*
Elizabethan world view and the Great
Chain of Being
* During Elizabethan times, people believed that
everyone and everything was arranged in a
certain order – a hierarchy
* It was this order, known as the Great Chain of
Being, that was threatened by new and
exciting discoveries in science and astronomy.
*
*According to this idea, everything in the
world had its position fixed by God:
* The Earth was the centre of the universe and the stars moved
around it in fixed routes.
* In Heaven God ruled over the archangels and angels.
* On earth there was order everywhere. Society reflected this
order with its fixed classes from the highest to the lowest –
kings, churchmen, nobles, merchants, and peasants.
* The animals had their own order too, the lion being the “king”.
* Plant life and minerals also reflected this order.
Among the trees, the most superior
was the oak; among flowers, it was
the rose.
* Among the minerals, gold was the
most superior.
God
Outside of chain: Nothingness/chaos
Cherubs
Archangels, Angels
Star controllers of
Destiny
Moon
King
Church
Princes
Nobles
Man
Lion
Other Animals
Oak and Rose
Other Plants
Gold
Other Minerals
*The Chain of Being served to create social
stability – everyone knew their place on the
chain and interacted with the other levels:
*The people higher up on the chain were
responsible to provide for or care/protect
those below them
*The people lower down had a
responsibility to obey and serve those
above them
*The Chain of Being world view
created the beliefs and values for
individuals and the society of
Shakespeare’s time
* The chain was a transactional sort of system – “I do this
for you if you do this for me”
* If someone in the chain doesn’t fulfill their responsibility
they are considered to be ‘breaking the chain’
* Any attempt to break the Chain of Being would upset the
established order and bring about universal disorder
*The Chain of Being represents the social order of
the time.
*Anything that is outside the chain is
considered to be chaos/nothingness/
madness/evil.
*Therefore, by implication, if the chain
is broken the order in the world is
broken, and it can descend into chaos.
*Nothingness, chaos, madness, evil – all of these
things are outside the chain and are not considered
to be made by God.
*Everything within the
chain is created by God.
*Therefore everything
within the chain is good.
*Therefore there is no
evil in the chain.
*As evil doesn’t exist
within the chain, it can
only enter if the chain is
broken.
*It is essential that you understand the
Chain of Being world view in order to
understand the play Macbeth
* It was believed that the King was divinely chosen by God.
* As God’s chosen representative on earth, the King was the
supreme upholder of order on earth.
* If his position was violated it would destroy the perfect
order in the universe and bring strife and chaos to the
world.
* Any act of treason or treachery against the King was
considered indirectly to be a mortal sin against God. The
penalty was death.
*
*
*In the opening scenes we are introduced to the
characters of the witches.
*In Shakespeare’s time witches and witchcraft were
believed to be evil – they were associated with the
dark and death.
*Witches were considered to be the agents of Satan,
doing his business.
*Witches were believed to be able to see into the
future; that they could create storms, hail, thunder
and lightning; that they could sink ships; dry up
springs; stop the sun and change night into day and day
into night.
*
*As the witches are introduced in the opening scene,
Shakespeare’s audience are immediately aware that
the Chain of Being has been disrupted, as evil is
present.
*Shakespeare uses this as a device to get the audience
involved in the play – remember, they believe in the
Chain of Being world view, and so the witches are a
sign to them that something is wrong.
*The audience then looks for why the
chain has been broken.
*“When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?”
(Act 1, scene 1)
*King Duncan is murdered – remember this is
considered an act against God.
*As soon as the audience knows Macbeth has killed the
King, they also know that he will ultimately fall, as
the punishment for killing a king was death.
*Shakespeare reinforces the Chain of
Being world view by ensuring Macbeth
is punished at the end of the text.
*
*Within the Chain of Being,
within the hierarchy of men,
there is another hierarchy:
*Men
*Women
*Children
* Consider Lady Macbeth at the start of the play – she shows
masculine traits such as a hunger for power, strength,
ambition, a ruthlessness and forcefulness. She is assertive
and decisive
* This upsets the chain in the sense that she in fulfilling her
proper role as a wife and woman (and mother):
* “I… know how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I
would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my
nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had
I so sworn as you have done to this.” (Act 1, scene 7)
*
*Macbeth suggests that she should not bear children that
are not males because of her fearless, masculine spirit.
She does not deny this:
*“Bring forth men-children only, for thy undaunted
mettle should compose nothing but males” (Act 1,
scene 7)
*
* Also consider Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 1 scene 5,
where she deliberately calls upon the power of evil to help
her:
* “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me
here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst
cruelty” (Act 1, scene 5)
* This disrupts the chain again as Lady Macbeth asks for chaos
so she can become ‘a man’ (or at least not a woman) to take
charge of the situation. This creates a role reversal between
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth – which can only come about in a
world of chaos where the chain is broken
*
* Now consider Macbeth at the start of the play – he is weak
and shows nurturing, feminine qualities, such as when he
has doubts about killing King Duncan:
* “I’m afraid to think what I have done … to know my deed,
‘twere best not know myself” (Act 2, scene 2)
* This upsets the Chain of Being as Macbeth is not fulfilling
his role as a ‘man’ as he is not the strong, ambitious person
his wife is and wants him to be (at least not yet) and she is
the dominant, powerful person in their relationship
*
* Also remember that Lady Macbeth constantly questions her
husband’s masculinity:
* “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than
what you were, you would be so much more the man” (Act 1,
scene 7)
* And he has to defend his masculinity later in the text:
* “What man dare, I dare. Approach thou like the rugged Russian
bear… Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves shall never
tremble. Or be alive again, And dare me to the desert with thy
sword. If trembling I inhabit then, protest me the baby of a girl.
Why so, being gone, I am a man again.” (Act 3, scene 4)
*