*
Source:
missmacdonald.files.wordpress.com
/2011/08/chain-of-being.pptx
* During Elizabethan times, people believed that
everyone and everything was arranged in a
certain order – a hierarchy
* It was this order, known as the Great Chain of
Being, that was threatened by new and
exciting discoveries in science and astronomy.
*
*According to this idea, everything in the
world had its position fixed by God:
* The Earth was the centre of the universe and the stars moved
around it in fixed routes.
* In Heaven God ruled over the archangels and angels.
* On earth there was order everywhere. Society reflected this
order with its fixed classes from the highest to the lowest –
kings, churchmen, nobles, merchants, and peasants.
* The animals had their own order too, the lion being the “king”.
* Plant life and minerals also reflected this order.
Among the trees, the most superior
was the oak; among flowers, it was
the rose.
* Among the minerals, gold was the
most superior.
God
Outside of chain: Nothingness/chaos
Cherubs
Archangels, Angels
Star controllers of
Destiny
Moon
King
Church
Princes
Nobles
Man
Lion
Other Animals
Oak and Rose
Other Plants
Gold
Other Minerals
*The Chain of Being served to create social
stability – everyone knew their place on the
chain and interacted with the other levels:
*The people higher up on the chain were
responsible to provide for or care/protect
those below them
*The people lower down had a
responsibility to obey and serve those
above them
*The Chain of Being world view
created the beliefs and values for
individuals and the society of
Shakespeare’s time
* The chain was a transactional sort of system – “I do this
for you if you do this for me”
* If someone in the chain doesn’t fulfill their responsibility
they are considered to be ‘breaking the chain’
* Any attempt to break the Chain of Being would upset the
established order and bring about universal disorder
*The Chain of Being represents the social order of
the time.
*Anything that is outside the chain is
considered to be chaos/nothingness/
madness/evil.
*Therefore, by implication, if the chain
is broken the order in the world is
broken, and it can descend into chaos.
*Nothingness, chaos, madness, evil – all of these
things are outside the chain and are not considered
to be made by God.
* Everything within the chain
is created by God.
* Therefore everything
within the chain is good.
* Therefore there is no evil
in the chain.
* As evil doesn’t exist within
the chain, it can only enter
if the chain is broken.
* It was believed that the King was divinely chosen by God.
* As God’s chosen representative on earth, the King was the
supreme upholder of order on earth.
* If his position was violated it would destroy the perfect
order in the universe and bring strife and chaos to the
world.
* Any act of treason or treachery against the King was
considered indirectly to be a mortal sin against God. The
penalty was death.
*