Influence of Humanism on Shakespeares Hamlet Free Essay Example, 2250 words

Shakespeare s Hamlet 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 to lay claims to humanist stance (9). Coming from a period where the 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 the 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 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 .We will write a custom essay sample on Influence of Humanism on Shakespeare's Hamlet or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page 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 an undiscovered country) and antithesis to contrast ideas in the phrase to be or not.