The Great Chain of Being was a philosophy popular during Shakespeare's time that viewed all things in the universe as being linked in a hierarchical order. At the top were God and angels, followed by humans in descending order of social status, then animals, plants, and minerals. Each link had its own inner hierarchy. The human hierarchy placed the monarch at the top as closest to God, and serfs at the bottom. Shakespeare explored the themes of this philosophy, such as the chaos that results from disrupting the proper order, as when a king loses power or status is not maintained.

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The Great Chain of Being
Shakespeare and Elizabethan
Philosophy

2. The Basics
• An Elizabethan philosophy popular in
Shakespeare’s time
• Worked its way into literature and entertainment
• Primary focus of Great Chain:
• Everything on earth and in heaven is linked and
orderly
• All people and things have their place in a grand
scheme
• Gave sense, order and meaning to life

3. The Great Chain
God
God
The most heavenly beings
placed at the top of the
chain (seated at the Foot of
God)
(Perfection)
(Perfection)
Angels
Angels
(Intuition)
(Intuition)
Man
Man
(Existence,
(Existence,
Growth, Passion,
Growth, Passion,
Reason)
Reason)
Animals
Animals
(Existence,
(Existence,
Growth, Passion)
Growth, Passion)
The basest creatures are at
the bottom, furthest away
from God
Plants
Plants
(Existence,
(Existence,
Growth)
Growth)
Minerals
Minerals
(Existence)
(Existence)

4. Links in the Chain
Each separate link (or sub-class) in the Great
Chain bears its own inner hierarchy
Angels
Angels
(Intuition)
(Intuition)
{
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones
Dominions
Powers
Virtues
Principalities
Archangels
Angels
Roses are the greatest in the Plant hierarchy;
gold, silver, diamond in the Mineral, etc.

5. The Human Link
• Most important was the hierarchy in the
Human chain
• A chain of social status and power
• Status in the Great Chain is immutable, being
forged by God, especially at the top
• Royal Absolutism

6. The Human Link
The monarch (Queen Elizabeth) sat
atop the human link, closest to the
Angelic and thus closest to God.
•
The lowliest serf would be at the
bottom of the hierarchy, closest to
the Animal link and thus furthest
from God.

7. Okay, great - so what?
• It is in this human chain which we find many
of the elements of interest to Shakespeare ’s
plays
• Especially as the plays apply to royalty
• Often, displacement within the chain (a king
giving up his God-given power) leads to
suffering
• King Lear
• In turn, tampering with the Great Chain
(through betrayal, murder, etc.) can lead to
chaos
• Hamlet

8. O, when degree* is shaked,
rank
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
Then enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows!
From Act I, Scene 3 of Troilus and Cressida

9. Don’t Mess With The Chain…
• This chaos fits in with the Elizabethan ideas of
status mobility (or the lack thereof)
• In other words, serfs remain serfs and do not become
nobles, etc.
• God has established the Chain, and since God
is perfection, so is the social order
• Chaos is punishment for tampering with the
Chain, and is not limited to the monarchy
• The King and Kingdom are one; as the monarchy
suffers, so do the people and vice versa (a theme of
Oedipus the King and Hamlet)

10. Don’t Mess With The Chain…
• This chaos fits in with the Elizabethan ideas of
status mobility (or the lack thereof)
• In other words, serfs remain serfs and do not become
nobles, etc.
• God has established the Chain, and since God
is perfection, so is the social order
• Chaos is punishment for tampering with the
Chain, and is not limited to the monarchy
• The King and Kingdom are one; as the monarchy
suffers, so do the people and vice versa (a theme of
Oedipus the King and Hamlet)