Hamlet and Counter-Humanism

Abstract

This essay interprets the question of subjectivity in Hamlet by reappraising Renaissance skepticism and by reexamining the medieval debate concerning the misery of man's existence, and the Renaissance celebration of man. A central concern is the significance of the commonplace in humanist rhetoric and dialectic, by which Stoic and Christian thought depreciates passion. In his anguish Hamlet discovers a unique subjectivity as he attempts to reject the wisdom of tradition. But the nature of thought cannot be separated from the nature of the mind that thinks, and Hamlet's selfhood capitulates to the role.

To Interpret Hamlet as an Everlasting Role in the Perspective of “Resonance” and “Wonder”

“…The author also mentions that the soliloquies of Hamlet are the most passionate and most penetrating ones to reach the depth of the relationship between seeming and being. The similar understanding of Hamlet as a humanist can be found in "Hamlet and Counter-Humanism" by Ronald Knowles who, through careful interpretation of Hamlet's words, shows readers an image of Hamlet as a good thinker concerning the great of human beings made by God, a pious Christian who would believe in the design of God (Knowles, 1999), and a true lover suffering so much from the revenging tusk put on him.…”