Hamlet engages in self-exploration, Faustus in self-deception

“Hamlet engages in self-exploration, Faustus in self-deception.”

In order to discuss this statement I would like to begin by having a brief look at the age of Renaissance and pointing out some of its typical features. The Italian term ‘Renaissance’ refers to the rebirth of interest in the ideas of classical antiquity between 1450 and 1650 in Europe. The most important events during this time were the invention of movable-block printing (1454), the discovery of the so called New World (1492), the Reformation in Germany (1517) and England (1535) and finally the assertion of the Copernican World System. These developments contributed to the revision of the old, medieval picture of the world. They go together with a total social process embracing a change in everyday life, every day ways of thinking, moral practices and ethical ideas. 1 The concept of Renaissance is strongly connected with the idea of ‘Renaissance humanism’. Renaissance m en put themselves more in the centre of their considerations than men in medieval times. According to Agnes Heller one “might better speak of the cult of the ‘self- made’ man” 2 , which means that destiny was no longer considered to be God-given, but more and more became an issue of what oneself had made of it. Thus men started to choose their destiny by themselves and to be proud of what they have achieved. Taking this as a starting point one can consider Hamlet as well as Dr Faustus as embodiment of the stereotype of the ‘Renaissance man’. Both are highly educated persons. They have even studied at the same university in Wittenberg. They both engage in self-exploration, because they are both solitary figures holding marginal places in society. They both dispute a lot with themselves, because they do not really have someone to talk with. Their soliloquies show their mental conflicts with which they try to cope. The difference between them is that Hamlet is solitary, because he is surrounded by faithlessness, corruption and betrayal while Faustus has chosen his solitude in order to study in his house.

Faustus had studied divinity in Wittenberg, but his interests had turned to the study of necromancy and conjuration afterwards. He can be described as “a searching and

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troubled intellect”. 3 The only aim of his ambition is knowledge. He cannot accept the fact that there are limitations for human beings. To reach the total understanding of the world he is even willing to go beyond the limits of human destination. He strives to know “where the place is that men call Hell”. 4 Faustus is “wrestling with deeper matters, facing with courage and honesty the problems of truth about man’s life and his status in the universe.” 5 That is what makes him a ‘Renaissance man’.

Hamlet is a complex character, too. Due to the fact that he had studied in Wittenberg he can be regarded as intelligent. He is more a thinker than a man of action. However, the most striking features of his character are his sensibility and his introversion, which are shown by the feeling of deep depression and grief after his father’s death. 6 Although Hamlet is disgusted by the fact that his mother married his uncle within a month after his father’s death he does not express his feelings to his mother. He rather broods about her faithlessness on his own. Even when he gets proof that his father had been murdered by his uncle he does not act.

When he says:

Haste me to know’t, I with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love May sweep to my revenge. 7 we can interpret this on the one hand as a lack of self-knowledge. If we take into consideration that he is quite self- aware it seems to be more plausible to say that stating this is a means of self-deception. He wants to be strong and take revenge, but he knows that he is not decisive enough to pass through it. Finally he ends up in alternating between the decisions he made in his soliloquies and the reality in which he is not capable of acting on these decisions.

We can say that Hamlet is a ‘Renaissance man’ in the way that he wants to take justice for his father’s death by himself. He really wants to determine his destiny by himself and does not want to let things go. However, this is exactly what finally happens,

3 Rowse, A.L. Christopher Marlowe. A Biography. (London: Macmillian & Company Limited, 1964) p. 159.

4 Rowse, A.L. Christopher Marlowe. A Biography. (London: Macmillian & Co LTD, 1964) p. 160.

5 Rowse, A.L. Christopher Marlowe. A Biography. (London: Macmillian & Co LTD, 1964) p. 159. 6 The characterisation refers to: Todd, Loreto. York Notes on Hamlet by William Shakespeare. (Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1992) p. 88-94.

7 Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1992) p. 27.

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