disruption of natural order

• (1) disruption of the natural order in Scotland

  (2) motif of disrupted sleep

  (3) birds as a motif to symbolise a disruption
• (1) "And Duncan's horses....they eat each other"


  This instance of cannibalism would be horrifying, especially to a contemporary audience who believed in the supernatural and had a great fear of witches. also portrays how the world has become corrupt due to the disruption of natural order
• "new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face"


    Macbeth’s disruption of natural order by murdering the rightful king is so blasphemous that is “strikes heaven”.

   Because Macbeth has murdered the king, above him in the Great Chain of Being, he has disrupted natural order and therefore other instances are a result of this.
• "where sighs and groans and shrieks that reed the air"


  - Ross depicts Scotland as a nightmarish state.

  Shakespeare could have written this to appease James I; the year before Macbeth was written there was the 1605 gunpowder plot. The attempt on the king's life meant that it was necessary to warn people against regicide, as it would sprout the Divine right of kings and, therefore, natural order
• (2) "Macbeth does murder sleep"


  This shows that the lack of sleep is a direct result of Macbeth’s crime, his regicide is so heinous he has also murdered sleep, a natural process.
• (2) "Nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep"

  -Satanic imagery of everyone having bad dreams, the evil disrupts people's sleep. Half the world is in light, half in darkness.

  -This continues the theme of liminality, which would have disturbed the Jacobean audience who had a very dichotomous worldview, as it blurs the lines between sleep and wakefulness.
• (3) " A falcon towering in her pride of place was by her mousing owl hawked at and killed"


  people are being killed by those below them in rank, the unnatural disruption of natural order is shown by the symbolism of supernatural occurrences in nature
• (3) "The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements"


  Lady Macbeth calls upon dark forces as she anticipates King Duncan's murder, with "the raven" symbolising death and foreshadowing tragedy. Her words reveal her ruthless ambition and determination to seize power by any means necessary.