The Chain of Being is an idea that held in Elizabethan times that everything in the universe was part of a chain of links, from lowest (rocks and dirt) to the highest (God and the angels). Man was a part of this chain, possessing spirit (like those above) and flesh (like those being below). Mankind was divided into still smaller links - Nobles, knights, merchants and serfs. This idea is examined in Hamlet when Hamlet's father appears as a ghost. This is a sign to Hamlet that the Chain of Being had been disrupted, since his father's death could not be an accident. Also disturbing the Chain of Being was the fact that his mother had married his uncle - according to Hamlet, an incestuous relationship.

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