"We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever." [Philip Pullman]

Sunday, 13 January 2013

The human condition


Thanks to Renaissance dramatists, English drama changed dramatically. The main protagonists of this turning point were Christopher Marlow and William Shakespeare. Through their works they sounded the deepest aspects of human soul and exalted the glorious moments of English history, criticising its most dreadful episodes as well.

Characters like Marlowe’s Faustus enhance the power of knowledge that enables human beings to act free from God’s influence and be aware of their own intellectual capabilities and human miseries.

As many past and contemporary critics wrote in their essays – e.g. F. Hegel and Harold Bloom – William Shakespeare can be considered incomparable and unequalled because his plays range over almost all aspects of human life. For the first time in English drama the characters of Shakespeare plays in addition to acting, are also able to analyse their behaviour from an alienated perspective as if they were the spectators of their own life.

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