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Shakespear Macbeth

HAUSARBEIT

The Elizabethan World Picture
and the influence of
order and disorder
in
Shakespeare's 'MACBETH'



INDEX

I. THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD PICTURE

1. Introduction Page 3

2. The Elizabethan World Picture Page 3

3. The Cosmos Page 5

4. Hierarchy Page 7

4.1 Vertical Hierarchy Page 7

4.2 Horizontal Hierarchy Page 10

5. Critisicm Page 11

II. SHAKESPEARE'S MACBETH

1. Introduction Page 13

2. The influence of order and disorder Page 13

BIBLIOGRAPHY Page 18

I. THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD PICTURE

1. INTRODUCTION
The topic of this paper is going to be the Elizabethan World Picture and its influences and effects on Shakespeare's tragedy 'Macbeth'. At first I, will concern myself with the general view of the world dominating during the time of the 16th century and the early part of the 17th century.
During this time the way the world was generally seen, was close to the Medieval World View but contained mostly alterations and some novelties. The novelties, like using corresponding planes to express similarities, made the Elizabethan World Picture quite unique. Important to know is, that every creature or thing in the world had a fixed position within an omnipresent order that was divided in hierarchies and that every interference or abuse of this divine order was thought to lead to its breakdown.As the final result of this breakdown, chaos took the place of the former order. This system of order reached from the top of the universe, namely God, down to the lowest creature and also continued in the way the state of the Elizabethans was organized. At the top of the state the King or Queen, the representative of God on earth, ruled over the subjects.The duty and task of the subjects was to do everything according to their position in the hierarchy to keep the state in order and functioning.
This way of seeing the universe and the state as a complex building of order and hierarchies...