Order and Disorder

• Order and Disorder - the message Shakespeare wanted to convey was that killing the king was wrong (shown through Macbeth killing Duncan and the natural world descending into chaos)

  • When Macbeth kills the king, he changes the Great Chain of Being and brings disorder into the world.
  • Lennox talks about a raging storm the night Duncan was killed, symbolising how the natural world responds to Duncan's death and the disruption of the great chain of being.
  • At the end of the play, order is restored when Malcolm, the rightful heir to the throne, becomes king.
• Order and Disorder quote 1

  • Quote - "Now o'er the one half-world nature seems dead" (Act 2 Scene 1 Line 49-50. Refers to the fact that the natural order is going to be broken, he is going to kill the king and bring down the natural way of things with him.
• Order and Disorder Quote 2

  • Ross and an old man discuss the strange and ominous events "Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night hath trifled former knowings." (Act 2 Scene 4 Line 2-4) and "Contending 'gainst obedience as they would make war with mankind. [Old Man] 'Tis said, they eat each other." This shows how the horses, traditionally obedient now seem at war with him; attacking and eating each other, suggesting that the natural order of things has broken down.