Natural Order Disrupted
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Natural Order Disrupted
Context: Scotland after Duncan’s murder
In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the throne. In the play’s world, a king’s authority is understood as part of a divinely ordered universe. Duncan’s murder therefore threatens more than the government: it seems to unsettle the natural world too. The passage below comes from Act 2, Scene 4. Ross and an Old Man discuss strange events reported on the night of the murder.
Passage: Act 2, Scene 4
OLD MAN: Threescore and ten I can remember well; Within the volume of which time I have seen Hours dreadful and things strange; but this sore night Hath trifled former knowings. ROSS: Ah, good father, Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. The Old Man reports that a falcon was attacked and killed by a mousing owl. Ross also says Duncan’s horses turned wild, broke from their stalls and ate one another. The men agree that these events are “unnatural”, and Ross connects them with Duncan’s murder.
Read closely
Answer in complete sentences unless the question asks you to select or match.
- They are ordinary events that happen every day.
- They reverse expected relationships and make day, animals and the heavens seem out of balance.
- They show that Scotland has won a military victory.
- They prove that the Old Man is unable to remember the past.
- Darkness at daytime
- An owl killing a falcon
- Duncan’s horses attacking one another
- Normally controlled animals become violently chaotic
- Light and darkness are out of place
- A weaker or lower creature overcomes a powerful one
3 printable pages
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