Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Period

1. Macbeth and Great Chain of
Being
Prepared by-Daya Vaghani
Batch-2020-22 (MA sem-1)
Paper – The Renaissance Literature
Roll No-07
Enrollment No-3069206420200017
Email id -dayavaghani2969@gmail.com
Submitted to-S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University

2. What is the Great
Chain of Being?

3. 'Macbeth' and the Chain of Being
 Opening scene
 Chain of Being has been disrupted
 "When shall we meet again?
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"
(Act 1, scene 1)
Three Witches

4. King Duncan's Murder
 Act against God
 Death-as punishment
 Macbeth is punished at the end of the
paly

5. Within the Chain of Being, within the
hierarchy of men, there is another
hierarchy:
Men
Women
Children
Do we think Lady Macbeth and Macbeth stay
within their roles in the Great Chain of
Being?

6. Lady Macbeth
 Hunger of power, strength , ambition
 A ruthlessness and forcefulness
 Assertive and decisive
 She isn't fulfilling her proper role as a wife and woman and mother.
 "I....know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have
plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done
to this." (Act 1, scene 7)
 Lady Macbeth's soliloquy

7. Macbeth
 At the beginning of the play –he is weak
 shows nurturing
 Feminine qualities
 He doubts about about killing king Duncan
"I'm afraid to think
what I have done....
to know my deed ,twere
best not know myself"

8. References
• Nee, sean. “The great chain of being.” Nature, vol. 435, no. 7041, may 2005, pp. 429–429,
10.1038/435429a. Accessed 20 oct. 2019.
•“Great chain of being.” Wikipedia, 31 jan. 2021,
en.Wikipedia.Org/wiki/great_chain_of_being#:~:text=the%20great%20chain%20of%20being%20(latin:%
20scala%20naturae. Accessed 5 feb. 2021.
•“In macbeth, the theme of the great chain of being - the whole concept of hierarchy in society is said to be in
the play. It is evident that the society...” Enotes, www.Enotes.Com/homework-help/macbeth-theme-great-
chain-being-whole-concept-154487.
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