The Chain of Being | merchant-of-venice

The Chain

In Elizabethan times, there was a different way of looking at life.

People, including Shakespeare believed in a Divine Order, or Great

Chain of Being. The Divine Order was the belief that everything in

the universe has a specific place and rank in order of their perceived

importance and "spiritual" nature. The more "spirit" a person or object

had, the more power he or she had.

The more spirit an object was thought to have, the higher they

would be in the Divine Order.

Within each category there were more specific cataloguing.

For example humans were believed to have different amounts

of spirits.

Within families there was even specific cataloguing.

The more "spirit" the person or object had, the more power it had in its

interactions with people or things below in the order. People in

Elizabethan England believed that God set up this order and wanted it

to be followed. If someone or something were to break the Divine Order

by not being obedient to whatever was above it, the person or thing that

went against the God's will would be punished. Bigger betrayals of the

Divine Order were believed to bring bigger punishments by God, while

smaller betrayals would bring about smaller punishments. For example,

if a noble overthrew a king, Elizabethan people thought that a natural

disaster (an earthquake, a hurricane, etc.) would strike. If a daughter

disobeyed her father, Elizabethan people believed the daughter might

fall ill. This was a very convenient way for people higher in the Divine

Order to maintain their power.

Good question. Shakespeare sincerely believed in the Divine Order, and

many of his plays revolve around this belief. Macbeth, Taming of the

Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet are just a few of the plays that reflect

Shakespeare's belief in the Great Chain of Being and his desire to

maintain God's Order.