Tag: Renaissance

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This magazine cover is a project that shows our analysis and understanding of the characteristics of characters from Shakespeare’s famous comedy “A Mid Summer Night’s Dream”. I chose the character Lysander, which is the lover of Hermia and the rival in the love of Demetrius. Lysander’s optimistic and playful attitude stood out to me. Lysander’s undying, persistent, and passionate love towards Hermia also made me understand the reason behind Hermia’s stubborn rebellion against her father’s orders.

I chose a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio in his 20s as a representation of what I believe Lysander would have looked like. I see Lysander as a handsome young male with a sense of mischief in his features. As Leonardo once played Romeo, a character in a similar position as Lysander is, I can see him as the confident lover that wins the heart of a fair lady in MSND.

I am most happy with the quotes I chose for showing the idealistic side of Lysander as I find this characteristic of his stood out the most in the play. Translating his words, he says, true love comes with obstacles, but no trouble lasts forever, like how all sounds only go on momentarily. Lysander’s words display his determination and positive view towards his and Hermia’s relationship.

Through this small project, I realized that people often have different interpretations of the characteristics of these characters as this is a play with only dialogues. This teaches us an important lesson, and that is: we should learn to accept and respect the different opinions of others, after all, “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes”

WANTED: Are You a Renaissance Humanist?

If I was to rate myself as a Renaissance humanist, I would give myself a 2.7/5 for average. First of all, the minimal requirement for a Renaissance humanist would be the ability to balance philosophy and religion, however, this is not applicable for me as I and my family do not believe in a specific religion or god(atheist). As this rule does not apply to me, I am only able to receive 1/5 for balancing religion and individualism. Moving on, we look deeper into the subjects studied by humanists of the Renaissance. Humanists are expected to study art, architecture, government, language, history, literature, poem, and more. I would be lying if I said I master all these subjects, but I did learn courses such as literature/poetry/art in classes and know little bits and pieces of other subjects. Thus, I would rate myself 3/5 for the study of multiple subjects as a humanist. I would not call myself the most passionate when speaking of classical cultures. Admittedly, parts of them are highly interesting and thought-provoking but I do not have the resource nor the high interest to study the subject, therefore, a 2/5 for me on classical cultures. Different from classical culture, I highly enjoyed the Greek and Roman units from the last two years, the philosophy and thinking are undeniably fascinating to me. Since we have studied the Greeks and Romans in class last year, I do have a good amount of knowledge in the conclusion of the two cultures. Hense, 4/5 for bringing back the Greek and Roman ideas. Like Albert Einstein once said,” Important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” The humanities philosophy encouraged people to question knowledge and stay curious. However, as a student in 8th grade living in the 21st century, I do not have any authority nor place to challenge the knowledge we equip. As information nowadays is highly accurate and reliable, but having everything fact-checked is not an excuse for not asking questions and to stay curious about the unknown. I ask when I don’t understand and question when I doubt a piece of information or result. Thus, I give myself a 3.5/5 for questioning and curiosity.