The Importance of the Elizabethan Concept of Natural Order to Our Appreciation of Macbeth and Henry V

The Importance of the Elizabethan Concept of Natural Order to Our Appreciation of Macbeth and Henry V

The Elizabethan concept of Natural Order to our appreciation of

Macbeth and Henry V was down to the belief that God created everything

from man down to plants. He arranged hierarchical principles in the

world and he ran the whole system. He controlled the animals and where

their place was in the world along with all the other living

creatures. Its natural instinct to know the lion was the king of the

animal kingdom and the eagle was the king of the birds etc. The nobles

sit in their set places according to the hierarchy of the court, at

the dinner table and that is how Scotland deals with Natural Order.

However, Macbeth wanted to disobey the hierarchical order and wanted

to reach heights to which he hadn't been appointed (climb the dining

tables ladder) thus not abiding by the rules of God. He cheated his

way up the ladder by killing the ranks above him, thus upsetting the

Natural Order. But if the rightful King were to be killed and a

usurper take his position, the crime would not only be murder but it

would be making a direct challenge to God. God can eventually

guarantee integrity is done, but, until it is, the whole of life will

suffer and natural things will become unnatural.

It is not possible to restore the Natural Order to Scotland at this

point until this episode has passed. Macbeth needs to be put in his

place and God shows his fury by unleashing natural disasters of storms

and earthquakes and the whole play is consumed by darkness after the

murder of Duncan- darkness = evil, light = goodness.

A pure example is in 'Ham...

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very deep ground and the devil has grabbed a hold of both of them.

In conclusion, the two Shakespeare plays are all very relevant to the

Natural order in England and Denmark, both of the Kings of these two

countries have to keep in control of the state and not disobey God's

rule. Lady Macbeth is a lot more dominant over Macbeth; this is not

the way of hierarchy in the world. In each quote and speech given in

the play there is no part that effects the characters and what the

audience interpret them as.

Finally we must see it as significant that Macbeth is so dominated and

ruled by his wife. For in the order of nature man was supposed to be

superior to woman and the inversion of the sexes, this governing of

the husband by the wife, would be seen by Elizabethans as unnatural

and therefore as portending no good.