The Great Chain of Being All just a

The Great Chain of Being

All just a pack of cards I am going to deal you a card. Don’t tell anyone what your card is. If you have a 2 or 3, then you are at the bottom of the hierarchy If you have a picture card, then you are the top of the hierarchy Keep your card hidden and talk to other people in the room ‘in character’ GUESS WHAT CARD THE OTHER PERSON IS HOLDING

Which character is in the same place in the hierarchy as your card?

The Great Chain of Being

What was it?

What was The Great Chain of Being? Religious thinkers in the Middle Ages had upheld the idea of 'The Great Chain of Being'. This was the belief that God had designed an ordered system for both nature and humankind within which every creature and person had an allotted place. It was considered an offence against God for anyone to try to alter their station in life. After death, however, all would be raised in the kingdom of heaven, if they respected God's will.

What was it?

²citizens ²Yeomen (free man who owned his own farm) ²the king ²artisans and labourers ²the royal family ²nobles ²rogues and the unemployed. ²courtiers MAN Put these categories of men in order of hierarchy

²the king ²the royal family ²nobles ²courtiers ²citizens ²Yeomen (free man who owned his own farm) ²artisans and labourers ²rogues and the unemployed. Where do women come in this hierarchy? MAN The category of man was divided even more into (from top to bottom)…

²the king ²the royal family ²nobles ²courtiers ²citizens ²Yeomen (free man who owned his own farm) ²artisans and labourers ²rogues and the unemployed. WOMEN COME BELOW ALL OF THESE MEN! MAN The category of man was divided even more into (from top to bottom)…

Royalty

ROYALTY Since royal rank was bestowed by God, it was a sin to aspire to it. The so-called 'divine right of kings’ was the belief that the power of monarchs was given directly by God, and thus monarchs were answerable only to God. It was believed that opposition to the King/Queen was an attack on God himself, and therefore sacrilege, the most heinous of sins. The anointing ceremony at the coronation made the Monarch virtually divine.

Lower down the chain…

For medieval and Renaissance thinkers, humans occupied a unique position on the Chain of Being, straddling the world of spiritual beings and the world of physical creation. Humans were thought to possess divine powers such as reason, love, and imagination. Like angels, humans were spiritual beings, but unlike angels, human souls were "knotted" to a physical body. As such, they were subject to passions and physical sensations--pain, hunger, thirst -- just like other animals lower on the Chain of the Being.

Context of production What would the Jacobean audience have thought about the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth? In the eyes of the Jacobean audience, Macbeth’s audience would have considered Macbeth’s actions to have been unnatural and sacrilegious because: 1. 2. 3. What effect does this have in the play? How does Shakespeare show that the world has been turned upside down?

Put the characters in order of hierarchy: Macbeth Lady Macbeth Duncan Malcolm The witches Lady Macduff

Act 1 scene 7 How does Shakespeare present Macbeth’s doubts in this scene? Independent study for Monday January 26 th – write a paragraph using the

Which of these words apply to Macbeth in this scene? Anxious Cautious Courageous Cunning Deceitful Decisive Dishonest Eager Edgy Enthusiastic Impatient Religious Restrained Vain Worried

Group Task What happened in your section of Act 1 Scene 7? How would you describe Macbeth during this section? Use the words in the previous list to help How do you feel about him? Like, dislike, admire etc

The Wheel of Fortune Elizabethan and Jacobean people also believed in The Wheel of Fortune. Everyone was thought to be born onto a fixed point on the wheel, which they could never move from. They were destined to go wherever the wheel took them. In a play written around the same time as Shakespeare was writing, a character says: …in thy wheel There is a point, to which when men aspire They tumble headlong down… (Mortimer in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe)

‘Fortune, ’ (the woman) turning the wheel