Hamlet and the Renaissance

Hamlet & the Renaissance

If the Italians rediscovered Humanity trough the Greek and Roman antiquity, the English rediscovered it through the Italians, by the time the Italian Renaissance was already going through its third century.

Renaissance, rinascimento, rebirth, these are all the same name for an epoch where humanity rediscovered itself by going two millennia back to its ancestors, the classic Greeks and Romans. Arts and science changed dramatically and unprecedented discoveries were made starting by the end of the fourteenth century. Machiavelli, Pico della Mirandolla, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo and Columbus, Donatello are just a few names in a long list of Genius Men of the Renaissance era.

One of the most famous plays of all times, Hamlet, by Shakespeare, probably written around 1601, has as protagonist a Renaissance Man. It may be arguable that there was an English Renaissance, but prince Hamlet was undoubtedly a man of Renaissance education. He studied philosophy, at the University of Wittenberg, a name that brings us to Martin Luther, the reformer, the father of Protestantism.

The voice of the past, belonging to his father's ghost, a symbol of the Dark Ages, makes itself heard for a son educated in the spirit of humanism. There are also other characters in this play that ponder the matter of death, suicide, Scripture, things that were unquestionable in the Dark Ages, but very much debatable in the Renaissance. Two clowns are arguing in the churchyard: "First Clown: How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense? Second Clown: Why 'tis found so. First Clown: It must be "se ofendendo"; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act has three branches: it is, to act, to do to perform: argal she drowned herself wittingly."..."Second Clown: But is this law? First Clown: Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law."(Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene I, (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/hamlet/20/)

Hamlet himself is pondering the subject of death, in his famous soliloquy: " to be, or not to be..." His thoughts go as far as remembering two of the classic genius names: Alexander and Caesar. He even seems to go beyond the philosophy of Renaissance, when asking about the person who will be buried in the grave the Clowns are digging.

Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay / Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, / Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw." (Shakespeare, hamlet, Act V, Scene I, (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/hamlet/20/).

Hamlet, more than all the other figures in the Shakespearean play, starts his young adult life like a true man of the Renaissance: brilliant, strongly believing in the human values and in the power of free will. but, unfortunately, he has to act according to the cruel reality and that is not according to the ideal humanistic picture. His struggle between acting in the sense of reason and wisdom on one hand and the sense of justice in the name of his father, the former king of Denmark, supposedly killed by his own brother who soon after committing the murder married Hamlet's mother and his sister in low, on the other hand, is like the struggle between the beliefs of the Dark Ages and the new born beliefs of the Renaissance. In Hamlet's case, the dark Ages conquer the light and the last scene displays before Fortinbras'(the Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlet's father) eyes. Fortinbras seems to be the symbol for the rebirth of Denmark, in the light of a young king that lacks the putrid inheritance of an alienated royal family, like Hamlet's. The Renaissance man, Prince Hamlet, seems aware of the inutility of trying to restore the reign of his royal family in Denmark, since its members are proved to be corrupt and not suitable any more to lead a country in the spirit a new born world. His acts could also be in the spirit of sacrifice, suitable for a Renaissance man, in the name of restoring the dignity of his subjects and the glory of his country. People like Galileo and Savonarola were ready to give up their most precious possession, life, for the sake of the new era and in order to ensure a future for the new established order in the world. The reason for acting as he does must be understood beyond the mere wish to revenge his father's death and because of his obsession with his mother. The well educated Hamlet is the man that understands the illness that not only lies in his family, but also in himself and sees it as a plague that has to be eradicated by means of complete destruction. The killings in the play appear to be more due to some hasty actions and misunderstandings than to some well prepared decisions, but in the end the whole nation will enjoy the chance of a new ruler, and the teachings of the deeds of the former royal family. People must learn from the past, as the Renaissance art and science men understood. Hamlet did understand it, too. He even asks his friend, Horatio, to live and tell the truth about what happened. Hamlet, the man, could not act but according to the law of revenge and to his father's wishes, but Hamlet, the wise prince who loved his country let a legacy to his subjects and by appointing a new ruler, gave them hope of a new life. "O. I die, Horatio; / the potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit: / I cannot live to hear the news from England; / but I do prophecy the election lights / on Frotinbras: he has my dying voice; / So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, / Which have solicited. The rest is silence." (Shakespeare, hamlet, Act V, Scene II, (http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/hamlet/21/)