natural order macbeth essay

William Shakespeare

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In medieval times, it was believed that the health of a country was directly related to the goodness and moral legitimacy of its king. If the King was good and just, then the nation would have good harvests and good weather. If there was political order, then there would be natural order. Macbeth shows this connection between the political and natural world: when Macbeth disrupts the social and political order by murdering Duncan and usurping the throne, nature goes haywire. Incredible storms rage, the earth tremors, animals go insane and eat each other. The unnatural events of the physical world emphasize the horror of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's acts, and mirrors the warping of their souls by ambition.

Also note the way that different characters talk about nature in the play. Duncan and Malcolm use nature metaphors when they speak of kingship—they see themselves as gardeners and want to make their realm grow and flower. In contrast, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth either try to hide from nature (wishing the stars would disappear) or to use nature to hide their cruel designs (being the serpent hiding beneath the innocent flower). The implication is that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, once they've given themselves to the extreme selfishness of ambition, have themselves become unnatural.

Nature and the Unnatural ThemeTracker

Nature and the Unnatural Quotes in Macbeth

William Shakespeare

• Literature Notes
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• Act I: Scene 1
• Act I: Scene 2
• Act I: Scene 3
• Act I: Scene 4
• Act I: Scene 5
• Act I: Scene 6
• Act I: Scene 7
• Act II: Scene 1
• Act II: Scene 2
• Act II: Scene 3
• Act II: Scene 4
• Act III: Scene 1
• Act III: Scene 2
• Act III: Scene 3
• Act III: Scene 4
• Act III: Scene 5
• Act III: Scene 6
• Act IV: Scene 1
• Act IV: Scene 2
• Act IV: Scene 3
• Act V: Scene 1
• Act V: Scene 2
• Act V: Scene 3
• Act V: Scene 4
• Act V: Scene 5
• Act V: Scene 6
• Act V: Scene 7
• Act V: Scene 8
• Act V: Scene 9
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Critical Essays Major Themes

The Fall of Man

The ancient Greek notion of tragedy concerned the fall of a great man, such as a king, from a position of superiority to a position of humility on account of his ambitious pride, or hubris . To the Greeks, such arrogance in human behavior was punishable by terrible vengeance. The tragic hero was to be pitied in his fallen plight but not necessarily forgiven: Greek tragedy frequently has a bleak outcome. Christian drama, on the other hand, always offers a ray of hope; hence, Macbeth ends with the coronation of Malcolm , a new leader who exhibits all the correct virtues for a king.

Macbeth exhibits elements that reflect the greatest Christian tragedy of all: the Fall of Man. In the Genesis story, it is the weakness of Adam, persuaded by his wife (who has in turn been seduced by the devil) which leads him to the proud assumption that he can "play God." But both stories offer room for hope: Christ will come to save mankind precisely because mankind has made the wrong choice through his own free will. In Christian terms, although Macbeth has acted tyrannically, criminally, and sinfully, he is not entirely beyond redemption in heaven.

Fortune, Fate, and Free Will

Fortune is another word for chance. The ancient view of human affairs frequently referred to the "Wheel of Fortune," according to which human life was something of a lottery. One could rise to the top of the wheel and enjoy the benefits of superiority, but only for a while. With an unpredictable swing up or down, one could equally easily crash to the base of the wheel.

Fate, on the other hand, is fixed. In a fatalistic universe, the length and outcome of one's life (destiny) is predetermined by external forces. In Macbeth, the Witches represent this influence. The play makes an important distinction: Fate may dictate what will be, but how that destiny comes about is a matter of chance (and, in a Christian world such as Macbeth's) of man's own choice or free will.

Although Macbeth is told he will become king, he is not told how to achieve the position of king: that much is up to him. We cannot blame him for becoming king (it is his Destiny), but we can blame him for the way in which he chooses to get there (by his own free will).

Kingship and Natural Order

Macbeth is set in a society in which the notion of honor to one's word and loyalty to one's superiors is absolute. At the top of this hierarchy is the king, God's representative on Earth. Other relationships also depend on loyalty: comradeship in warfare, hospitality of host towards guest, and the loyalty between husband and wife. In this play, all these basic societal relationships are perverted or broken. Lady Macbeth's domination over her husband, Macbeth's treacherous act of regicide, and his destruction of comradely and family bonds, all go against the natural order of things.

The medieval and renaissance view of the world saw a relationship between order on earth, the so-called microcosm , and order on the larger scale of the universe, or macrocosm. Thus, when Lennox and the Old Man talk of the terrifying alteration in the natural order of the universe — tempests, earthquakes, darkness at noon, and so on — these are all reflections of the breakage of the natural order that Macbeth has brought about in his own microcosmic world.

Disruption of Nature

Violent disruptions in nature — tempests, earthquakes, darkness at noon, and so on — parallel the unnatural and disruptive death of the monarch Duncan.

The medieval and renaissance view of the world saw a relationship between order on earth, the so-called microcosm, and order on the larger scale of the universe, or macrocosm. Thus, when Lennox and the Old Man talk of the terrifying alteration in the natural order of the universe (nature), these are all reflections of the breakage of the natural order that Macbeth has brought about in his own microcosmic world (society).

Many critics see the parallel between Duncan's death and disorder in nature as an affirmation of the divine right theory of kingship. As we witness in the play, Macbeth's murder of Duncan and his continued tyranny extends the disorder of the entire country.

Gender Roles

Lady Macbeth is the focus of much of the exploration of gender roles in the play. As Lady Macbeth propels her husband toward committing Duncan's murder, she indicates that she must take on masculine characteristics. Her most famous speech — located in Act I, Scene 5 — addresses this issue.

Clearly, gender is out of its traditional order. This disruption of gender roles is also presented through Lady Macbeth's usurpation of the dominate role in the Macbeth's marriage; on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions.

Reason Versus Passion

During their debates over which course of action to take, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth use different persuasive strategies. Their differences can easily be seen as part of a thematic study of gender roles. However, in truth, the difference in ways Macbeth and Lady Macbeth rationalize their actions is essential to understanding the subtle nuances of the play as a whole.

Macbeth is very rational, contemplating the consequences and implications of his actions. He recognizes the political, ethical, and religious reason why he should not commit regicide. In addition to jeopardizing his afterlife, Macbeth notes that regicide is a violation of Duncan's "double trust" that stems from Macbeth's bonds as a kinsman and as a subject.

On the other hand, Lady Macbeth has a more passionate way of examining the pros and cons of killing Duncan. She is motivated by her feelings and uses emotional arguments to persuade her husband to commit the evil act.

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The Bloody Chamber

The consequences of disrupting the natural order of things in gothic literature anonymous college.

The opposition between the natural and the unnatural is particularly prominent in gothic literature and the transgression of the boundaries between the two is often seen to be condemned. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (1606), Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818) and Angela Carter’s collection of short stories titled The Bloody Chamber (1979), the “natural order” is certainly disrupted. However, the extent to which the consequences of this disruption are necessarily bad is questionable.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the “evil” deeds Macbeth commits are certainly seen as transgression to the unnatural. His dabbling with the supernatural forces of the witches in the opening of the play allows the audience to form a link between Macbeth and the supernatural to an extent where a 17th century audience would certainly see them as the cause of the change in Macbeth’s character. Shakespeare uses the witches to foreshadow Macbeth’s later suffering and fall from grace with the extended metaphor of the “shipman” who “sleep shall neither night nor day”, suggesting that Macbeth’s death was an inevitable consequence after he disrupted the natural order of things. Furthermore, when considering the context of the play, the reference to the...

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Natural Order and Phenomena in Macbeth

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How important is the Elizabethan concept of Natural Order to our appreciation of Macbeth?

A. Colin- Jones                English Coursework

In Macbeth, Duncan is always referred to as a “king,” while Macbeth soon becomes known as the “tyrant.” How has the “brave” Macbeth, bloodstained and heroic in victory turned into the disease of Scotland? The crux of the issue lies in the Elizabethan concept of the Natural Order. God created man and the whole of the universe in seven days, as stated in Old Testament. Within this world God had created there was another world in which certain principles of nature applied.

This is the order in which stones, plants, animals, men up to saints and arch angels were structured according to certain hierarchical principles. The world as we know it was seen as a vast pyramid in which everything had its proper and rightful level. It was expected that one’s place in this pyramid of nature would be respected; when one violated the order of nature, evil would result. An attempt to climb a level would be perceived as challenging the Natural Order and ultimately challenging God himself. Those who aspired to rise unlawfully above their proper station could debase themselves. Like to Adam and Eve and Lucifer, who also challenged God’s Natural Order, Macbeth, too, through his own ‘vaulting ambition’ made the same mistake. This violation of nature and of God’s command amounted to the same end result: man, through aspiring too high tumbled off his place in the pyramid and became like an animal.

The penalties of Macbeth’s murderous dealings soon begin to take shape as God plans the fight back against Macbeth’s actions. To the an audience, Shakespeare makes it clear that Macbeth is dressed ‘in borrowed robes” and “his title hangs “loose like a dwarfish thief”. It is clear that Macbeth no longer feels comfortable at the top of the pyramid. He has unnaturally gained the position as the fact that Duncan’s crown and robes don’t fit him suggests. As a result, a series of unnatural events follow Macbeth’s wrongful climb to the top.

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When we first hear of Macbeth in a captain’s account of his battle field valor, our initial impression is of a brave and capable warrior. However, once we see Macbeth confront the three witches, we can see that, despite Macbeth’s doubtless courage, he is consumed by an irrepressible ambition.  Throughout ‘ Macbeth’,  Shakespeare masterfully uses Macbeth to illustrate the effects of guilt and overwhelming ambition on a man who lacks strength of character. We never classify Macbeth as an irretrievably evil man, but his weak character separates Macbeth from all Shakespeare’s true villains such as: Iago in Othello, Richard III in Richard III, Edmund in King Lear —who are all strong enough to conquer their guilt. Consequently, the audience has great sympathy for Macbeth. He, however, heroic a warrior, is unprepared for the psychological consequences of crime. Essentially Macbeth is a good man who falls into a terrible trap set by the witches, knowing wholly that he is doing wrong and never doubting the immorality of his actions. Macduff describes Macbeth’s murder of Duncan not just as the murder of a human-being, but as a “sacrilegious murder” comparable to the destruction of “The Lord’s anointed temple”. This is a “breach in nature” and turns the whole of God’s Natural Order upside down. This is no better reflected than by the witches’ chant of “fair is foul and foul is fair”, and the statement “nothing is but what is not”, for from now on everything in the universe is horribly changed.

In the macrocosm, Scotland now “sinks beneath the yoke/it weeps, it bleeds”. Macbeth has overthrown the Natural Order and he causes the unnatural confusion; Duncan’s “sacrilegious murder” is mirrored throughout nature; “Tis unnatural/Even like the deed that is done”. To portray the true state of Scotland’s sickness, Shakespeare uses images of false appearances and unnatural happenings; “By the clock ‘tis day and yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp”. Such imagery is not just a random, coincidental collection of similes and metaphors; Shakespeare masterfully unifies them into a concentrated set of ideas which adds to the vividness of play. On the night that Macbeth “hath broke ope/ The Lord’s anointed temple” others describe the night as “unruly” and claim that “the earth/ was feverous and did shake”. This is the beginning of the end for Macbeth’s inevitable death as God mounts his come back to cure Scotland of her disease and ultimately restore the Natural Order, with a rightful King.

However, more tragically, in the microcosm of Macbeth’s own life, it is clear that Scotland is not the only thing sick, Macbeth’s life falls apart. All aspects of life that we would see as natural are denied him. He strains to sleep as Lady Macbeth stresses “you lack the season of all natures, sleep”. Similarly, just prior to this, Macbeth can no longer eat with out interruption. Macbeth is now even starved of food as at his banquet he is haunted by the ghost of Banquo and unable to eat.  The murder has also distanced him from his wife, his “dearest chuck”, whom he clearly loves, from evidence at the start of the play. The thought of the murder plagues all aspects of his life. His state of mind at this point leads him to disillusionment as his wife’s death sets Macbeth brooding on life’s futility: “I begin to be weary of the sun”, “It is a tale/…Signifying nothing”. In Act 5 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s existence is described with motifs such as disease (“My land, find her disease”), blood (“There’s blood upon thy face”), hell (“Hell hound”) and famine (med’cine of the sickly weal). The results of violating God’s Natural Order are devastating and the burden on Macbeth himself has become intolerable.

Malcolm appears to be cowardly and unaware of his potential power, when he and Donalbain flee to England and Ireland. Nonetheless he is the rightful heir to the throne. With the aid of Macduff and more importantly God, Malcolm has the support to be the “med’cine of the sickly weal” and eventually restore the Natural Order. Parallels can be drawn with another Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet . Marcellus says “something’s rotten in the state of Denmark”. In reply, Horatio says “Heaven will direct” to mend the state and ultimately restore the Natural Order. Malcolm reminds us that: “The king-becoming graces / are justice, verity, temp’rance, stableness, / Bounty, perseverance, mercy, and lowliness” The model king, then, offers the kingdom an embodiment of order and justice, but also comfort and affection; as Edward the Confessor healed with touch. Under a true king, subjects are rewarded according to their merits, as when Duncan makes Macbeth thane of Cawdor after Macbeth’s victory over the invaders. Most important, the king must be loyal to Scotland above his own interests. Macbeth, by contrast, brings only chaos to Scotland—symbolized in the bad weather, bizarre supernatural events all wholly unnatural occurrences “ A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place/Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed”—and offers no real justice, only a habit of capriciously murdering those he sees as a threat. As the embodiment of tyranny, he must be overcome by Malcolm so that Scotland can have a true king once more, “the flower is to replace the weed”.

As the curtain comes down on the play and in due course Macbeth’s life, ironically it is a series of unnatural events that bring about the return of the Natural Order. “Birnam wood must come to Dunsinane” and a man “not of woman born” are be the only incidents which will spell the end of Macbeth. Too late, Macbeth calls for his armour and returns to his natural place, as a warrior, ready to fight. Unlike Richard III who by this point no one cares about, Macbeth through his undoubted bravery despite both of the witches’ prophecies being fulfilled, stands firm to fight Macduff who was “untimely ripped”. He will “try the last”. Sadly, Macbeth, as the audience realizes was to all intents and purposes a good man, but too easily falls into the trap of his hamartia. It is because he could have been a great man that he gains our sympathy and we are able to experience what Aristtole called catharsis. While we should never ignore Shakespeare’s great skill of characterization, our appreciation of  Macbeth is deepened as we are fully aware of the concept of Natural Order and how Macbeth sought, ultimately in vain, to overthrow it. His tragic demise was inevitable from the start because of this.

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Mr Salles Teaches English

Kingship in Macbeth

(a grade 8 essay, improved to grade 9).

Hi again Mr Salles - I hope you are well,

Here is an essay I have written on the theme of kingship, tyranny and natural order.

If you have a spare few minutes, please let me know what mark this would get and how I can improve it to get full marks :)

Shakespeare cleverly crafts the themes of kingship/tyranny/natural order through the devolution of Macbeth. By contrasting morality and corruption within Macbeth and Banquo, Shakespeare cautions against ambition and associates it with the supernatural - a very disturbing idea for the contemporary audience, contributing to Shakespeare’s overall purpose of trying to flatter King James I and warn the nobility against rebellion.

Shakespeare constructs Banquo as a foil to Macbeth by illustrating their contrasting reactions to the same evil force - the supernatural and temptation. Banquo represents the route that Macbeth chose not to take: the path where ambition does not lead to betrayal and murder. Thus, it is Banquo’s ghost, rather than Duncan’s, that haunts Macbeth and conveys to the contemporary audience that restraint will lead to a fruition of power as Banquo’s lineage stays on the throne for the longest.

The witches’ equivocation: “ Lesser than Macbeth, and greater ” paradoxically suggests the drastic difference between Banquo and Macbeth, foreshadowing character development as the witches' prophecies come true. Banquo will never be king, but he does father a line of kings. Macbeth, on the other hand, will become the King of Scotland which is commendable in terms of the Divine Order; Macbeth’s reign of power will be one of selfishness and greed as he fulfils his cruel desire for power, eliminating all obstacles that stand in the way of his kingship.

As a result, Macbeth holds the shorter end of the stick in this paradox, facing paranoia, insomnia, guilt, and a tragic demise, therefore proving its accuracy. Here, Shakespeare is flattering King James I, as he was descendant of Banquo and Fleance, in order to gain his trust and potentially patronage for his theatre. This also helps Shakespeare later in the play when he subtly warns James I not to be repressive and tyrannical in his rule.

Shakespeare ensures Banquo isn’t perfect as he is tempted on some level by the Witches’ prophecy, but his ability to reject evil is what makes him a moral character and an antithesis to Macbeth. He is less able to resist temptation when he sleeps “ I dream’d of the three weird sisters last night ”, but instead of trying to hide this, he confesses to God and asks for help in remaining moral and virtuous.

This references the Bible as Jesus was tempted three times by the devil and resisted: perhaps Shakespeare is attempting to draw parallels between Banquo and Jesus which would have been largely impactful to a Christian contemporary audience, further warning about the devastating consequences of temptation and tyranny by contrasting this with the holy and biblical ideas associated with resistance to temptation and ambition.

Shakespeare demonstrates how the acquisition of power invokes an irreversible change in character, subverting the audience’s expectations as he implies that a person’s poor qualities are amplified by the crown and personal desire - Macbeth becomes paranoid.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is conveyed as the epitome of a loyal and quintessential Scottish soldier when the captain recalls Macbeth’s noble actions as he “ carv’d the passage ” of the traitor Macdonwald. Specifically, the emotive verb “ carv’d ” carries strong connotations of combative expertise and nobility. Alternatively, it could allude to him carving his name famously in the beginning of the play and eventually notoriously at the end of the play, foreshadowing his drastic moral decline. The stark contrast between Macbeth murdering an enemy of the king (which would be seen as an enemy to God due to the Divine Right of Kings believed by the contemporary audience) and when he commits regicide - the ultimate sin.

Shakespeare explores the consequences of usurpation - for the nation it is a nightmare; an illegitimate king can only become a tyrant, using ever greater acts of violence to maintain his rule. However, Shakespeare is careful to emphasise how the tyrant himself suffers at his own hands - violence traumatises the violent person as well as the victims. Macbeth ‘ fixed [Macdonwald’s] head upon our battlements ’. The head is symbolic as a motif of Macbeth’s declining heroism. First he is at his moral peak as he beheads the King’s enemy, effectively God’s enemy in the eyes of the contemporary audience, then after having his moral endurance tested in the form of ‘ supernatural soliciting ’ he goes out to commit regicide, losing all virtue. Finally, Shakespeare uses this motif to highlight the negative consequences to his audience as the ‘head’ foreshadows Macbeth’s later disgrace as his own head becomes described as ‘ the usurper’s cursed head’ that is reminiscent of his previous morality before he was corrupted by ambition and the witches’ prophecies.

Supernatural

Shakespeare forces his audience to question whether the unlawful act of treason has a supernatural urge, whether there are malign witches and demonic forces working against the moral bonds of mankind. Macbeth’s growing inclination towards ‘supernatural soliciting’ leaves him in a perplexed self-questioning state " why hath it given me earnestness of success/commencing in a truth ?” Linguistically, the sibilance of ‘ supernatural soliciting’ is deliberately used by Shakespeare to raise his audience’s alarm, given the satanic connotations and reference to devastating sorcery in the form of ‘soliciting’.

Likewise, Macbeth’s rhetorical question is used by Shakespeare to create a self-doubting, unstable and malevolent fallacy created by the engagement with the ‘agents of the dark’.

This repeated motif of the supernatural was especially significant to a contemporary Christian audience as witches were believed to be women who made a pact with the Devil, but it also would have especially attracted the interests of King James I - Macbeth was first performed to him and his courtiers. James I hated witchcraft and wrote Daemonologie - a book about the supernatural. Here, Shakespeare is flattering the king by incorporating his interests into his play and is also warning the nobility who were unhappy with James as king at the time by suggesting their desire to overthrow James I was manipulated into existence by the supernatural and witches.

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This is a very ambitious title – normally you would have just kingship or tyranny set as the question. And then you are going to make it even more ambitious by introducing the supernatural!

This has led to a very convoluted thesis – having at least 3 ideas is excellent, but it has to make sense. You could simplify this:

Shakespeare contrasts the characters of Macbeth and Banquo to caution against ambition. Unchecked ambition is associated with the supernatural, which allows Shakespeare characterise ambition as inherently evil. Macbeth becomes a tyrannical king because he welcomes “supernatural soliciting.” The focus on the supernatural also contributes to Shakespeare’s overall purpose of trying to flatter King James I and warn the nobility against rebellion.

Notice how I have structured this differently in order to make one point at a time.

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Tweetspeak Poetry

Order and Disorder in Macbeth

By Sara Barkat 15 Comments

Order and Disorder in Macbeth: Nature Reigns

The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is a story about how a man, Macbeth, and his wife tried to meddle with order and fate, and how this backfired tragically. The tale uses nature as a reflection of the emotional inner events of the characters and uses it to illustrate Shakespeare’s meaning that draws on the Elizabethan worldview in which all things have their proper place and order, and character and fate is quite predetermined. It reads like a horror story with supernatural elements in which the order of nature is overturned when the rightful king is murdered, and the confusion of order, both personal and nature-wise, persists until the end of the play when a rightful king returns and takes up his crown.

Nature Mirrors

The play has two beginnings, though one is more like the prologue, and each of them mirrors the earth/air, natural/supernatural divide. In the first opening, with the witches, we learn that there is a battle that will be “lost and won” and that they will meet Macbeth, the protagonist of the play, on a heath. They leave with the words, “fair is foul, foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air, ” and in the second opening, on the heath after the battle has been won, Macbeth echoes their words with his opening lines, “so foul and fair a day I have not seen.”

From the very start of the play the witches are associated with the air and with the supernatural elements; in fact their very first line reflects this: “when shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?” while Banquo and the King, as well as many other minor players, including the King’s son, Malcolm, are associated with earth and the natural order; Macbeth and his wife’s place is uncertain, but aligned more with air and the supernatural than with the ground.

When the witches disappear, Banquo asks, “the earth hath bubbles, as the water has, and these are of them. Wither are they vanished?”

“Into the air, ” Macbeth answers, “and what seemed corporal melted as breath into the wind.”

From that same beginning, Banquo is associated with the earth. When asking the witches of his future, he asks if they can “look into the seeds of time and see which grains will grow and which will not”; when they meet up with the king, he and Duncan have an exchange in which Duncan uses plant metaphors. Banquo and the king represent the natural order, whereas the Macbeths’ ambition and the lengths they will go to realize it overturn that order, and create anarchy, chaos, and entropy.

The witches also represent chaos; inasmuch as they represent earth they are the wild, untamed wildernesses, while the State, under the rule of the king and of subjects each in proper places works like a farm, a place of growing and plenty, but more importantly, of order. The witches are described as “wither’d and wild”; they meet Macbeth first on a heath—where they appear to him without his leave and vanish over his protestations—and again in a cave, where Macbeth seeks them out and has to be invited within; “open, locks, whoever knocks”, and where, consequently, they show him apparitions and concede to his demands, showing the double truth that he is closer to them than before but that that closeness, though it feels like power over them, means only he is being controlled by them (if he had been able to see their vengeful intentions, he would have known he could never win against Fortune/Fate, though he had seemed to successfully disdain Fortune in the beginning after it smiled on Macdonwald, whom he killed: “For brave Macbeth…disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution…carved out his passage…”). Now, by aligning himself with the supernatural he has become vulnerable to it and is set up to receive the payback of Fate (generally pictured as three “sisters” in classical mythology ), which does not take kindly to being disdained.

The land, of course, draws on the king, its health depending on his health and drawing prosperity from him; therefore, it is no surprise that when he was murdered, the land would react in many disastrous ways that parallel the murder that had occurred: the mousing owl (Macbeth) killed the hawk (Duncan); the king’s horses went wild and ate each other; when Macbeth creeps to Duncan’s bedchamber to murder him, he asks “Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear thy very stones prate of my whereabout.”

As the air and the wilderness is associated with the supernatural, so is darkness, and it is darkness that Macbeth and the Lady call on to help them in their crimes. When Duncan names his son as his heir, Macbeth prays, “stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires” and when the Lady reads Macbeth’s letter and decides to kill king Duncan, she asks, “come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peek through the blanket of the dark, to cry ‘Hold, Hold!’” When Macbeth arranges to kill Banquo, he says, “come, seeling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; and with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood: good things of day begin to droop and drowse; while night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.” Duncan is of the day, of order; when he dies, the sun doesn’t come up. Later on, the Lady Macbeth will require a candle by her bed at all times, even taking it with her as she sleepwalks; but though “her eyes are open… their sense is shut”; and she walks in darkness even with a light.

The Proper Order

The proper order of all things includes sleep, and as the order is unbalanced with the killing of Duncan, sleep is also murdered. Macbeth hears a voice say, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep… Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.” He and his Lady retire to their chambers so that they will be thought to have been sleeping so as not to raise suspicion, but it is a feigned sleep, a lie to hide the evidence of their crimes—at the time of Banquo’s murder, Macbeth refers to “these terrible dreams that shake us nightly”, showing the fact that the voice had been right, sleep had been denied them ever since the murder, ever since they allied themselves with disorder. This lack of sleep is foreshadowed and connected with the Witches; earlier in the play, when talking of the captain of a ship who angered them, the witches’ punishment includes depriving him of sleep: “sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his pent-house lid; he shall live a man forbid: weary se’nnights nine times nine shall he dwindle, peak and pine”.

Supernatural, Unnatural, and Natural

The supernatural element itself embodies the unnatural, from the appearance of the witches who “should be woman” and yet aren’t, to the mysterious apparitions created by the witches and those that form before Macbeth: the bloody dagger that heralds the murder of the king, and the ghost of Banquo that appears once Macbeth has learned of his death, sitting on Macbeth’s own seat. Macbeth says, of the ghost of Banquo, “Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ the olden time, ere human statute purged the gentle weal; ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d too terrible for the ear: the times have been, that, when the brains were out, the man would die, and there an end; but now they rise again, with twenty mortal murders on their crowns, And push us from our stools: this is more strange than such a murder is.” Just as nature is attacking itself after the murder of the king, Macbeth’s secret knowledge is attacking him in the form of apparitions; and the Lady Macbeth will be tormented by reliving the consequences of the murder even in her dreams.

The ultimate and last twisting of nature is both the culmination and the ending of it all, bringing the power back into reality and normality: when the prophecies (that Macbeth could not be killed by one of women born), and that “Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him” are fulfilled. Their letter seems to herald the impossible, if not the supernatural; “Who can impress the forest, bid the tree unfix his earth-bound root?” Macbeth asks, thinking he is safe; but in fact the culmination involves nothing supernatural at all; the wood coming to Dunsinane was a tactic the soldiers used to hide their numbers by holding branches over them and nothing more; it is the natural which has defeated Macbeth, for all his faith in supernatural aid. With the return of the king’s named heir Malcolm from exile and the restoring of order, the turbulent rule of the Macbeths is over. Daylight presides.

Photo by PS Lee, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Sara Barkat.

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About sara barkat.

I like my tea black (with a special love for Indian chai) and my novels long (give me sci-fi, fantasy, or 19th century to make me especially happy!)—though I’m always exploring beyond my known universe and will drink greens, reds, and oolongs, and read almost any genre or style that crosses my table. Speaking of the universe, I have a passion for learning about anything from black holes to the mysteries of time. When I’m not sitting by the window, sharing the sun with our little lemon tree, I can be found making lemon cupcakes and other confections, creating art (pen and ink, intaglio, and Prismacolors, please) or moving through the world on the toes of ballet or jazz dance.

Sandra Heska King says

May 29, 2015 at 7:41 pm

Double, double, toil and trouble…

Thanks for this peek back into Macbeth, Sara. You’ve made me want to go back and read it again.

I love your last line… “Daylight presides.”

Sara Barkat says

May 31, 2015 at 5:19 pm

You’re welcome! I hope you go back & read it. 🙂 Let me know if you do. I read it the first time when I was 12 and many times since then. It’s my favourite Shakespeare play.

Megan Willome says

May 30, 2015 at 3:04 pm

This is fascinating. Why couldn’t you have been my teacher in 7th grade, when we read Macbeth?

May 31, 2015 at 5:22 pm

So you were 12 when you first read it too? Did you like it?

Richard Maxson says

May 31, 2015 at 9:24 am

Sara, I second Megan’s comment. I read all your Shakespeare deconstructions and each time, having done so, feel like I’m in the classroom of a very good teacher. You put to shame the teachers of Shakespeare I had in high school. You always get at the associations and nuance present in the plays.

May 31, 2015 at 5:26 pm

Thank you. I love stories of all kinds and maybe it helps to reread.

Callie Feyen says

June 13, 2015 at 8:55 am

I love reading annotations, Sara, and you are a master. It’s heavy weight writing, don’t you think? That is, to write about why a book works, seems more important and yet more difficult, then to discuss how we feel about a book. I remember in grad school one of my teachers saying, “I don’t care how you feel about this book, I want to know how it works. WHY it works.” You analyzations bring so much depth to the stories you write about. I agree with all the other commenters. It would’ve been nice to have you as a teacher. Maybe TSPoetry should offer a course? 🙂

June 13, 2015 at 5:00 pm

Thanks so much, 🙂

I agree, it’s important to talk about more than just what you feel about a work, but it can be useful to talk about what you feel about a work from the standpoint of discovering why and how the book created that impression.

[…] instance, you could choose to be the dagger in Macbeth, the water in Hamlet (where Ophelia is later found), the vault in Romeo and Juliet. What do you see, […]

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[…] can recite at least one of Shakespeare’s soliloquies.” For Glynn, it was the dagger speech from Macbeth. He believes his experience plus being involved in debate and something like “expressive speech” […]

[…] throughout. In this special volume of the Shakespeare play, Callie is joined by three other women: Sara Barkat, as the volume’s editor and essay contributor, and Hannah Haney and Karen Swallow Prior as […]

[…] to finish them, because she found them too depressing—this, in spite of loving tragedies like Macbeth! Tragedies, she argued in that first persuasive essay, are not fatalistic. They are hopeful because […]

[…] through histories, tragedies, comedies, long poems, and the sonnets. Most recently, we’ve read Macbeth, which I believe is my favorite of all of Shakespeare’s plays, and we’ve just started Troilus […]

[…] did not do anything similar in Macbeth or A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both of which are plot-driven stories; by which to say the driving […]

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Tuesday 26 May 2015

A2 macbeth: disruption of natural order, this is an essay focusing specifically on the disruption of natural order in act one & act two of 'macbeth' - this essay received an a grade, and the points of improvement were to focus more on making my topic sentences really defined and easy to understand in relation to the question., “gothic literature demonstrates the consequences of disrupting the natural order.”, no comments:, post a comment.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Macbeth — The Natural Order of Things in Macbeth

The Natural Order of Things in Macbeth

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Grade 9 Natural Order in Macbeth Essay (Act 4 Scene 3, and whole play)

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

30 August 2023

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A top band, Grade 9 essay on the question of: “Starting with this extract (Act 4 scene 3), examine how Shakespeare presents the natural order”.

Full mark model to be used for revision, notes, or lesson examples.

AQA and Edexcel suited, and written specifically for the AQA GCSE English Literature mark scheme. Key quotes, thesis statement, top tier context, and multiple supporting quotes are included.

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Supernatural

Arguably, the entire play rests on how you think that shakespeare is presenting the role of the supernatural. if the witches simply awaken macbeth's own ambition then their role is really quite limited. if, however, you take them as being real, magical witches - which you have to do really (their titles are, after all, "witch 1," "witch 2" and "witch 2") - then it's not unreasonable to assume that there is real magic involved in the play. and since one of the things that witches were supposed to be able to do is control men's behaviour, the play suddenly looks very different., the most important thing to remember when you're looking at any piece of literature is that you have to stay focused on the text and use the evidence you find there. as i've said before, of course there is a case for saying that macbeth was ambitious already and that all the witches did was awaken his won ambition. however, for me, there's a much stronger case for saying that shakespeare intended for the supernatural to have a much larger role....

The Sailor's Wife and the Chestnuts

During the opening of act 1 scene 3, the witches meet and discuss a recent incident: a sailor's wife refused to give one of them chestnuts, and so the witch travelled to the sailor and cast a spell which drained him of his energy but take away his ability to sleep. he would "dwindle" - which means to get weak - "peak" - which is going through fits of high energy - and "pine" - which is to long for something. finally, although she couldn't take away his "bark" she would create violent storms that would make him "tempest tossed.", this scene is generally removed from plays because it breaks up the flow of the opening, and besides an article from the british library describes is like this: shakespeare uses this passage, then, to demonstrate the witches’ vindictive nature, leaving the audience in no doubt as to their connection with the powers of evil ., given that this passage is really only there to show that the witches are horrible it's no surprise that it gets cut out so regularly. but what if the british library is wrong and this is one of the most significant sequences in the play, my argument:, in any play featuring magical characters, you need a moment of exposition to explain what the characters are capable of. before you've seen a star wars film you need some kind of explanation of the rules of the force so you can understand what a jedi can do. the same is true here: we don't know what kind of magic the witches are capable of, so shakespeare has this scene which explains what magic powers they have., my argument is simply this: if, at the beginning of a play, a group of magical character reveal what powers they have and then the rest of the play is someone going through exactly the same experience, then it's reasonable to assume that there is a connection. in short: this scene is simply the witches revealing what they are about to do to macbeth; and if that's the case then the storyline of the whole play is completely different. below you'll find the original speech describing what they did to the sailor next to how it happened to macbeth:, i will drain him dry as hay: - macbeth was constantly tired and drained, sleep shall neither night nor day, hang upon his pent-house lid; - macbeth loses the abilit y to sleep, he shall live a man forbid: - he is denied the things he reall y wants, weary se'nnights nine times nine, shall he dwindle, peak and pine: - i'm not sure how long macbeth's reign was, but he did "dwindle, peak and pine" quite a lot, though his bark cannot be lost,, yet it shall be tempest-tost. - by the end he was still shouting and screaming (his bark wasn't lost) but he had certainly been through an emotional storm, what's also essential to take away from this is that the witches are able to control other people's actions and feelings. they're not just viewers in this story; they have agency and that's essential for our understanding of the rest of the play., one of the most important parts of the witch's speech is when she clarifies that she stops the sailor being able to sleep, because this is something that happens to macbeth later in the play. often revision sites suggest that macbeth couldn't sleep because of a feeling of guilt but this doesn't really make sense, for two reasons:, firstly, the witches make it very clear that they can stop someone from sleeping and it would seem strange to have that clarified as a part of their magical tool-box, and have it happen later in the play, unless there was going to be a connection. if it was guilt that meant macbeth couldn't sleep, we really would have to assume that the witch's speech was a piece of misinformation from shakespeare, which would make no sense at all., and secondly, just after macbeth has killed duncan he doesn't just lose the ability to sleep. he finds his wife and says "methought i heard a voice cry 'sleep no more, macbeth hath murdered sleep.'" he then goes on to repeat variations on that line, but always confirming that he heard someone else say it - and shakespeare even puts the lines in speech marks ., so macbeth, having killed duncan, hears someone else say that he has murdered sleep. now you could argue that this is just him going a bit mad, but when it's combined with the understanding that this is something the witches could do it makes much more sense to argue that it was the witch's magic spell that made this happen., the most important line in the play, i've got two nominations here, though both come in the same scene., the first is macbeth's first line in the play:, so fair and foul a day i have not seen., this line paraphrases (which is an almost exact quote) the witches opening lines. so macbeth's first line in the play almost directly quotes a key line from the witches. surely this was designed to deliberately setup the idea that the witches are already in control of him i've read revision websites before that have argued that this just implies that macbeth, like the witches, is a bit evil - but he's almost quoting them surely this suggests more than just a connection, it's a control., the second one is more complex:, w hy do i yield to that suggestion, whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, and make my seated heart knock at my ribs,, against the use of nature, in a nutshell, this means: why i am i giving in to something that makes my hair stand up in horror, and my heart start to race in an uncomfortable way - and which is, most importantly: against my very nature., so, in this short speech he says that the idea of killing duncan makes him so scared that his heart races, and is against his very nature - the most fundamental part of who he is. so he's basically saying why is he starting to want to do this thing, but the key words in the speech are "yield" and "suggestion." and the fundamental question is: can you "yield" to a "suggestion" that has come from yourself, it's worth just clarifying what these words mean:, yield : to give way to arguments, demands, or pressure., suggestion : an idea or plan put forward for consideration., so: can you "give way to an argument, demand or pressure" and agree to "an idea or plan put forward for consideration" if that plan was your own, surely you can only "give in" to an "idea" that has come from someone else... and if that's the case then the idea of killing duncan didn't come from macbeth - it came from the witches., and if that's the case, then the entire play takes on a completely different meaning., was lady macbeth a witch, some people tend to find this one really obvious, other people think it's far more debatable. for myself, i think so much of her character arc is missing that i struggle to formulate a complete opinion about her. there's enough evidence of her being a witch in her opening scene to say that she's certainly established as one, but then shakespeare seems to do so little with it that i'm not sure what to think. it is worth picking up on a few key things:, come you spirits - if you watch a star wars movie and someone comes on screen dressed in a long robe and carrying a lightsaber then it's reasonable to assume they're a jedi. if almost the first thing someone does on-stage is cast a magic spell, during a play that features witches in prominent roles, then it's reasonable to assume that she's a witch. if she's not supposed to be one, then i really have no idea what shakespeare thought he was doing have her cast a magic spell straight away., hereafter - king that shalt be - hereafter - when lady macbeth comes on stage she's reading a letter from her husband, which tells her about his encounter with the witches. but: the letter misquotes the witches. macbeth says that they called him "king that shalt be" when they really said "all hail macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter." this doesn't seem like a big deal except that when his wife meets him, she says "greater than both by the all hail hereafter." so she uses the "hail" and the "hereafter" that the witches used, even though macbeth got the quote wrong., beyond that, though, there's no real references to her being a witch or casting any magic spells at all, except perhaps one..., when she performs her original magic spell she asks that the spirits " stop up the passage to remorse " which means that the spell stops her feeling any guilt. in a3 s5 hecate, the queen of witches, becomes angry at what the witches have done and demands that they bring an end to the whole thing. just after this, we see lady macbeth and she's sleepwalking and consumed by guilt. is it possible that hecate cancelled out the magic spell that had been cast earlier on, which would have meant that lady macbeth felt her guilt all of a sudden this is possible, and it's probably the best explanation for her character flip that i've ever heard though it's still pretty thin..., seyton... or is it a coincidence, at the end of the play, macbeth does something unusual: he gives one of his servants a name. there are a number of other messengers or gentlewomen in the play - even a doctor - but they never get names., but then, for no reason, at the end of the play he calls out "seyton." now, bearing in mind that macbeth was meant to be seen and not read, it seems really strange to give a character a name that rhymes with satan, in a play about witchcraft, if that character isn't going to actually be satan., it's also doubly interesting as he says the name three times before seyton appears - twice in quick succession, and then suddenly he appears. the idea of saying someone's name three times before they appear is a reasonably classic trope, and here it is with satan., seyton --i am sick at heart,, when i behold-- seyton , i say--this push, will cheer me ever, or disseat me now., i have lived long enough: my way of life, is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf;, and that which should accompany old age,, as honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,, i must not look to have; but, in their stead,, curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,, which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. seyton , enter seyton, given the nature of the play and its focus on witchcraft - and the fact that a few scenes earlier we'd seen the arrival of hecate, the queen of witches - it doesn't seem unreasonable that this is actually satan who's arrived., other than ranking up the supernatural elements in the play, this doesn't really have a massive impact on the play except in one key possible area., look over this section from a5 s5:.

A cry of women within

What is that noise?

It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Re-enter SEYTON

Wherefore was that cry?

The queen, my lord, is dead.

So it is Seyton who discovers the Queen's body - or, possibly, was it him or his minions who killed her?

The most common understanding is that Lady Macbeth killed herself, but bear in mind that we only assumed she did because Malcolm's says that Macbeth's "fiend-like queen, / Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands / Took off her life."

So basically, it could well be that Lady Macbeth killed herself, but I'd bet there were people who left the theatre thinking that Seyton / Satan had something to do with it...

Super Stretch: Extract from the British Library

The following is an extract from an article that's been published on the british library's website, you can find the whole thing here: https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/manhood-and-the-milk-of-human-kindness-in-macbeth, the article looks at the role of masculinity in macbeth, but takes a very different slant to my interpretation. during this extract, the author argues that the witches have no real power over macbeth but only ignite his own passion. i've colour coded it and responded to his argument below. crucially though, i'd argue (without meaning to offend the author) that this passage - which is written by a very well respected professor - is entirely reliant on some quite astonishing assumptions, none of which are actually backed up by any evidence from the play., it's an interesting read as it gives some clues as to how we've come to the place we have:, it’s important to stress that macbeth’s fate is not dictated by the witches. none of the malign spells cast by the bearded handmaids of hecat, as they dance round their bubbling cauldron with its gruesome ingredients, has any power over macbeth. the weird sisters ‘can look into the seeds of time’ (1.3.58) and foretell his future in deceitful language, whose full meaning emerges only in retrospect. but they can’t compel macbeth to do anything., this section stresses that the witches have no powers over macbeth. it says they can't compel him to do anything, but then - really - if you read it, it just repeats this statement without actually referencing the text in any meaningful way. it seems like the author just ignores the power the witches had over the sailor, and ignores the fact that macbeth enters the stage almost repeating what the witches have previously said. this kind of academic writing is designed to sound clever, but it's not actually dealing with the text. you could almost say it was an example of confuscation, which is something that's made deliberately confusing, often to hide the fact that it has nothing to say., shakespeare makes that clear from the outset, when the grim trio greets macbeth with titles he has yet to acquire, and banquo sees him ‘start, and seem to fear / things that do sound so fair’, and then become strangely ‘rapt withal’ (1.3.51–2, 57). before the scene is over, macbeth’s first soliloquy leaves us in no doubt that what has startled and struck fear into him is the witches’ open voicing of the ‘black and deep desires’ (1.4.51) already brewing secretly in his heart., my ears perked up at this bit as i hoped that he would provide some evidence - he says that shakespeare makes it clear that the witches have no power. but then you read it and there's nothing there - again the fact that macbeth seemed to "fear" what the witches said, or that he then fell into a "rapt" state does not mean that the witches had no control over macbeth and where he claims "leaves us in no doubt that" i can say categorically that i had serious doubts about this interpretation. in fact, he references a soliloquy from a1 s3 but then uses a quote from the next scene, like the spirits that lady macbeth commands in the next scene to ‘unsex’ her and purge her of compassion, the witches ‘tend on mortal thoughts’ (1.5.41; my emphasis): they serve the evil thoughts they find in mortal minds, they don’t plant them there., here, he's using a quote from lady macbeth who says that the spirits she calls only "tend" on mortal thoughts, which suggests that they don't control them, they just look after them - in the way we might tend a garden or a loved one. but this is lady macbeth and not the witches, so the fact that lady macbeth has no real power over someone's behaviour says nothing about the witches. also, the use of the "like" conjunction at the beginning suggests that there will be some connection between the thoughts presented, but lady macbeth asks for the spirits to "unsex" her and take away her compassion, both of which are them doing something, not simply responding to the "evil thoughts they find in mortal minds.", and that's the end of his argument., but if i look back over his argument i see someone making a very broad statement about the play: the witches have no control over macbeth; and then backing it up with very limited evidence, that ignores significant portions of the plot, and just 'sounds' good as he uses long words and complex sentences., the fact is that if you introduce the supernatural elements of the play to the degree that they can actually control macbeth's behaviour, you end up with a play about the effects of witchcraft, which just isn't that interesting to an audience four hundred years later. i think a lot of people are working very hard to make macbeth seem infinitely more interesting and complex than it actually is..