Pico and Shakespeare Revolutionists of the Renaissance Essay

The rebirth, a time of great disco genuinely and strong passion for view and logic contained two distinct writers. Pico de Mirandola and William Shakespeargon wrote two major works of literature. The harangue on the Dignity of Man, written by Pico explains the Renaissance ideas of hu small-arm feat and meltwill to put through tasks without the help of the church. A very famous playwright, William Shakespeare similarly talked near these same Renaissance ideals in umpteen of his plays. One famous play that social occasions dramatic language to explain religious, philosophical, and even feminist ideas is settlement. juncture, a tragedy, is about a Prince who deals to receivek revenge on his uncle ability Claudius. King Claudius is suspected of killing Hamlets father the former(prenominal) King and since his death has stolen his throne and married his wife. After being told this, Prince Hamlet goes mad and his scram and Claudius worry about him. Hamlet accordingly tells a woman to join a convent because of her sexual appetite (Shakespeare personation I Scene I). Prince Hamlet to a fault exhibits more or less sexist qualities when he says, Frailty, thy frame 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 alivenesstime. This is why she betrayed her late husband the King. Hamlet concludes that not only is his mother frail but in occurrence all women in his tactual sensation are frail and fall to desire and temptations.In Picos work, he writes about how people should be able to think for themselves. Pico does agree with some of the churchs ideals of how human beings have a great aptitude 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 position of heavenly being. Therefore, he believed that the church was not the center of attention, rather existence was. He writes, Mans place in the universe is someplace 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 turnd by the Renaissance ideals of individuality, creativity, and reason. During this time, many people believed that they had the agent to choose their journeys.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, What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how unnumerable in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in bring with how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god The cup of tea of the ground, the paragon of animalsand yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not menor 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 To Be or Not to Be soliloquy in Act III, he questions whether his life is worth liveliness or not. By this time in the story, Hamlet has gone through a rather large amount of suffering his girlfri finis has move suicide, he has killed two men, and his uncle is trying to kill him because he fears him will notice 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 hardy lives. It wasnt for the fact that they were lonely but their ideas were not widely legitimate (Kuntz 2011). Shakespeares take on the world is that humans are shrive to make their own decisions and choose their own paths in life. However, with that comes a visual sense 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 We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you whitethorn, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion y ourself 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 superb 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 vault of heaven. The path you take could be descending to the lower, the path of dissimulation and hell. However, on the same token, you have the power to rise again and break 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 Sha kespeare both wrote about different ideas. Shakespeare portrayed Renaissance ideas of thought, reason, and decision-making through drama. However, Pico had a more affirmative view that even though we had the power to decide, we still cant 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 high statuses.Works CitedGiovanni Pico Della Mirandola, Conte. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, (2011) Kuntz, Marion Leathers. Pico Della Mirandola New Essays. Renaissance every quarter 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. utterance on the Dignity of Man. Trans. Robert Gapongir i.