Renaissance Research Paper

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Why the Renaissance was Important “In Discussion: The Renaissance” “What a piece of work is a man! . . . in form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel.” –William Shakespeare, from Hamlet. William Shakespeare was a famous writer during the Renaissance. Edmund Spencer, Sir Philip Spencer Sidney, and Shakespeare wrote famous sonnets. “Originally championed by nineteenth-century French aesthetes, this notion of art as an end in itself helped shape the conception of a life dedicated to aesthetic appreciation.” In Pater's view the importance of the Renaissance, as of all culture, lies in its power to stimulate the human spirit, to inspire the individual to make the most of that person’s life. The Renaissance happened…show more content…
England sought a place on the world stage through exploration. “Fueled by the Renaissance thirst for knowledge, European navigators ventured far and wide, aided by the invention of the compass and by advances in astronomy. Their explorations culminated in Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1942. England’s participation in the Age of Exploration began in 1497, when the Italian-born explorer John Cabot, sailing for an English claims in North America.” (Grassi). Exploration doesn’t have to be an actual adventure, it can be a metaphoric adventure. Embarking on his own voyage of discovery, Shakespeare explored the heights and depths of new writing pieces. Through redefinitions of forms and new uses of English, the poets of England, strong enough to, in turn, influence writers across the…show more content…
The word renaissance means rebirth. This was characterized by innovations in art, science, and a rediscovery of long-neglected classical works. Rediscovery and rebirth are different words, but they mean close to the same thing. During this time people rediscovered art, science, and older traditions. Even as England was redefining itself politically as a world power, its poets and dramatists were taking a new hold on the English language. The English poets Edmund Spencer, Sir Philip Sidney, and William Shakespeare started the new form of sonnets, they wrote extended sonnet sequences. The ancient language of Latin had never gone away – its study was still an important part of an education. “The classics offered a view of life different from the Christian vision that had dominated Europe. Ancient Greek and Roman authors offered ethics without reference to heaven and hell and philosophy that was about the natural world, not about the supernatural. They emphasized what it was to be human, so the new way of thinking based on the classics was called humanism. Humanism is an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to humans rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.” (Langer). In simpler terms humanism is a Renaissance cultural movement that turned away from

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