Trace Renaissance elements in Hamlet.
The term 'Renaissance' is popularly known as
the Revival of learning after the Classical models. The Renaissance had its
full flowering in the Elizabethan age which produced geniuses like i Marlowe
and Shakespeare. The salient features of the Renaissance were freedom of
thought from the scholasticism of the Middle Ages; sense of individualism,
discoveries in the fields of sciences and philosophies; love for adventure,
learning and material wealth, love for art and beauty, cultivation of language,
etc. Hamlet written in 1600 or 1601 is a great tragedy containing many
Renaissance elements.
The most striking quality of
Hamlet the hero of the play, is perhaps his philosophical nature and his
intellectual depth. This is a Renaissance quality and this is clearly shown in
all his soliloquies which prove his deep reflective and meditative mind:
"To be or not to be" soliloquy in Act Ill, Scene I shows his
philosophical as well as religious bent of mind.
Further material ambition, greed
for wealth and power which rise from the Machiavellian spirit of selfishness,
are certainly Renaissance qualities and these are fully exhibited by the
character of Claudius, King and uncle of Hamlet. Although Claudius appears as a
villain and criminal in the play, hatching a number of intrigues against late
King and his son Hamlet, he is a wise man and a successful King showing all the
characteristics of Machiavelli.
Love for learning, a Renaissance
quality may be traced in the character of Hamlet and Laertes, since we know
that Hamlet is a student at the University of Wittenberg and Laertes studies at
a university in France, and both of them have come to mourn the death of the
late King Hamlet. Love of war and adventure may be found in the fact that in
the past a battle was fought between late King Hamlet and Fortinbras of Norway.
Further Shakespeare's use of
'play-within-the play' (The Mouse Trap) in which Hamlet plays the role of the
director, is a Renaissance element. The way Hamlet behaves here is a kind of
criticism of the conventional play-acting before Shakespeare's time.
Finally Shakespeare's language
and style in his play prove his genius. His grandeur and dignity of blank-verse
surpass even Milton, the writer of Paradise Lost. All these things prove the
fact that Shakespeare was greatly influenced by the Renaissance
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