Renaissance Humanism is the intellectual movement that began in Italy in the fourteenth century and lasted roughly until the second half of the seventeenth century. The main characteristic of this movement was, in the first place, a departure from medieval philosophy, with its superstitions and the restrictions imposed on the mind and the actions of man. The Renaissance still kept the idea of the world as a divine hierarchy in which each being or thing has its fixed place, but also evinced a return to the secular philosophy of the classical antiquity with an emphasis on the unlimited capacities of man as the only rational being in the universe. Thus, the Renaissance humanism exploited the belief in man as the image of God himself. Human virtues and especially reason were promoted as the central to the world of Renaissance. Shakespeare blends in his works elements of medieval philosophy and Renaissance humanism. In Hamlet's monologues we find the core of the Renaissance humanism with its emphasis on man as the "paragon of animals". In Macbeth, the humanist philosophy is reflected precisely in the theme of the main theme of the play: the reversal of nature. When the humanity of a single man, Macbeth, becomes corrupt, the entire order of the universe is disrupted. The idea of the chain of being, proper of medieval philosophy, is put to use in Shakespeare's play. Macbeth's corruption as a man reverses the order of the entire universe.
             The humanist philosophy calls for an exploitation of all the virtues and qualities in man in order to reach perfection. Ironically, Macbeth loses his humanity precisely because of his ambition to climb the ladder and attain a superior position. Shakespeare thus shows how the corruption of man can spoil the order of the world until everything becomes unnatural. The main theme of the play is the reversal of values and of nature itself, triggered by the loss of humanity and the evil...