Human Condition In Shakespeare's On The Dignity Of Man

Over the course, we have learned of many writers such as Pico, More, Montaigne, Machiavelli, and Shakespeare present different views of characteristics and situations that are essential to human existence. Their work describes how each author depicted society, whether it be by the causes a person’s actions, or what characteristics makes a good person. These authors believe that characteristics such as: potential, fear, social order, or emotion defines human condition. Although they all have different perspectives of human condition, they are similar to Hamlet because they share themes of what makes a human strong or weak.
The authors that chose to reflect on what made human condition strong were Pico and More. In Pico’s On the Dignity of Man, he viewed human condition in a positive way because he loved humanity. He believed humans possessed free will and that there was no limit on how a person would become. He stated “ humans can choose to move up or down

in the spectrum of consciousness by either realizing or ignoring the divine gift of potential.” In More’s Utopia, the main idea of his work was to explain “the need for social order and discipline outweigh the need for personal liberty.” Meaning in order to make a strong society, people needed to focus on human equality and religious freedom. They would do so by sharing property, not caring about currency, and having time for “creative leisure”. This reflects on Shakespeare’s views on strong human condition because in the play the characters used similar ideas of Pico and More it acquire personal gain. Claudius chose to “move up in the spectrum” by killing his father to become king. Ultimately, his actions caused him to die and “move down in the spectrum” because he used his free will to make those decisions. Also if Hamlet’s society were like More’s Utopia, there would have been no need for bloodshed because there would have been a fight for king because everyone would share property and focus on equality.
On the other hand, the authors that chose to reflect on what characteristics made human condition weak were Machiavelli and Montaigne.

In work Montaigne’s The Essays, he believed that humans couldn’t have “true certainty” and wanted humans to “make observations about life and human nature without emotional involvement.” Machiavelli had similar views in The Prince, because he too had a negative idea in human’s certainty. He believed that emotion makes government weak and it did not allow people to survive. He stated “Being too compassionate will lead to disorder and chaos.” This reflects on Shakespeare’s views on human condition of weakness because in the play, Hamlet focused too much on his emotions rather than dealing with there responsibilities of seeking revenge quickly. Hamlet’s self conflict and emotional issues with Ophelia and his brother distracted him from avenging his father’s death and ultimately led to his death. If he had focused on his emotions he would’ve finished the task

quickly.