8-5GreatChainofBeing

**The Elizabethan world picture and the great chain of being**
//Answer prepared by Nicole H.// "The Elizabethan World Picture" is a book written by E.M.W Tillyard which was published in 1943. The book is about the way that Elizabethans looked at their world order.In this insightful book it describes what Tillyard calls the Chain of Being. The Chain of Being, however, is very difficult to understand.The book talks about how everything in the universe is linked together in some way. The most divine,of course,are at the top sitting at the feet of god. The less divine are more towards the bottom. It's like a chain, (hence the name) the top link being god and the bottom link being things like the devil and evil spirits. This chain does not only include living breathing things but it also includes intangible and inanimate beings as well.According to "The Chain of being and King Lear "a simplified version of the chain looks like this. god angels and ether the elements man animals plants metals liquids and so on. This however, is not the full chain just a part of it. The Chain of Being is almost like a hierarchy and in each of these hierarchies within each sub class(man animals stars angels minerals etc.) there are other hierarchies.In these hierarchies there are the highest and the lowest rated on the totem pole. Such as in metals, and minerals. Gold, silver,platinum, and diamonds would be the highest rated minerals, because they are the precious gems and metals, and are very rare.The rose is the most precious flower. The eagle is the noblest of the birds. The lion is the king of beasts. There you go there are the greatest in each of these groups. These class systems, as they are called are used everyday even though you may not know it. Precious metals are used in trade and in jewelry.Longstemmed roses are still a sign of undying affection, and diamond rings are used as tokens of love. The lion is even still considered the king of beasts. Humans are not excluded as you will learn from this class system.The human section is divided into a chain with monarchs, leaders, and heads of state at the top, and the dispossessed at the bottom.According to "Renaissance", writers were very fond of this order in humans they were not as fond of order as they were of disorder however, in the article" the renaissance" they say that Victorian writers were fascinated in the struggle for power and the struggle to be more divine. This is the Chain of Being and it is very interesting, and I believe it to be very true. To this day people still rate things. They rate movie stars above regular people. They rate the god as the most powerful. They rate people from the most important down to the least important and this will never stop it is a state of mind as well as a Chain of Being, people just automatically think this way.