What quotes from Hamlet illustrate Shakespeare's humanism?
In William Shakespeare’s play, the character Hamlet frequently questions the place of humans (glossed as “man”) in the universe. Hamlet constantly inquires into the reason for his, and by extension all humans's, presence in the world. This central question of existence—including whether an individual controls their own destiny, and may even end their own life—is a central humanist concern. Rather than accept the total control of divine forces that characterizes the pre-modern world view, Hamlet wonders about ethical and moral issues associated with the idea of free will.
In Act II, Scene 2, Hamlet converses with Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern , declaring Denmark a prison because he is confined there. They discuss the appearance versus the substance of reality, as Hamlet emphasizes the dreamlike quality of life (line 267, “a dream itself is but a shadow”). This conversation paves the way for his later consideration of man’s place in the...
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universe. Hamlet claims to see the world as “a sterile promontory” and the heavens above not a “majestical roof ... but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours."
The lines that follow (307–313) offer his cynical commentary on human existence. Although man—“the paragon of animals”—is god-like in reason, form, movement, and action, Hamlet also maintains that there is a clear limit to human potential. Apparently discounting all these fine qualities he just mentioned, he terms man merely a “quintessence of dust.”
What a piece of work is a man! how
noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! 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.
How does Shakespeare convey humanistic ideas through Hamlet?
Hamlet is often called the first modern hero because of his interiority: he typically thinks about what he is doing before he acts and asks fundamental questions about the meaning of life. He conveys humanistic ideals because he questions, rather than accepts, valued traditions, particularly the tradition in his culture that demands a son avenge his father's murder.
We are left in no doubt that Hamlet admired his father and is deeply grieved by his death. He compares him to "Hyperion," a sun god, and he makes it clear he believes Claudius is a much lesser figure than his father.
Thus, we know that when Hamlet hesitates to kill Claudius when the ghost tells him to do so, it is not out of lack of love for his father.
Rather it arises out of a humanistic impulse, perhaps learned during his studies at the Wittenberg, that causes Hamlet to question the authority of a ghost. Like the good humanist he is, Hamlet want to test for himself whether what the ghost is saying is true.
Therefore, he devises an experiment through the "Mousetrap" play, which reeancts the murder so that Hamlet can watch Claudius's reaction to it.
But even after getting confirmation of Claudius's guilt, Hamlet still hesitates, suggesting that revenge violates deeper ethical concerns he holds. He values human life (although he has some lapses), as a humanist would: humanists exalted human being as the crowning glory of God's creation, made in God's image and, therefore, of exceptional worth. For example, while trying to pump himself up to revenge his father with visions of Fortinbras marching an army to Denmark to avenge his own father's death at the Hamlet's father's hands, Hamlet, instead, ends up questioning whether it is worth it to sacrifice so many lives for so slim a cause as reclaiming a few feet of lost territory.
Hamlet reflects humanistic values in his questioning of the revenge imperative, his use of the empirical methods to test what he has been told, and his tendency overall to reflect on life.