We attended four of these sessions, however, the discussion about Shakespeare was the most interesting to me. This may be because of my previous involvement in performing his plays as a regular member of the Shakespeare performance team, however this time around, my interest was piqued by the discussion of the hierarchy that was discussed using the examples of Shakespeare's plays. When the hierarchy was upset, the play descended into chaos. This hierarchy did not feature man at the very stop, instead, it held God as the figure at the top. This heavily aligns with the Christian or Catholic beliefs from Shakespeare's time period.
During the era in which Shakespeare existed, God's existence was not questioned. It was simply a fact. Shakespeare, who was religious to my knowledge, wrote stories using existing stories and turned them into plays anyone could understand. Religion is mostly not explicitly discussed, besides in the Merchant of Venice, only the speculation of God's actions is discussed in detail. This can be taken into account on many occasions when side characters who are not even written into the play with names allude to situations and wrongdoings. Several occasions have characters alluding to these through the actions of those not human. The roosters crowed through the night, not at dawn. The crops died of disease. The waters are no longer safe to drink. And finally the ever famous line, a storm is brewing. Each of these sayings alludes to something out of the control of any of the characters and is instead believed to be the result of God's punishment of sinners. The worse the outcome, the worse the crime.
This clearly displays the relevance of hierarchy, and religion, within Shakespeare. God is not a wholly loving being and will punish those who have done wrong, no matter who they are. This hierarchy that was created picturing God at the very top within Shakespeare's plays may not have been as relevant to us now as it previously was among religious Europe, but now with the surge of varied religious people having access to Shakespeare's work, we can now assess it through a non-religious perspective or assess how the people of Britain particularly perceived God.
