given the role where he continuously questions the basic tenets of humanism. Prince Hamlet emerges at the beginning of the story as a young man in pursuit of education and further knowledge from a university in Germany. Hamlet basically is the source of moral education to the audience throughout the play, especially in applying prudence and making critical choices. According to Mc Clinton, Hamlet has learnt and is very familiar with tenets of humanism entailing “freedom of thoughts and the autonomy of the individuals, reason overcoming passion, the importance of truth, human and loving ethic, and an open minded yet sceptical attitude” (13). Carrying the burden to find and punish his father’s killer, Hamlet employs tactical skills, sets him a trap through the play to establish King Claudius’s suspicious reactions for his guilt as the murderer. He is prudent and when even employs a moral reasoning to delay killing the king when he finds him in prayer. The readers/audience at accepts Hamlet as a thoughtful man concerned with determining the truth and contemplative before he made his decisions. Shakespeare through use of lengthy soliloquy allows the reader to establish the psychological struggle in Hamlet’s mind. Hamlet numerously engaged in inner conflicts and because of his mind’s nature to engage in too much thinking end up creating room for other obstacles and delay for his revenge (Valera 5). He’s a man of courage; he confronted and questioned his mother’s remarriage to suspected King Claudius, which outwardly expressed his inner conflict on the issue. Hamlet is an introspective character, considers the consequences of his actions not to overwhelm his moral consideration. Pays attention to his inner feelings of melancholy, grieve, inner conflicts, obsession with vengeance and anger over his close relation. Introspection for Hamlet did lead to his self awareness and upon his return from exile has overcome his madness and anxiety, appeared rational, calm and in full realization to make tough choice of vengeance, death and violence. He finally projects humanist aggressive characteristics in a personality. Horatio Though not much stated, he’s also a humanist figure knowledgeable through Wittenberg university education, morals and ethics. He does exercise the freedom of thought, quite logical and with objective worldview (Moore 101). He was capable of reasoning with prince Hamlet and part of skilful plan to consciously observe and capture Claudius suspicious reaction in determining truth over the murderer. Sacred humanist texts Hamlet story is written in reference to direct revelations and sacred texts and doctrines for religious aspect. Prince Hamlet has options to seek guidance from direct revelations, biblical texts and church doctrines yet unable to choose considering the intensity of inner conflict and psychological state of him mind. Incorporated texts of ‘Alexander returneth into dust’ and phrases from the English burial service borrow much from the biblical phrase in Genesis 3 : 19 of King James Version stating “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Shakepeare makes reference of prayer as a sacred tenet of humans, which most characters including Hamlet, King Claudius and Ophelia resorts to for guidance and repentance. He employs religious allusions and biblical motif to emphasize on human virtues, path to heaven, condemning wickedness (Ronson yale.edu). Hamlet plot cannot be entirely discussed without involving religious discourses of Protestantism, Roman Catholism, traditions and institutional affiliations, which brings together concepts of Christianity and humanism (Still 4). Humanism influence in Shakespeare’s writing Freedom of expression and thoughts illustrated in writing Humanism depicted as the power of the human mind to influence scholars’ thoughts was evident in Shakespeare’s individual’s ideas. This period of renaissance saw different and wandering thoughts of artists and philosophers whom had taken diverging angles of thoughts to express their opinions fully, especially concerning the human nature and role in the greater universe. In the Hamlet, Shakespeare counter the humanism perception of human nature depicted by earlier scholars like Pico Mirandola, holding humans to be of the level with other creatures in the universe. Shakepeare in 2.2. 250-255 write: “What piece of work is a man. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving
 how express and admirable, in action how like an Angel, in apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals – and yet to me, what is
 this quintessence of dust?” (bartleby.com). Shakespeare here brings his protagonists ideology of humanity purpose in the universe arguing that humans are part of the ongoing cyclical nature where upon death return to dust just like the rest of the creatures. He depicts the frailty of human existence despite appreciating their capabilities and is keen to articulate that in the end the fall of man shall be reduced to dust, a basic material often blown by the wind. Later in Act 5 scene 1, line 205 Shakepeares write “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop at a beer-barrel Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, might stop a hole to keep the wind away” (197). This phrase allows viewers to view to establish the divergence of Shakespeare’ opinion from men like Pico who insisted on exalted humanity and importance of their qualities. Shakespeare depicts humans as feeble beings, capable of distinct functions but are of the earth like all other creatures. Shakespeare thoughts is not constrained by church and traditions like in the classical time, but crosses over into science of matter in explaining the cycle on the earth concerning life and death. Eventually he manages to belittle the purpose of humanity, opposing former scholars and demonstrating humans’ unimportance in the grand scheme/order of things by exercising the freedom of thoughts and expressing differing opinions in the period of renaissance humanism. Creativity in writing Creativity in expression is among the major components of Shakespeare’s realization of full potential in writing influenced by humanism. He portrays the humanistic view in his divergent thinking from his cognitive abilities to develop creative ideas and storylines for the main story. a. Multi-layered play Shakespeare’s inherent drive towards creativity is vivid in the manner he incorporates another play in the story development to capture King Claudius’s emotions and gather evidence based on his reaction to have killed Prince hamlet’s father. At this level, it is not just another piece of work but use of scientific creativity of the mind to introduce another play in Hamlet’s main play. It is an aspect of meta-theatre quite rare in the classical times, but gained popularity with scholars after the renaissance. Shakespeare introduces a play titled Murder of Gonzago in Hamlet entirely intended to set the trap for King Claudius. Prince Hamlet in play ensures that his mother (Getrude) and the new king are present for the entertainment without suspicion of the intent for his trap to work out. Shakespeare is keen to retrieve truths and through prince Hamlet states, “the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (89). In Act iii scene ii Shakespeare incorporates a dumb show where; “Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly, the Queen embracing him and he her. She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up and declines his head upon her neck. He lies him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon come in another man, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper’s ears, and leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, makes passionate action. The pois’ner with some three or four mutes come in again, seem to condole with her.The dead body is carried away. The pois’ner woos the Queen with gifts; she seems harsh and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts love” (111). The briefing as the incorporated play is a critical scene that assists to advance the plot in Hamlet, where creativity is used as a means to establishing truth of the mischievous murderer in Hamlet place. In the conversation between the King Claudius and Prince Hamlet, the later twists the title of the play to ‘the mousetrap’ and successfully coming o fulfill the purpose of the plays incorporation. Another play included is the story of Phyrrus from Virgil’s Aeneid which also entailed murder of a father. The story was played before the Mouse trap. Creativity is also apparent in the planning of the plots in Hamlet story, how they link with each other in advancing the themes. Shakespeare develops plots of revenge, romance and relations between Ophelia and Hamlet and impending war between Elizabethans and Norway. Meshed together are scenes involving a ghost figure, psychological disturbances of the human mind, morality, religious and traditional tenets influencing the human mind to develop the story line. b. Utilization of classical knowledge Shakespeare’s Halmet play is a component of accumulative knowledge from the past to make relevance to the present and future happenings. This is influenced by humanism concepts that emphasize on the source and use of knowledge from the past to enhance human understanding of the present. According to Sherratt, “humanism entails been in touch with the ideas and texts of our ancient ancestors, the Greeks and the Romans where their transmission through ages can assist people lay claims to humanist stance” (9). Coming from a period where Catholic Church had previously limited use of classical texts in theatre plays, Shakespeare made reference to various classical characters, stories and events overlooking the policy in the age of renaissance. For example, Hamlet’s revenge tragedy borrows much from the roman poet/philosopher called the ‘Seneca’ formerly credited with development of revenge tragedies (Koumakpai 1). Shakespeare follows certain revenge ideas and scenes from Seneca’s plays, especially the use of ghost figures and plots of a bloody family history. The use of lengthy rhetoric speeches in Shakespeare’s Hamlet also reflects Seneca’s style of writing. One of Shakespeare’s use of long rhetorical speech is evident in Act III scene I lines 55 to 80 by prince Hamlets speech declaring; “To be or not to be that s is the question; whether ‘tis noble in the mind to suffer, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes…..to sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub…. Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns, That patient merit of th'unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make.... but the dread of something after death, the undiscover’d country from whose bourn, and thus the native hue of resolution” (97-99). Here Hamlet is projected as a rhetoric master in his speech contemplating over committing suicide considering the sufferings in life. From the speech Shakespeare makes use of metaphors (refers to life problems through slings and arrows and death as undiscovered country) and antithesis to contrast ideas in the phrase ‘to be or not.’ These mark use of rhetorical devices in his literature. Other long speeches are by Polonius and King Claudius used by Shakespeare to demonstrate their puissance, weakness and character’s motives. Shakespeare also use Greek’s story of Priam and Pyrrhus in Hamlet. He liken the character of murderous king Pyrrhus to Claudious, murdered Priam to king Hamlet and grieving queen Hecuba to Getrude in hamlets (Russell 107). Realism Shakespeare did successfully manage to deliver higher realism by depiction of balanced contraries of actions and experiences, especially of the human mind. He produces a mirror of human mind through Prince Hamlet character and personality. The audience can perceive their mental behaviour upon invocation of emotions, and how they take time contemplating to make choices with harsh consequential as illustrated by Hamlet. Shakespeare also provide clear view of Hamlet’s inner feeling of grieve and the romantic affair turned sour and contrasts it with reality of existing, yet questionable marriage between Gertrude and Claudius, and King Claudius’s ascend into power in place of the living heir. This indicates the extent humans are out of order in the world. Some will seek to take advantage of other, bending justice to achieve a desired goal while thwart others hopes and desires to conceal truth. By representing characters and happening accurately in the play, readers and audience in plays can establish the divergence and convergence of ideas to comprehend the existing realism. Works Cited “Critical Study of Hamlet.” oconnorshamlet.weebly.com. n.d. Web. 19 March 2015. Grudin, R. “Humanism – a history of the hijacked Credo of our species.” humanism.ws. 3 July 2014. Web. 19 March 2015. “Hamlet Prince of Denmark.” bartleby.com. n.d. Web. 19 March 2015. Koumakpai, T. “Revenge tragedy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Titus Andronicus.” lecames.org 2006. Web. 19 March 2015. McClinton, B. “Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” Humanism Ireland (123); 2010, p.12-13. Moore, T.A.C. Kozintsev's Shakespeare Films: Russian Political Protest in Hamlet and King Lear. Carolina: Mc Farland Publishers, 2012. Print. Ronson, P. “Religious Elements in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” yale.edu. n.d. Web. 21 March 2015. Russell, J. Hamlet and Narcissus. London: Associated University Presses, 1995. Print. Shakespeare, W. “Hamlet Prince of Denmark.” emcp.com. 1991. Web. 19 March 2014. Sherratt, Y. Continental Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print. Still, A. “Still 1Conflicting Ideologies in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” academia.edu . n.d. Web. 21 March 2015. Valera, P.  “Discuss Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”as a revenge play.” academia.edu. n.d. Web. 21 March 2015. Read More