Eli Sablan
English 9HP
Period 2
February 17, 2023
Shakespeare's Macbeth: The Disjointed Cosmos
Our natural world, created by an intelligent and long-lived creature, is included in the cosmos, which is essentially the universe in harmony. When the universe's inhabitants follow natural law, the cosmos remains in equilibrium. According to Thomas Aquinas, when one acts in a way that benefits life, knowledge, society, and rational conduct, they are in unity with natural law; good is to be done, and evil avoided intentions, and their actions do not fulfill Aquinas's standards. The well-ordered cosmos chips away at wicked intents and subsequent actions that do not follow Thomas Aquinas's principles, such as murder for personal gain. Shakespeare illustrates a fragmented universe in Macbeth by using medieval Scotland as an example. Macbeth violates natural law and thus creates a fragmented universe. Shakespeare uses equivocation and the supernatural to demonstrate how suffering and devastation are a part of life in Scotland during this time. Throughout this novel, Macbeth shows darkness, equivocation, and unnatural behavior in many different ways. Darkness is the background throughout Macbeth. Shakespeare sets the play in a dark and dreary Scotland, in a cold and
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Shortly before her husband enters the room, Lady Macbeth calls upon the darkness to aid Macbeth in his plan to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth states, "Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry, 'Hold, hold!" (Iv 57-60). Again the theme of darkness is used by Shakespeare to set the stage for the evil act about to be committed by Macbeth, which leads to the disruption of natural harmony in Scotland and to damn Macbeth's