Great Chain of Being in Macbeth

The Great Chain of Being

Since the beginning of man’s time, there has been some form of hierarchy in this world. There was always someone or a group of people who had ruled the rest of the masses. This is no exception in the country of Scotland. Long ago, in Elizabethan times, there was an order to everything. There were kings and queens; knights and nobles; workers and peasants. People had believed that their ranking on Earth was selected by God - especially the man who takes the place of the throne as the rightful king. This was known as The Great Chain of Being and was a major theme in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth illustrating how the Great Chain was slowly destroyed throughout the story.

First of all, there’s the conflict concerning thanes of Scotland. Thanes are given land and are meant to protect the people within their land as well but this is not the case in the play. Macbeth is a thane in the play and was a good man at the beginning but slowly became bad as the story progresses. In act 2, scene 4, Ross tells the old man, "by th' clock 'tis day,/and yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp" (7-8). This shows the abrupt change in nature that results from Duncan's murder is no less dramatic than

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the act of murder itself. This act Macbeth commits completely destroys the Great Chain of Being is what slowly drowns any good that is left in the play.

Second of all, there are the three witches that have a large role in the play. “The Elizabethans had deep faith in witchcraft. The faith, unfortunately, was more in its destructive rather than constructive powers. For example, they blamed the witches for any events that they could not control or explain” (Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Age). This illustrates how witches are originally viewed yet in the Shakespeare’s play, they are viewed as advisors to the king himself - Macbeth. Going from such a low statute position, even criminally viewed, to such a prestigious regard is a very dark turnover in the tale that evidently is one of the causes for the loss of the Great Chain of Being.

Third of all, and most importantly, is Macbeth and Lady Macbeth becoming king and queen of Scotland after killing his highness. When Macbeth became the king after Duncan, Scotland went out of its natural order, and therefore the country became chaotic and full of disorder. The play Macbeth does surely agree with the Divine Rights of Kings, which indicates that