The Natural Order

The Natural Order

1. CONTEXT

   • The Great Chain of Being is a strict hierarchy/structure of all matter and life, believed to be decreed by God.
   • It was a very important concept in Elizabethan society and they believed that everything had it's correct place in the hierarchy and if humans fell or rose from their position then the natural order would be disrupted, having severe consequences.
   • God - Angels - Demons - stars - moon - kings - princes - nobles - men - animals - trees - plants - precious stones - other minerals
   • In King Lear, many characters act against the natural order, causing problems.

2. REFERENCES AND QUOTES

   • Act I, Scene I - Lear splitting up the kingdom into 3.
     • "our darker purpose...in three our kingdom" - appears somewhat sinister - start of the chain of reference to 'three'
     • "conferring them on younger strengths, while we unburthened crawl toward death" - ironic as this is the start of Lear's burdens.
   • Act I, Scene II - Illegitimate Edmund calls on nature to ask for what he believes is rightfully his
     • "Thou, Nature, art my Goddess"
   • Act I, Scene V - The Fool is a wise man - tells Lear that he has gone against the natural order.
     • "Thou should'st not have been old till thou hadst been wise."
   • Act II, Scene I - Edmund declared heir - goes against primogeniture
     • "Loyal and natural boy" - ironic, Gloucester trusts the wrong son.
   • Act III, Scene I - The storm is natures reaction to the disruption of the natural order.
     • "Crack Nature's moulds" - break nature's pattern.
   • Act IV, Scene VI - Lear refers to himself as "the natural fool of Fortune"
     • Gloucester says "O ruined piece of Nature!" - disorder in the kingdom.
   • Act V, Scene III - Fortune's wheel
     • Edmund says "the wheel is come full circle" - Has natural order been re-established?

3. WHAT DOES THIS THEME ADD TO THE PLAY? LINKS TO OTHER THEMES/MOTIFS?

   • Lear begins the play with a reversal of the natural order. This ultimately leads to him becoming a "shadow" of his former self. Is the reversal of natural order a cause of Lear's madness?
   • This theme would have appealed particularly to the Elizabethan audience as they believed in the Great Chain of Being.
   • Links well to primogeniture and birthright (Edmund is illegitimate). Also links to justice (the Wheel of Fortune spinning around) and obviously nature and the natural world.