6.1.3

Renaissance & Emergence of Humanism

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The Renaissance and the Emergence of Humanism

The medieval idea of a ‘Great Chain of Being’ was challenged by the emergence of new ideas, originating in Italy in the 14th century and becoming increasingly influential in England during the 16th century.

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The birth of the Renaissance

  • This new age of learning and discovery was inspired by the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture and by the advances made by Islamic societies in sciences such as medicine and astronomy.
  • We describe this new age of enlightenment as the Renaissance – literally, a ‘rebirth’.
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Copernicus

  • This new spirit of learning and discovery led to profound changes in the way humanity saw its place in the universe.
  • The astronomical discoveries of Copernicus (who discovered that the Earth orbited the Sun) cast doubt on the idea, held for centuries in Christian Europe, that the Earth, and therefore Mankind, was at the centre of the Universe.
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The rise of humanism

  • As a consequence, belief in a ‘Great Chain of Being’ was weakened and the idea of fixed hierarchies began to be challenged.
  • The relationships between God and Man, and between a King and his subjects, were subject to debate.
  • A new spirit of what scholars refer to as humanism emerged – a belief that the relationship between an individual and society was not ‘fixed’ in a rigid hierarchy and that mankind had the potential to learn the secrets of the universe.
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Hamlet's speech (A2S2) & humanism

  • Hamlet’s famous speech in Act 2 Scene 2, “What piece of work is a man…”, is often interpreted as expressing this new spirit of humanism.
  • Mankind is described in hyperbolic terms as being “noble in reason… infinite in faculties… how like an angel in apprehension; how like a god”.
  • However, despite all of these glories, Hamlet can only see a “quintessence of dust”.
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Hamlet's rejection of hierarchy

  • Hamlet himself comes to reject notions of hierarchy.
  • In Act 4, Scene 2, he tells Rosencrantz that “The King is a thing / Of nothing”. This foreshadows his reflection on the cycle of life and death during the graveyard scene in which he imagines the dead body of Alexander the Great decomposing into “dust” which may “stop a beer-barrel”.

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1Introduction

2Plot Summary

3Character Profiles

4Key Themes

5Writing Techniques

6Context

7Critical Debates

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