Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Shakespeare’s thoughts on Human Nature

William Shakespeare, often regarded as the world’s greatest playwright, contributed to the Renaissance spirit by expressing humanist ideals in his setting, diction and characters.

Hamlet- Passages on the nobility of a human being and the infinity of human faculties

Henry VIII, Macbeth, and Measure for Measure

-Passages on the dark side of life

-How man is great but there is always dark in the light of consciousness and knowledge

- “That age, ache, penury and imprisonment/ Can lay on nature is a paradise/ to what we fear of death” (M for M)

As You Like It

-Passage on the roles that each man plays in his life

-From infant to educated man a person goes through several stages of his life, gradually increasing his knowledge and responsibility

-Men learn from experiences in life and stages of life

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, The Two Gentleman of Verona, and The Two Gentleman of Verona

- Love oftentimes is able to conquer man’s wisdom

o “For to be wise and love/ Exceeds man’s might” (T and C)

- Appreciation of women for their looks as well as etiquette, manner, and fashion

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