The evolution of the hero
eternal glory over a long life: ‘If I remain here and fight . . . my renown will be imperishable/ but if I return home to my dear native land/ lost then is my glorious renown yet will my life long/ endure’ ( Iliad 9.412-416), embodies this culture’s fundamental values which it exalts in its heroes. The hero's function is to achieve kleos (glory) that grants their deeds immortality and inspires future excellence. The Homeric hero’s individual psychology matters far less than their capacity to embody social ideals through spectacular action. Shakespeare's Hamlet represents a revolutionary transformation in heroic conception, where Christian teaching and classical learning interact within the context of Renaissance humanism to create a psychological complexity that would be incomprehensible to Homer’s warrior culture. Where Achilles operates within a unified value system, Hamlet is confronted by competing value systems whose contradictions generate the moral paralysis that defines his character. As a prince educated at Wittenberg—a centre of Renaissance humanist learning—Hamlet would naturally embody humanist modes of thought characterized by introspection and intellectual autonomy. However, these more modern views often contradict the Christian ideals of duty and obedience that played such a significant role in the period, most notably in the famous ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy which reveals this heroic crisis through its systematic examination of existence itself. Hamlet weighs up Christianity’s condemnation of suicide—’what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause’ 4 —against the unbearable nature of earthly suffering. His fear in the description of the afterlife— ‘But that the dread of something after death, / The undiscover'd country from whose bourn/ No traveller returns, puzzles the will’ ( Hamlet 3.79-81) reveals the epistemological foundation of Renaissance heroic uncertainty: where Achilles received clear divine guidance and operated within established codes of honour, Hamlet faces moral choices without authoritative guidance. Hamlet's delay represents not psychological weakness but the intellectual burden of moral uncertainty in a world where traditional authorities compete and conflict with contemporary ideals. The ghost of Hamlet’s father’s command for revenge exemplifies the cultural collision between familial duty and religion in the period. Medieval and feudal tradition demands filial vengeance—a son must avenge his father's murder to maintain family honour—yet Christian doctrine condemns both murder and the usurpation of divine justice. Moreover, the more grounded scepticism of the Renaissance leads him to question the ghost’s authenticity: ‘The spirit that I have seen/ May be the devil’ ( Hamlet 2.627- 8). Hamlet's response reveals his awareness of these competing claims: ‘The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!’ The metaphor of temporal dislocation suggests that heroic action itself has become problematic in a world where traditional authority conflicts with individual moral reasoning. Hamlet’s heroism lies in his refusal to act without moral certainty, embodying a Renaissance society increasingly defined by intellectual scrutiny and individual conscience. He aspires not to martial glory but to truth and integrity, reflecting a culture where the heroic was redefined as the capacity to confront established morality rather than blindly obey it.
This transformation reflects the broader cultural tensions of Renaissance England, where inherited medieval values coexisted uneasily with Christian ideals and humanist emphasis on rational inquiry. Hamlet embodies this cultural contradiction: he inherits feudal obligations that he cannot simply
4 Shakespeare, W., Hamlet, ed. Thompson, A. & Taylor, N. (2006). 3.66-68. All subsequent reference to Hamlet is from this edition unless otherwise stated.
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