E.M.W. Tillyard's Elizabethan World Picture: Analysis

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The Elizabethan World Picture begins focus on the Order of the Universe. Tillyard explains that God has created an order for everything. Cosmic order is a key characteristic in poetry and plays written in the Elizabethan time period. Tillyard claims that our order is affected by personal connections with each rank. Tillyard uses several examples of order in our lives one of those being, “the sun, and the king, primogeniture hang together”. Primogeniture is the right for the firstborn to inherit the family estates. This order is shown to be in conflict in Shakespeare’s play, Richard the Second. In Richard II the sun was the king, and he was to be respected as he divinely anointed by God for his role. We see an ignoring of this divine order when Henry Bolingbroke and the other nobles take it upon themselves to rebel and pressure the king into giving up his crown. Ironically, primogeniture is used to excuse treason in one case and then ignored to take Richard’s crown. When Bolingbroke arrived he claimed that he was only interested in taking back his God given right and at the end of the play we see Bolingbroke and the nobles ignoring Richard’s divine right to rule because he does not have the ability to rule. A lot of respect was given to cosmic order during Elizabethan times. It was believed that to be out of order, especially the cosmic order caused strife and chaos in the universe. Sin was a present characteristic in not just moral dramas but also in Shakespeare plays. In almost every play that Shakespeare wrote during his career the audience could always learn something from the character’s story. In this chapter Tillyard focuses on the fall and redemption of man. Tillyard stated that the fall of man separated us from our true s... ... middle of paper ... ...iven to the universe and microcosm is the name given to men. Microcosm and body politics is the mind of men, a justice of state. Tillyard gives an example for Julius Caesar and Brutus is giving speech about how men, politics, and dreams are related to one another. There are human qualities called the health of body, to this that men possess health, strength, beauty, friends, wealth, and virtue. The cosmic dance gives the image of motion. Tillyard says, “The path of each is different, yet all the paths together make up a perfect whole.” Every creation has a dance that corresponds with its level of existence. When all of the objects are working separately it can cause disorder. However, like Tillyard said when all the paths are together then it makes a perfect whole. Works Cited Tillyard, E. M. W. The Elizabethan World Picture. London: Chatto & Windus, 1950. Print.

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