Using the free will God gave him, Hamlet made decisions throughout the play that directly caused many deaths: Polonius, Rosencrantz , Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius and himself. These losses are not the result of self-defense or fate. Regardless, Hamlet's decisions during the Renaissance shifted the focus of learning and the arts away from the concepts of church and religion. People became intrigued by earthly matters, including their environment and their own lives. Many Protestants believed in predestination, the belief that every event in the past, present, or future was predetermined. This ideology holds that whether our souls enter heaven or hell was predetermined before we were born and that this was independent of our human moral choices, as they were powerless to impact their spiritual destination. On the other hand, Renaissance humanism was a view placing primary importance on human influences rather than divine or supernatural influences. Humanist belief emphasized the potential importance of human beings and was a philosophy that affirmed the human capacity to live an ethical life of personal fulfillment that aspired to the greater good of humanity. Furthermore, classical tragedians cherished the conflict between fate and free will. At the heart of many tragedies is the struggle between the human disposition to simply accept fate and the innate tendency to rule fate. The quote: “If it is now, it will not come; if it does not come, it will be now; if not now, it will come: preparation is everything (V.ii.206). of Hamlet raises the question: is the future undecided and changeable or is it predetermined by fate? William Shakespeare's Hamlet may seem like a classic tragedy in which the...... middle of paper...... the murderer responsible for his father's death. If Hamlet had killed Claudius earlier, provided he had not been caught, he might have spared the lives of many others through his wavering conscience, including his own. Hamlet's internal contemplation and emotions determine the more physical stages of the conflict and it is purely the internal conflicts that ultimately ignite the reckless display of violence. Using the free will that God gave him, Hamlet made decisions throughout the play that directly caused many deaths: Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius, and himself. These losses are not the result of self-defense or fate. Either way, Hamlet's decisions help create his own revenge tragedy, as his choices directly and ultimately destroy him. help create his own revenge tragedy, as his choices directly and ultimately destroy him.