4/6/2021 Order & Disorder In Shakespeare: Play Themes

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Order & Disorder in Shakespeare

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Almost all of Shakespeare’s plays begin with a state of

order or stability, which gives way to disorder or
confusion.

That disruption could take place in individuals.

Macbeth is told that he is going to be king and as a
result of that becomes consumed by ambition; Othello
believes his wife to be unfaithful and is overwhelmed
by jealousy; Hamlet learns that his father has been
murdered by his father’s brother and becomes

obsessed with revenge. Other human causes of

disruption are love, hatred, the lust for political power adJhvs
or any other strongly felt emotion. The disruption
drives the dramatic action.

Disruption could also occur in society – for example

civil war or rebellion. Sometimes disruption in an
individual will lead to social disruption, and vice versa.

Disruption in individuals is often echoed by disruption

in nature. For example, Lear’s madness is reflected in
the storms and tempests that take place throughout;
Macbeth’s unnatural killing of his king is reflected in
unnatural happenings such as the horses in the
stables going mad and biting the grooms,
earthquakes, unusual downpours etc.

Order is restored in the end. The suffering individual is

usually dead by the end of the play, but even in the
plays that aren’t classical tragedies the disrupted
individual comes to new understandings and a new
outlook on humanity, even though that may be
minutes before his or her death.

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Although order may be restored it is seldom all

perfect and harmonious. There are loose ends, such
as the treatment of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
On the surface, it looks like the Christian community
has triumphed in the face of an attack from an enemy
and restored order to their community. As Shylock
slinks away in defeat after he is humiliated in his court
case against Antonio though, we are appalled by the
nastiness of the Christian characters as they mock
him, and we also see the seeds of an even worse
disruption of Venetian society as its anti-Semitic
character is affirmed. Most of the plays have such
hanging threads in their show of order at the end. In
real life order never lasts and new conditions lead to
new threats. Shakespeare’s plays reflect that reality.

Some of the plays deal specifically with the theme of

order and disorder, making it almost ‘what the play is
about’ (although one can never say about a
Shakespeare’s play that it’s ‘about’ one particular
thing). A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of those.
The social order of Athens demands that a father’s will
should be enforced. That is also particularly true for
the order of the family. Egeus’ family is threatened
because his daughter refuses to marry the husband of
his choice and insists on her own choice. When she
runs away from the ordered, hierarchical society of
Athens, followed by her lover and their friends, to the
chaos of the woods, order is disrupted: in the woods
the relationships are fragmented. There is also a row
going on between the rulers of the forest, the Fairy
King and Queen, and even the seasons are disrupted.
It is only when Oberon and Titania are reconciled and
the natural order of the fairy world  is restored that
the lovers’ relationships can become ordered once
more and their return to human society can in turn
restore its order. Egeus’ daughter gets her way
regarding her choice of husband, however, and the
drama ends with this threat to the social order.

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Some of the plays begin with a significant measure of

disorder, only to see the restoration of order, which
then proves to be a mere illusion of order. Macbeth is
one such play. It begins with battle raging between the
Scots and the Norwegians, aided by Scottish traitors –
extreme disorder and chaos everywhere,
accompanied by thunder and lightning. Two great
military captains, Macbeth and Banquo defeat the
Norwegians and restore civil order. A scene in which
the king punishes the traitors and rewards the loyal is
all about the restoration of social order. Everything
now seems ordered and harmonious, but the rest of
the play is a demonstration of how disruption within
an individual – Macbeth’s over-reaching ambition –
can bring about disorder again, after which order has
to be restored once again. This play can also be seen
as being ‘about’ order and disorder, although we know
that it is impossible to say what any Shakespeare play
is ‘about.’ One can only explore some of its ideas, but
the idea of order and disorder is central in Macbeth.

The centrality of the theme is reinforced by the

language throughout. Macbeth’s comment, ‘so foul
and fair a day I have not seen’ echoes the witches’
chant and links him with the chaos of their dark world.
As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth talk they frequently
invoke the darkness that allows evil and disorder to
flourish – ‘come thick night and pall thee in the
dunnest smoke of hell’; ‘stars hide your fires’ and so
on.

The contrast between order and disorder is

demonstrated in various places throughout the play.
The banquet scene is probably the finest illustration of
this theme in all of Shakespeare. Macbeth has just
become king after murdering Duncan, and is holding a
state banquet with noblemen of all degrees, each
knowing his place in the seating order. The irony of his
welcoming statement, ‘You know your own degrees,
sit down’ is striking since he has just disrupted the
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order by killing his king. This is the scene in which

Banquo’s ghost appears.

Macbeth’s guilt makes him lose control and the

banquet ends in chaos as everyone runs for the door.
Lady Macbeth’s urging, ‘stand not on the order of your
going but go at once’ confirms the breakdown of
order, and it is from this point that the disruption of
Scottish society is worked through, to culminate in its
restoration with the defeat and death of Macbeth and
the restoration of the rightful king, Malcolm, to the
throne.

Again, with the reminder that no Shakespeare play is

‘about’ any one thing, a central theme of The Tempest
is the conflict between order and chaos, with order
being a fragile thing, perpetually threatened by chaos.
In the background of the text is the almost continuous
interplay between stormy weather and music,
graphically illustrating that wavering interaction.
Prospero is like a gardener, tending his garden,
continually trying to combat the weeds that keep
springing up to disrupt the garden’s order. Caliban,
Stephano, Trinculo, Antonio and Sebastian require
constant watching and regulating as they attempt to
overthrow the order that he has established on the
island.

It’s notable that even here, on this magical island,

tamed and ordered by Prospero’s arts as a magician,
having restored order after the disruption brought
about by the royal visitors from the real world of
human politics, the resolution is not perfect. He has to
return to that world and assume his old life there – a
life that was disrupted by political ambition – with all
its threats.

Every one of Shakespeare’s plays can be examined

from the perspective of the conflict between order
and disorder, whatever its other, and sometimes
more dominant, themes are.
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Shakespeare Themes by Play

Hamlet themes, Macbeth themes, Romeo and Juliet

themes

Shakespeare Themes by Topic

Ambition, Appearance & Reality, Betrayal, Conflict,

Corruption, Death, Deception, Good & Evil, Hatred,
Order & Disorder, Revenge, Suffering,
Transformation

An abstract take on order and disorder

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