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The Great Chain Of Being In The Elizabethan Era

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As many others during the Elizabethan Era, Shakespeare was deeply influenced by the Great Chain of Being. The Great Chain of Being was first devised by Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Proclus, but was further developed and reached it’s full capacity during early modern Neoplatonism. It’s influence stretched from the 16th to early 17th century. The Great Chain of Being established a clear hierarchy, the most divine being God and the least being minerals and inanimate objects. In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Macbeth disrupts the chain by killing the King, against God’s wish, leading the the demise of the Great Chain of Being, throwing everything into chaos. Macbeth ruins the chain by heeding to the Witches prophecies and killing Duncan; the disruption

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