by Amy I. of Estancia High School in Costa Mesa, California Greed, Morals, and Religion During the Renaissance Era INTRODUCTION Literary period and background information The Renaissance Era (1485 1625) was a turning point in the thinking of the people during the time. People were realizing that they needed to be reminded about what values Thesis statement they should hold and how they should treat their fellow man. Art and literature were very strong factors in the way people were thinking about life. Greed was a common problem in the thinking of the people during the era. People used religion to remind themselves of their earlier morals. Art reflected the morals, the thinking, and the events that shaped the Renaissance Era. Queen Elizabeth I strongly supported the creativeness of the theater and the religious background of those plays. Works written by Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and the fifty-four English scholars that translated the King James Bible express the need for people to reform their ways of life into a less greedy and more religious lifestyle during the Renaissance Era. 1
BODY Major point summary One piece that confirms the idea of the need for reform in human thinking is Christopher Marlowe s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. In the story, Dr. Faustus sells his soul to the devil for special powers that he may use on earth. Now that the time has come for Dr. Faustus to die, he is attempting to repent and save his soul so that he may not live in hell for eternity. This shows the trend of the era because much of the writing of the time had moral lessons about greed and how you should treat your fellow man. This story illustrates what happens when you become greedy. Greed can ruin your life because you are always looking for more. The lesson with Dr. Faustus is that he regretted his greed when the time came for him to give his soul to the devil. Dr. Faustus was a very greedy man, and his greed caught up with him in the end. The quotation from Faustus that reflects how Faustus is trying to repent his soul because he knows that he has made the wrong decision is in Scene XVI: quotation Ah, half the hour is past! twill all be past anon. 2
O God, If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul, Yet for Christ s sake, whose blood hath ransomed me, Impose some end to my incessant pain; Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years, A hundred thousand, and at last be sav d! O, no end is limited to damned souls! Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul? Or why is this immortal that thou hast? Ah, Pythagoras metempsychosis, were that true, This soul should fly from me, and I be chang d Unto some brutish beast! all beasts are happy, For, when they die, Their souls are soon dissolv d in elements; But mine must live still to be plagu d in hell. Curs d be the parents that engender d me! No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer That hath depriv d thee of the joys of heaven. 3
This is the ending of Faustus greed and the beginning of his Major point summary repentance. Faustus, in the end, knows what he has done and is trying to get out of the hole that he has dug himself into. If only Faustus had taken time to think things through, he might have saved himself from living in hell for the rest of eternity. Marlowe wrote this play with the intention of making his readers realize that there is more to life after death and that they need to be cautious about the decisions that they make. The second example that expresses the need for changes in human thinking during the Renaissance Era is Macbeth written by William Shakespeare. In Macbeth, the title character is told by a ghost that he will become king when the king dies. Macbeth in turn tells his wife about what he knows. Then, Macbeth s wife tells him that he should kill the king so that he may become king sooner. So Macbeth plans how he is going to kill the king. Macbeth then goes through with his plan and then starts to go crazy because he is regretting that he killed the king. This proves that Macbeth and his wife were exceedingly greedy. They wanted to have the power and the glory of being 4
the king and queen as soon as they could. They were going to do anything that they could to get the power sooner. This shows the human need for greed. In Act I, Scene 5, lines 58 68, Lady Macbeth tells her husband to kill the king so that he may become the king more rapidly: quotation O, never Shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like th innocent flower, But be the serpent under t. He that s coming Must be provided for: and you shall put This night s great business into my dispatch; Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. This quotation reflects how Lady Macbeth s greed is 5
overtaking her. She wants her husband to become king as soon as possible and she is willing to do anything for him to be king. This is what Shakespeare was trying to convey to the people of the time. Greed can become all of what a person is made of, and people should think of the consequences before doing something they will regret. In the end, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both get what is coming to them. Macbeth chose violence to get what he wanted, which was power. That violence is reflected onto Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the end. Macbeth is killed by Macduff, and Lady Macbeth goes insane and eventually commits suicide. According to Shakespeare, when a person chooses an act of violence, that violence is reflected back onto that person. These two writings discuss the idea of the need for reform in people s thinking. They tell a story about the characters actions and the consequences that follow. The stories set up an incident in which the main character is given two options. The characters choose the option they want, even though they know that the option they have chosen comes with 6
a very high price. In time, the characters realize that they have made a terrible mistake that will ruin their lives for eternity. The reason for writing these stories was to make people aware that they need to think about the decisions that they make. These kinds of stories are called parables. Major point The third of these examples takes a different approach to summary the subject of greed. The King James Bible explains how one should treat fellow human beings and how one should act throughout daily life. One of the specific excerpts from the King James Bible that expresses the need for charity in our lives, which is the opposite of greed, is I Corinthians 13. This is a small parable about how much difference charity can make in the world. Charity can change not only your personality but your view on the world as well. Charity is a great thing and must have been something that was not very common during the Renaissance Era. I think one of the reasons this passage was written was so that the public may be aware that they were only being charitable for their fame or gain. The translators of the King James Bible felt that people should be charitable so 7
that they may feel good about themselves and so that they may receive charity in return. The quotation of I Corinthians 13: 11 13 illustrates the great importance of charity and what charity means to the translators: quotation When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. This proves the overall importance of charity in the world and in our daily lives. Charity should be the most important idea in human thinking and in human actions. The King James Bible was written with the hope that many of the ideas conveyed to the readers were adopted into their daily 8
lives. CONCLUSION The Renaissance period was a time of change, which is Restatement of thesis always very difficult. People of the Renaissance Era started to break away from religion as well as their ancestors traditions and ways of life. They were forgetting about their morals and how they should treat their fellow human beings. Greed was a very common idea in many people s minds during the Renaissance Era. During this time, educators and writers felt the need to remind people of the values and morals they had lost. Many of the writers and their works represented the idea of greed and what the consequences of greed can be. The works written by Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and the English scholars that translated the King James Bible express the need for reform in human thinking during the Renaissance Era. 9