macbth natural order essay

macbeth - natural order essay

macbeth is a play where the natual order is completely absent explore this statement and, if true, its significance   the divine right of kings is part of the chain of being which the elizabethians placed great credence . where a king would be killed , there would be  much turmoil since regicide upset the great chain of being in which kings are ranked directly under all spiritual beings and thus, are considered semi divine. the great chain of be was a majot influence of macbeth. macbeth disturbs the natural order of the kingdom by killing the king for the throne and the country is thrown into chaos. ants begin to die ad time slows down, while animals go crazy and eat eachother as told to ross by an old man.  

into and thesis- " from the outset we see the day of a new world and it is terrifying" in shakespeares eponymous tradgedy macbeth, its seems as though all natural order has deceased in the medeval kindom of scotland from the beinging of the play. this disruption is due to the presence of the supernatural which leads to the corruption of the human mind and hence, the transcendent disruption of the divine right of kings, which throws the country into a state of unparralled chaos which will seemingly leave nature unrestorable. 

paragraph one- undoubtedly, the presence of the unnatural world can be seen immediatly, with the exposition opening  to three witches, plotting and scheming on a patch or barren land, clear of all nature ,for their encounter with macbeth. these supernatural beings ,which "look not like the inhabitnts o' the earth"  would have been an extremely alarming sight for a contemperary audience as fears of witchcraft were widespread n shakespears england, and not limited to one class, but shared by all. infact king james IV had even published a book on his studies of witchcraft which critics believe shakespeare may have used for inspiration in order to please the new king.  in each of their appearances the witches speak together, and quickly, displaying a powerful and unearthly bond as thought they are connected through mind, and often times the stychomithic language heightens the tension in the scene and reinforces the fear felt by the audiemce. they also often speak of controlling the weather, a distinct corruption of nature itself. this is seen clearly in act 1 scene 1 they debated on weather to meet " in thunder, lightning or in rain", and are infact standing in the middle of a storm. aswell as being able to controll the weather around them, they seem to be al able to see into the future, and possibly even control it. they hand out a total of 6 prophecies to macbeth and one to banquo, and one after another they all seem to come true, however we do not know if this is because they can see into the future, or if they can control it, both of which would be major interferances of the natural order. it should also be noted that as the play progresses and nature seems to progressively corrupt, the witches stay on screen for longer, and seem to have a heightened bond, and it seems as thought with the rise in evil and deterioration of evil, the witches grown stronger and are hence, more present , showing that all "things bad begun make strong themselves by ill" and that all evils thrive off eachother. paragraph two- one of the most worrying breakdowns of the natural order seen in macbeth is probably that of the natural thought process and initial human reactions. the witches speak there prophecies, telling macbeth he will become the thane of cawdor and then the king of scotland, while they inform banquo that it will be his heir that will become king, and not macbeths. these prophecies act as seeds of evil,left to germinate in the minds of these two men, however banquo quickly dismisses them, saying that "oftentimes to win us to our harm the instruments of darkness tell us truths" pointing out that although macbeth does become the thane of cawdor the others may hold little truth and surely they can not trust the witches. however macbeths mind seems to work differently, perhaps due to the different personalities and moral strengths of the men, or because macbeth has more to gain. once macbeth has been given the title thane of cawdor, his mind immediatly jumps to thoughts "whos horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart kowckat my ribs". these are thoughts of regicide, as now that he is he highest thane he will take ove the throne once the king has died. however he quickly composes himself and decides that "if chane will have me king,well,chance may crown me" however, his moral resolute does not last long once his wife hears of his chance at kingship, and immediatly she begins to pray on "spirits that tend on mortal thoughts" to unsex her, and fill her from " the crown to the toe,top-full of direst cruelty" . she not only immediatly jump to the same ideas of regicide as her husband, but begins to pry on evil beings to rid her of her humanity and nature in order to allow her to carry out the act. not only is she immediately turned to the forces of evil and abandoning nature in order to carry out a murder, but she is also seemingly filled with the most unnatural cruelty, as she manipulates her husband, striping him of his manhood so that he says he will carry out the murder to prove himself a man. she even blackmails him with the intensley disturbing and inhumane comparasisons such as " i ave given suck and know how sweet ti's to love the babe that milks me: i would, as it was smiling in my face,have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums and dash'd the brains out had i sworn as you have done to this". this image, as one of the few that would even upset a modern audience, is so full of remorsless evil that one can only assume that surely all natural thought have been completely eradicated and replaced of barbarity and sin. it is now clear that the natural process of human thought has been  undoubtably  corrupted by ambition, and possibly even the forces of supernatural which have been seen around the kingdom. paragraph 3- as unnatural thoughts lead to unnatural actions, we see the kindom being thrown into further choas as the natural order is completely abandoned. this is most prominant after the murder of duncan. the murder of a king interferes with the divine right of kings, which is a part of the great chain of being in which the jacobeans placed great credence . this stated that each person had a place in the world which was pre-determined by god , and that kings were placed directly under all holy beings, and above everyone else and thus making them semi-divine and only answerable to god. we see scotland thrown into a state of turmoil due to redicide, and it is almost as though god and nature have abandoned them in retaliation of the murder. we are told of the first of these conscequences by macbeth himself ,who after he carried out the murder of the rightful king , he tried to bless himself and finding himself unable to, as though god had abandoned him.this would have struck fear into the audience as this was an extremely religious era of england.we are then informed by lennox that the "night has been unrulu, where we lay,our chimneys were blown down".it seems the murder of the rightful king has led to the immediate disorder of nature. we also find, sometime later that though "by the clock 'tis day" it is dark, and the sun no longer rises, while all sense of time is warped. in addition to this nature seems to have turned on itself, as duncans horses "beauteuos and swift" had broke out of there stables in a wild frenzy and begun to eat eachother, in a tale told to ross by an old man. after the murder of duncan, macbeth hires two hitman to kill banquo, and is consequently haunted my what may either be banqous ghost or the imaginings of his own guilt. furthermore , he  seeks out the help of the witches, who have been continuosly growing stronger from the spread of evil. They use a subversion of nature, taking the unsavoury pieces of several animals to make a potion and sumon apparitions , and hence nature has become so defiled that it is now creating evil. it seems now, as though the natural order has been totaly abandoned and that there will be no resolute for the kinqdom which has been confined to diseray.   paragraph 4 -  although it seems as though the upheavel of the country will be perminant and that all natural order has been abandoned from the start, i have found that this is not entirely true. for instance, duncan, the rightfuly ordained king, is placed on the stage before us seeminlgy adorned in nature and virtues. he speaks of how, through giving macbeth the title of thane of cawdor he has "begun to plant thee" and will " make thee full of growing". he the continues on to compare the virtues he expects to see from macbeth as stars that shall shine. it is unmistakably clear that duncan is full of the nature, morality, and human kindness which macbeth and lady mabeth have lackd throughout the play, and even his blood is described by as golden. although after his murder the natural imagery such of air that "nimbly and sweetly recommends itself" seems to disappear , casting the kingdom into darkness, when we take a closer look we see it reappear slowly, and even quicker once macbeth becomes closer to being defeated.once in england, we see the natural, positive and holy imagery returning, particularly around malcom who is the rightful king of scotland, and king edward. they are both surrounded by imagery of sanctity put upon them by heaven, and holy prayers. the sense of nature returning in the play is furthered when they speak of returning to scotland in the end of act 4 as they agree that macbeth is "ripe for shaking" , as if calling on the forces of nature to help them defeat macbeth. shakespear usesa similar concept when the english troops decide to tear down boughs from trees to disguise themselves, and thus the powers of nature make true the prophecies of the unnatural.  its is truely clear now that the balance between good and bad is being restored in order for the natural order to right itself again. conclusion-  shakespeare cleverly uses the disturbance of great chain of being and the divine right of king to show how quickly nature can be subverted, and the natural order turned to disaray.however he also allows us to see ,through a clever use of imagery that good is always beneath the surface and that the balance between the natural and unnatural forces in the world will always be regained.