Renaissance Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Renaissance Literature - Essay Example Moreover, Renaissance period can be characterized by learning and discoveries of the new world as well as intellectuals. Because of all these happenings, many people argue that Renaissance literature was all about the power struggle at a time of rapid social change. This is true owing to the condition and the political temperature at the time. People wanted a political change hence pushed for reforms as well as inclusion in the leadership. Moreover, the clergy headed by the King of England had much power over the people, and there was a need to trim more powers to other bodies. Because of this, most Renaissance literature are about power struggles between the people and the King. The rest of the paper will discuss the notion that Renaissance literature is concerned with power struggle at a time of social change. During the Renaissance period, there was a "The Great Chain of Being† which was a hierarchy of superiority. It assumed that everything in the world had its place in a divinely hierarchical order. According to Norbook (2002), men had a place in this order making them subordinated by others. People believed that going against the order would bring illness making them fear challenging the notion. Similarly, human beings were also categorized, and there were some who were above the rest just a like a parent is above the child and takes charge. The man was categories between angel and beast hence confining him to one point. Through this, acting against human nature by not allowing reason to rule would place man at the position of the beast. However, the Renaissance writers challenged this notion and wanted to question it after developing discomfort. More (37) challenged the notion that religion had powers above the people by outlining the operations of the city states. According to More, religion plays the role of motivating people and giving them hope as opposed to threatening them. Similarly, the dark ages gave the