In William Shakespeare's Hamlet the character Hamlet can be described as a Renaissance Man. Why?

The Renaissance was a period of re-birth. A Renaissance Man challenges accepted norms and beliefs of the day. His qualities include a powerful intellect, an appetite for and expertise in a wide range of subjects and activities. They are bold , curious, creative, educated, risk taking and self disciplined. They can excel in artistic, physical and intellectual pursuits and are also interested in ideas from antiquity and how they might apply to contemporary life.Hamlet is a Renaissance Man because his approach to life is fundamentally different to that of the Medieval characters of the play. He is concerned with morality and questioning of the current way of life. Hamlet exhibits Humanistic views, a philosophy becoming popular in the Renaissance, which celebrates human life and 'Man's infinite faculties', as Hamlet refers to them. He also exhibits nihilistic views, the conflicting Renaissance perspective that sees life has having no purpose. His struggle between these perspectives and concern with existential questions through intelligent prose makes him a classic Renaissance Man. Hamlet's existential crisis is at the heart of the play, most famously expressed through his soliloquy 'To be, or not to be?' His allusion to the unknown afterlife further shows his rejection of Medieval religious certainties whereby people either go to heaven or hell.