Act 1 Scene 4 Lines 39-40 Of Hamlet

In act 1 scene 4 lines 39-40 of Hamlet by Shakespeare, shows evidence of Renaissance belief on literature. The sentence describes how if one of the character’s trait is evil, then it overrides all of the positive traits of that character. Thus, the character’s evilness is the downfall of his/her life according to Sophocles definition of tragedy. “The dram of evil doth all the noble substance of a doubt to his own scandal.” This shows that they believed about observing human behaviors, which is the focus of Renaissance literature. In this case, Hamlet notices that his uncle’s flaw is being evil and knows that his evilness will be the fall of him. From the quote, it can be safely deduced that anyone who is evil will be punished accordingly when