“Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air.” (Macbeth I.i.12-13.) Throughout The Tragedy of Macbeth, key events occurred as a result of the disruptions in the Chain of Being, acting as a catalyst to set certain events in motion. Introduced formally by Neoplatonist Plotinus, the idea of the “Great Chain of Being” outlines three concepts of plenitude, continuity, and graduation in the universe. Shakespeare wrote in Elizabethan England where the general belief was that every part of creation had a specific place in the world and when one component is skewed, it affects all the other parts of the universe.
Writing in the Renaissance time period, Shakespeare was greatly influenced by the nouveau philosophers who, in …show more content…
No species are able to move around the chain, because if they did, it would leave one spot open and there would be two in another throwing off the delicate balance of things. Tillyard states in his The Elizabethan World Picture, that “Every speck of creation was a link in the chain and every link except those at the extremities was simultaneously bigger and smaller than another, there could be no gap. The precise magnitude of the chain raised metaphysical difficulties.” (Tillyard 26.) According to the Colson Center, “Significantly, the king and queen were at the highest order of men, thus leading to the concept of the divine right of kings. Any break in the established order of nature and the heavens was understood to come with dire consequences, often manifested in the physical world by illness and natural disaster.” (“Breaking the Chain: Shakespeare’s Use of the Great Chain of Being in …show more content…
Macbeth expresses to Lady Macbeth that he cannot kill murder the king. “We will proceed no further in this business./ He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people,/ Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,/ Not cast aside so soon.” (Sparknotes.I.vii.32-35.) Lady Macbeth will have none of his second thoughts however. She continues to test his manhood and courage by questioning him. “Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valor/ As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that/ Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,/ And live a coward in thine own esteem,/ Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’” (Sparknotes. I.vii.39-45.) Forced into an uncomfortable situation, Macbeth murders the king and steals his illegitimate title as King. This act was unnatural; that being said, many unnatural occurrences are put into effect and continue to happen throughout the tragedy. Immediately after the murder, Lennox reports of the strange happenings in the night. “The night has been unruly. Where we lay,/Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,/ Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death,/ And prophesying with accents terrible/ Of dire combustion and confused events/ New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird/ Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth/ Was feverous and did shake.” (Macbeth II.iii.)
Writing in the Renaissance time period, Shakespeare was greatly influenced by the nouveau philosophers who, in …show more content…
No species are able to move around the chain, because if they did, it would leave one spot open and there would be two in another throwing off the delicate balance of things. Tillyard states in his The Elizabethan World Picture, that “Every speck of creation was a link in the chain and every link except those at the extremities was simultaneously bigger and smaller than another, there could be no gap. The precise magnitude of the chain raised metaphysical difficulties.” (Tillyard 26.) According to the Colson Center, “Significantly, the king and queen were at the highest order of men, thus leading to the concept of the divine right of kings. Any break in the established order of nature and the heavens was understood to come with dire consequences, often manifested in the physical world by illness and natural disaster.” (“Breaking the Chain: Shakespeare’s Use of the Great Chain of Being in …show more content…
Macbeth expresses to Lady Macbeth that he cannot kill murder the king. “We will proceed no further in this business./ He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people,/ Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,/ Not cast aside so soon.” (Sparknotes.I.vii.32-35.) Lady Macbeth will have none of his second thoughts however. She continues to test his manhood and courage by questioning him. “Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valor/ As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that/ Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,/ And live a coward in thine own esteem,/ Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’” (Sparknotes. I.vii.39-45.) Forced into an uncomfortable situation, Macbeth murders the king and steals his illegitimate title as King. This act was unnatural; that being said, many unnatural occurrences are put into effect and continue to happen throughout the tragedy. Immediately after the murder, Lennox reports of the strange happenings in the night. “The night has been unruly. Where we lay,/Our chimneys were blown down and, as they say,/ Lamentings heard i' th' air, strange screams of death,/ And prophesying with accents terrible/ Of dire combustion and confused events/ New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird/ Clamored the livelong night. Some say the Earth/ Was feverous and did shake.” (Macbeth II.iii.)