SHAKESPEARE was one of the most famous renaissance writers. His play "Twelfth Night" was written during the English renaissance and maybe overlapped with the creation of the great tragedy Hamlet.
The aim of this paper is to analyse in what way Shakespeare presented the characters of the play. Central to this discussion are the contemporary understandings of the human nature as well as the psychological assumptions concerning the mental distraction of people. It is undisputable that CICERO and his work "De officiis" had a great impact on the English renaissance humanists.
The term “humanism” is a translation of the Italian word ‘umanista’ which denotes someone who teaches humanae literae. WELLS rightly claims that “the ruling ambition of the humanists was to recover the values of classical civilisation”. Their ideal form of government was “a just society, ruled by a wise and responsible oligarchy”. And “a humanist was someone who made it his business to understand humankind”. So now the audience of Twelfth Night is confronted with an unordered society that consists of characters that absolutely lack the renaissance ideal of how humans should be. It is proposed to show how SHAKESPEARE manages to reorder the mad state Illyria – the setting of the play. Moreover the process of metamorphosing into ideal humans in the sense of the Renaissance understanding will be traced. Since there are reams of publications on SHAKESPEARE’S works a choice of some of them had to be carried out. ROBIN WELLS’ monograph Shakespeare’s Humanism served as a basis for this paper. WELLS portrays a very detailed image of what concerned the English renaissance humanists. Moreover he classifies SHAKESPEARE and his plays in the contemporary world-view. In order to reconstruct the nature of melancholy and madness ROBERT BURTON’S monograph "The Anatomy of Melancholy" was consulted. In this way it was possible to develop an understanding of the renaissance notion on mental derangement. BURTON’S examinations of this topic will be checked against SHAKESPEARE’S way of presenting mental illnesses. In a final step the question will be answered in how far SHAKESPEARE must have been acquainted with the disease pattern of distracted subjects.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Renaissance key concepts
2.1 Humanism: The nature of the Renaissance figure
2.2 Elizabethan Madness and Melancholia - contemporary understanding
2.3 The Renaissance concept of love
2.3.1 Petrarchism
2.3.2 Anti-Petrarchism
3. Acting by emotions - madness, melancholia and lovesickness
3.1 Twelfth Night
3.1.1 Duke Orsino and Olivia
3.1.2 Viola and Malvolio
Objectives and Research Focus
This paper examines how William Shakespeare utilizes contemporary Renaissance understandings of human nature, psychology, and mental derangement to portray the characters in his play Twelfth Night. The primary objective is to analyze how the disorderly state of Illyria is reordered through the characters' processes of metamorphosis and the achievement of self-knowledge.
- Analysis of Renaissance humanism and the Ciceronian concept of the anatomy of human nature.
- Examination of Elizabethan psychological perspectives on madness and melancholy, particularly through Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy.
- Investigation of the Renaissance concept of love, including Petrarchism and Anti-Petrarchism.
- Exploration of character development, specifically the roles of Orsino, Olivia, Viola, and Malvolio in relation to these contemporary world-views.
Excerpt from the Book
Duke Orsino and Olivia
Just at the beginning of the play Orsino is introduced as a man who loves to be in love. In the play he functions as a kind of instrument to mock the renaissance vision of love. So his first lines appear to work as a satire of the renaissance idea of love – namely Petrarchism for they contain exactly one line too much in contrast to a petrarchan sonnet. According to BIEWER Orsino must be depicted as an idealizing lover. He enjoys it to present himself as a wooing lover. By doing so he remains passive. Furthermore he uses contemporary ideas of how one falls in love – namely by vapours that enter through the eyes of the lover. He even does not shy away from comparing the act of falling in love with the affection of the body with pestilence. Moreover he uses words like “food” and “appetite” as allusions for sexual desire and drive. That Orsino does not really suffer from love melancholy is obvious when we compare his behaviour and his speech to BURTON’S remarks on the symptoms of love melancholy. BURTON claims that once a lover suffers from love melancholy he turns his abilities in the direction of composing ballads or poems. In the case of Orsino he indeed has a strong affection for music but not in form of composing a song by his own. He enjoys listening to music to the full. The fact hat Orsino overly makes use of the rhetoric of passion and exaggerates his complaint is an obvious hint to his simulated love sickness.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter defines the scope of the study, focusing on the analysis of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night through the lens of Renaissance understandings of human nature and mental distraction.
2. Renaissance key concepts: This section explores foundational theories of humanism, the four humours, the balance of nature, and the contemporary understanding of madness, melancholy, and love.
3. Acting by emotions - madness, melancholia and lovesickness: This chapter applies the previously established concepts to the specific characters and dramatic situations in Twelfth Night, analyzing their psychological states and eventual transformations.
Keywords
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Renaissance Humanism, Melancholy, Madness, Love-sickness, Petrarchism, Anti-Petrarchism, Self-knowledge, Illyria, Robert Burton, Ciceronian virtues, Elizabethan psychology, Metamorphosis, Humours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper explores how Shakespeare reflects contemporary Renaissance psychological and philosophical concepts regarding human nature and mental health within his comedy Twelfth Night.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The main themes include Renaissance humanism, the Elizabethan understanding of melancholy and madness, the cultural concept of love (Petrarchism vs. Anti-Petrarchism), and the process of attaining self-knowledge.
What is the central research question?
The work aims to analyze how Shakespeare presents the play's characters and how he manages to reorder the "mad state" of Illyria through the characters' metamorphosis into ideal humans.
Which scientific methods are employed?
The author performs a literature-based analysis, contrasting Shakespeare's character portrayals with contemporary philosophical texts by Cicero and psychological studies like Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy.
What does the main body of the work cover?
The main body investigates the characters of Duke Orsino, Olivia, Viola, and Malvolio, assessing their behaviors against the established Renaissance ideals of balance, reason, and social order.
Which keywords characterize the work?
The work is characterized by terms such as Renaissance humanism, melancholy, madness, love-sickness, Petrarchism, and self-knowledge.
How does the author interpret Malvolio's condition?
Malvolio is analyzed as a figure who lacks self-knowledge and whose behavior, perceived by others as "madness," is examined using contemporary medical practices, such as the analysis of urine as a diagnostic tool.
What role does Viola play in the development of other characters?
Viola is portrayed as a stabilizing force who acts as an antipode to the idealizing lovers Orsino and Olivia, eventually helping them overcome their artificial melancholy through her own rational and balanced nature.
- Quote paper
- Toni Rudat (Author), 2010, Twelfth Night, and the Renaissance Idea of Man, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/152461
