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“Vows to the Blackest Devil”: Hamlet and the Evolving Code of Honor in Early Modern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Reta A. Terry
Reta A. Terry*
Affiliation:
University of Saskatchewan
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Abstract

The Renaissance was a period in which the honor code underwent a significant metamorphosis. The medieval, chivalric code of honor, with its emphasis on lineage, allegiance to one's lord and violence, evolved into an honor code that was both more moral and political in that it began to emphasize the individual conscience and allegience to the state. Analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and in particular its characters' use of promise, provides new and revealing insights into the evolving Renaissance codes of honor, for Shakespeare creates characters in Hamlet that represent various stages in the evolution of a changing honor system.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , Winter 1999 , pp. 1070 - 1086
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1999

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