In Vergil’s Aeneid Chaos, Aeneas’s main enemy, is represented by disfigured monsters several times. For example, the giants, with extra limbs and heads, are referenced, and represent chaos. They were also created by nature in response to a disturbance in the great chain of being when some of the gods were overthrown and killed by others. In Dante’s inferno, the creatures and monsters in hell also represent chaos and disorder. Cerberus, with three heads, is greed, for example. In Hamlet, the land is rotting and Hamlet seeks revenge at the murder of his father, which disrupted the great chain of being. Chaos in Hamlet is shown by the confusion characters hold and in the backfiring traps they set; everyone is trying to look over their shoulder and swing their sword at the same time! I think the idea of restoring order or peace is something that is present in most of the prices we have been working with and could be incorporated into an exam essay. Even in Sing, Unburied, Sing, there is a sort of chaos in that there is racism and a past being ignored which needs to be remembered so that peace and justice can be reached.
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That’s on awesome point you bring up, and I would like to provide another example of China’s is one of the pieces we read. In Oedipus Rex, the great chain of being is disrupted because Oedipus unknowing married his mother, an unstrung and incestuous act. As a result, a great famine and spout of infertility plagued the kingdom, an example of chaos insuring because of unstrung and genius things that happens from a higher level results in chaos down the line of lower levels. Order is only restored when Oedipus finds out the truth, and leaves the kingdom, thus the origin of the chaos is banished.
I think that the disruption of the great chain of being is one of the most fascinating elements of literature that we have the opportunity to encounter. The most prominent example of this element is in Macbeth because after King Duncan is killed by Macbeth, a variety of unusual actions occur such as eclipses and earthquakes. Furthermore, horses start eating each other because there appears to be some sort of weird ripple effect when there is an abrupt change hierarchy. Shakespeare never fails to fascinate me.
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