Hamlet: from the Fall of Man to a Mystical Journey

Renaissance outlook relies on the humanism while medieval outlook is intellectual. In the light ofintellectualism and based on the ancient philosophical meaning of the term ‘intellect’ or ‘intelligence’, awork is much related to the gnostic aspects while humanism depicted in a renaissance work indicates thatthe emphasis is on human and other earthy objects not on godly features. To comprehend this, definitionson the concept of intellect are discussed, intelligence is equated with the Greek philosophical term ‘nous’,and Farabian theory of intellection is argued as well. The purpose of this study is to show that the playHamlet written by Shakespeare in the renaissance era, in contrast, is more intellectual than humanistic inits outlook. To support the argument, the researcher utilizes valuable notions of Martin Lings in his greatbook Shakespeare in the Light of Sacred Art. In addition, to achieve the research objectives, the analysisis divided into two major parts: first, Hamlet is considered through the story of the Fall and second it isanalyzed in the light of mysticism. That is to say, Hamlet representative for a fallen man enters in amystical journey to pacify his soul and to regain his lost Edenic state.

Keywords:

fallen man , gnostic knowledge , Hamlet , humanism , intellectualism , mysticism