From Romeo and Juliet to Hamlet: From the Hebraic to the Hellenic

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet could be regarded as a work of Bard’s youth while Hamlet marks his maturity and mastery of his craft. In the former, the writer mainly draws upon the classical frame stories and makes use of the medieval mode of evaluating people and things in terms of binary oppositions (either/or thinking), while in the latter the writer is no longer obsessed with this dichotomy. This is a passage from the medieval separation-romance to the Renaissance humanistic pensée. Such a transition could be considered a passage from the Hebraic (medieval) mode of thinking and living to a Hellenic (Renaissance) mindset which is not stuck in the binary opposition of good and evil but emphasizes intellect and multidimensionality.