The Great Chain of Being
	In the 15 and 16 hundreds, Elizabethans believed that God set out an order for all things, which was known as, "The Great Chain of Being". It was believed that God chose where everyone belonged in a hierarchy and that everyone should know their place in the world and not change it. The King or Queen therefore were believed to have been put on the throne by God (known as "the Divine Right of Kings"). Because of this, the Elizabethans were superstitious that if the wrong monarch was on the throne, God would punish them. The Great Chain of Being was a major influence on several Shakespeare plays, particularly Macbeth and Hamlet. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth (the main character) murders the king and becomes ruler himself by stealing the throne. This throws the natural order (or Great Chain of Being) of things into disarray. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote his plot focusing on a break in the chain, with an undeserving king who unravels the threads of society (or order of things).	Diagram of the Elizabethan view of the world (the Great Chain of Being)
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