Medieval Renaissance Middle Ages

mediaeval renascence spunk AgesThere are umpteen take issueences in the beliefs and values between the Renaissance and the nerve Ages. The mettle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease. The Renaissance, however, was a revitalisation of art, learning, and lit. Their views of the purpose of biography in the be world and mans place in the world were, perhaps, the greatest contrast. However, their views on politics, religion, and education were very different as well.The purpose of disembodied spirit and mans place in the world was viewed differently during the meat Ages and the Renaissance. During the Middle Ages, also known as The Age of Faith, mans purpose was to deal out God. Looking upon life as a journey is prevalent during this era. The localise of life was on the afterlife, primarily because there were no guarantees in the present life. The life of highest value was the contemplative life, one devoted to God. The passive virtue s much(prenominal) as compassion, suffering, and humility were highly regarded. God was the center of mans world during the Middle Ages. On the Great Chain of Being, man was below God and the angels and preceding(prenominal) the animals, plants, and inanimate objects.It is amazing how aspects of society grass and will change so significantly over the course of a few hundred years. mingled with the times of the medieval era and the Renaissance, one can none legion(predicate) significant changes, mainly those pertaining to religion and art, and specifically, drama. In Medieval times, community externalisemed to affirm mainly on the church and God for their entertainment purposes whereas during the Renaissance, the revolve about was much secular humans and life on earth. In general, psychels and subjects evolved from unquestionable church building dogma (and therefore very safe subject amour) to ideas that focused on the questions of humanity (and therefore creating an uns table and unsettling universe.) The evolution from the Medieval dogma to the human-centred focus of the Renaissance is apparent through the dramatic texts of the time. Although these two eras differ in many other ways, the most illustrated differences deal with the realm of drama, head start with the Medieval turn dramas and culminating in Shakespeares magnate Lear.Drama noticeably shifted from spectral awe to classical reason between the Medieval era and the Renaissance. During the Middle Ages, drama aimed mainly at making advancements in the church. Thus, the Cycle Dramas or face Passion Plays performed with the permission and help of the church. The belief is that the church clergy likely wrote the short stories or playlets and then gave them to the Guilds for their performance in theaters. Although the appearance of the Cycle Dramas hitchms unimaginative and commonplace at a premiere glance, there are some striking innovations in terms of furthering a dramatic structure. This is the first time we adopt the use of a double plot in which the honored and revered story is compared to a similar situation besides of a base (and most times, immoral) story. A perfect vitrine of this is in The Second Shepards Play where Mak and Maks wife, Gill, imitate the glorious scene of Christs birth in the manger by pose the stolen lamb in a basket and pretending it is a baby. Almost every Cycle Drama has a similar structure, and the dramas that came after the Cycle Dramas continue to use this structure. We can see the double plot/sub plot structure becoming to a greater extent and more significant and taking on more importance in plays such as Gorboduc, The Spanish Tragedy, most of Shakespeares works, and eventual(prenominal)ly in poove Lear.As the Medieval era ends and the Renaissance emerges we also see a shift in the attitude towards cruel. Through the texts of the English Passion Plays we can see that the attitude is playful and comic when the subject matte r is the access or something equally as wicked. The possibility of questioning religion, faith, and humanity has not yet entered the picture. As soon as the possibility emerges, the safe and unafraid(p) world of absolutes is violently thrashed. We see the possibilities emerge in Everyman when Death comes before Everyman has a chance to redeem himself. We see it again with more strong point in Gorboduc when the faggot cannot restore his kingdom from his sons. Another great example is in Marlowes The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus where Faustus has the opportunity to redeem himself, but does not, and evil conquers all. We see the culmination of the destroyed safety of the Medieval world in Shakespeares plays including Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear. Shakespeare especially dominates this subject matter because of historic events in his lifetime. Because of policy-making strife between the Catholics and Protestants, and to avoid conflict, Queen Elizabeth forbid the subject matter of religion to enter into any play, and thus Shakespeare very craftily draw worlds in his plays that related to religion, but had none as specific as Christianity. With these circumstances he was able to open the door to a figure of thought not used since the Greek age. In his play, King Lear, Shakespeare secerns a world in which the gods are just, and of our pleasant vice make instruments to beset us. In other words, the gods are just but cruel. And thus, dramatic focus had changed from the security of spectral dogma in the Medieval era to a more humanistic, questioning and circumstantial view of the world in the Renaissance.The steadfast, detain world of the Medieval age was at an end.Then it all crashes drink down and you break your crown..In King Lear, we see the evolution of thought from the Medieval to the Renaissance played out for us onstage. The safe, secure world of Britain we coup doeil at the beginning (not unlike the Medieval world) is a hoax and King Lea r is the largest proponent of it. Lear must go through the process of learning to see the truth of the world around him, a world that is full of questions and not so many answers-in other words, a Renaissance world.When King Lear gives up his kingdom to his daughters, he is quick to dismiss any truth not to his liking. He is convinced that the world is an absolute, that he has absolute power and that he will never lose it. He has no need to beat out to anything but flattery. And it all goes downhill for King Lear because he gives his kingdom to his rascally daughters Regan and Goneril who are willing to flatter through forked tongues. Lear, in a fit of rage, disowns his honest daughter Cordelia for telling him a plain truth. He loses everything, including his power, coin, family, and life.King Lears reign ends because of his foolishness and his corrupt daughters deceit. His once mighty manage upon his kingdom is now nullified and hes just left with just a memory of his rule. th e great unwashed still regarded him the king, however he has no money and no power. In Act IV, Scene 6, we see Lear dressed in wild berries and donning a crown made from weeds Lear has begun to see all the way and still believes himself to be a King, but, more virtual(prenominal)ally, a King of nothing.Lears life ends tragically without any kind of redemption of the Medieval sense. We can see that Shakespeare has completely opened up the curtain to reveal a rickety and unstable world where there is no God and peradventure no gods either to remedy the situation. A Medieval audience would not eat up been able to handle this collapse of religious structure, but the Renaissance was pee for it.Perhaps the greatest and most evident way in which the Medieval and Renaissance time periods differ is found in the opposing expound of philosophy, which we see through, its dramas. Again, the theme of progression from religious-oriented thoughts in the Middle Ages to the secular ideals of the Renaissance is evident in texts from Everymans spiritual journey to Christian redemption, through Lears possibly godless universe. The general view of people in the Middle Ages was that of putting faith in the church, with beliefs that there would be a reward in heaven for them at the end of their tired lives (Everyman). During the latter Renaissance, however, thoughts were more associated with keep life on earth rather than the afterlife in heaven. The consequences of King Lears actions appear before death and there is no resolution to state whether or not Lear is relieved of his burden through death. New sanction in human abilities and thought was developed in drama, and there were many more inquiries pertaining to science and reason (Faustus), rather than religion as it was in the Middle Ages. Faustus is an interesting mix of a Renaissance man in a Medieval world and the collision that these two subjects make is astronomical. Also, philosophic developments during the Rena issance were made to be more practical and had more realistic applications to everyday life. The philosopher, Machiavelli, is an example of this, as he made attempts to find a balance between freedom and authority, something that was very useful in life and put no confidence in the church or God. He developed the idea that a corrupt society needs to find a strong leader(who is not necessarily moral) to govern so that the people can learn to be capable of self-government. This was a practical idea and applicable to everyday life although not necessarily a commonplace idea. He also developed the classic archetype of the Machiavel, which we see in almost every dramatic text from The Spanish Tragedy on.The ultimate changing theme as is evident in the dramatic literature during the progression from the Medieval to Renaissance eras was that of religious-based ideals to ideals that were humanistic and questioning in nature. People turned from putting all their faith in religion and the af terlife, and began snap more specifically on problems concerning everyday life. As seen in the English Passion Plays and Everyman the focus of Medieval drama is specifically on scriptural topics, especially redemption and the journey of a religious nature, whereas the texts of the Renaissance describe situations of governmental disputes, issues of pride, truthfulness, and many other humanistic attributes of life. The focus has clearly shifted from the religious to the secular.