Pico and Shakespeare Revolutionists of the Renaissance Essay

The Renaissance, a time of great discovery and strong passion for thought and logic contained two distinct writers. Pico de Mirandola and William Shakespeare wrote two major works of literature. The Oration on the Dignity of Man, written by Pico explains the Renaissance ideas of human achievement and freewill to accomplish tasks without the help of the church. A very famous playwright, William Shakespeare also talked about these same Renaissance ideals in many of his plays. One famous play that uses dramatic language to explain religious, philosophical, and even feminist ideas is Hamlet. â€Å"Hamlet†, a tragedy, is about a Prince who chooses to seek revenge on his uncle King Claudius. King Claudius is suspected of killing Hamlet’s father the former King; and since his death has stolen his throne and married his wife. After being told this, Prince Hamlet goes mad and his mother and Claudius worry about him. Hamlet then tells a woman to join a convent because of her sexual appetite (Shakespeare Act I Scene I). Prince Hamlet also exhibits some sexist qualities when he says, â€Å"Frailty, thy name is woman†(Shakespeare Act I Scene II ). He says this because he believes that his mother is unfaithful and cannot be intimate with a single man during her lifetime. This is why she betrayed her late husband the King. Hamlet concludes that not only is his mother frail but in fact all women in his opinion are frail and fall to desire and temptations. In Pico’s work, he writes about how people should be able to think for themselves. Pico does agree with some of the church’s ideals of how human beings have a great capacity for intellectual achievement. He also believes that humans have the right to choose the path of animals or the path of angels. However, he believed that since humans had such a high intellectual capacity, then they could make their own decisions and elevate to the status of heavenly being. Therefore, he believed that the church was not the center of attention, rather humankind was. He writes, â€Å"Man’s place in the universe is somewhere between the beasts and the angels, but, because of the divine image planted in him, there are no limits to what man can accomplish†(Pico Della Mirandola 37). This shows that Pico was strongly influenced by the Renaissance ideals of individuality, creativity, and reason. During this time, many people believed that they had the power to choose their jou rneys. They believed that we have the power to use thought and reason to make decisions. From these ideas, one can see the influence Pico had on Renaissance philosophers. Hamlet also had these same ideals of self-reflection, individuality, and reason. It says in Act II, â€Å"What a 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? Man delights not me—nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so†(Shakespeare Act II Scene II). Throughout the entire play Hamlet struggles with self-doubt and hatred, he talks about how glorious the creation of man is. However, he himself cannot see anything that inspires him. Also in his famous â€Å"To Be or Not to Be† soliloquy in Act III, he questions whether his life is worth living or not. By this time in the story, Hamlet has gone through a rather large amount of suffering; his girlfriend has committed suicide, he has killed two men, and his uncle is trying to kill him because he fears him will reveal that he is in fact the murderer. In his speech he declares the world as a harsh and terrible place filled with sorrow. He questions whether he wants to exist in this world; he states that to sleep is to end the miseries that humans have to endure. This relates to the ideas of individuality and self-expression from the Renaissance. However, if one was to have such beliefs, then comes thoughts of loneliness and faith in God begins to diminish. It is said that in many cases Renaissance philosophers and artists faced and battled states of depressions and many chose suicide at the end of their tough lives. It wasn’t for the fact that they were lonely but their ideas were not widely accepted (Kuntz 2011). Shakespeare’s take on the world is that humans are free to make their own decisions and choose their own paths in life. However, with that comes a lot of trouble and even though these renaissance ideas seemed so positive and gave hope, they also brought a lot of complications. However, Pico offers a different, more positive take on humankind. He also states that â€Å"We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine†(Pico Della Mirandola 72). This shows that, Pico understands that mankind is not considered animal-like or angelic. He exclaims that as a human you have the right to be whoever you want to be, and accomplish whatever you strive to achieve. However, he states that these freewill decisions will still be judged by the heavens. The path you take could be descending to the â€Å"lower,† the path of deception and hell. However, on the same token, you have the power to rise again and become holy and good again after falling to the depths. This is an idea that was very common during the Renaissance. The idea that we could choose amongst the many paths of life with our powers of reason, but the heavens will ultimately judge us regardless. To conclude, these two writers Pico and Shakespeare both wrote about different ideas. Shakespeare portrayed Renaissance ideas of thought, reason, and decision-making through drama. However, Pico had a more optimistic view that even though we had the power to decide, we still can’t take that power for granted. These two writers did have one thing in common; in all of their writings they focused on the fact that humankind itself is the most powerful thing in existence. They believed that humankind had the power of reason and thought, and by using this power they can elevate to higher statuses. Works Cited â€Å"Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, Conte.† Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, (2011): Kuntz, Marion Leathers. â€Å"Pico Della Mirandola: New Essays.† Renaissance Quarterly 61.3 (2008): 916-918. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. N.p.: Regnery Publishing Inc., 1996. Print. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. N.p.: Sterling Signature, 2012. Print Pico de Mirandola, Giovanni. Oration on the Dignity of Man. Trans. Robert Gapongiri.