Macbeth-Overthrow of the Natural Order
             Shakespeare's Macbeth illustrates the Elizabethan world view – that life is ruled by a rigid, natural order ordained and protected by God. The natural hierarchy of the world is as follows: God, the angels, kings and nobles, ordinary people, animals, plants and minerals. If disrupted, it was believed that only chaos and catastrophe would result. In the story of Macbeth this ideal of a natural order is, and particularly the qualities of a good, natural life such as loyalty, honesty, love, friendship and duty are evident throughout – even between the murderous Macbeth as we later find, and the peaceful, well-loved King Duncan. Macbeth makes a notable display of these ideals in Act One Scene Four, where he is commended by Duncan for his bravery and excellence in the recent battle, "The service and the loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part is to receive our duties; and our duties are to your throne and state, children and servants, which do but what they should by doing everything safe toward your love and honour." However, this noble Macbeth that we witness in the earliest of scenes is a short-lived character. The story of Macbeth is about the overthrow of the natural order and the dramatic, fatal consequences. Macbeth is a dark account of the catastrophe and chaos brought upon Scotland, its people and the evil-doers as a result of the overthrow of the natural order.
             It is an obvious and inarguable fact that the 'good' under which people lived – the natural order, was undone by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's actions. Lady Macbeth's reaction to Macbeth's letter in Act One Scene Five is illustrative of this idea. She calls out in this truly diabolical soliloquy, "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me, from crown to toe, top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood; stop th...