Today in English we learned about how people saw and view the world in Elizabethan times (Which was
when Shakespeare lived and also the time of the Renaissance).
We learned that the Elizabethans saw the whole creation as a hierarchy, a great chain of being that had God, the creator, at the top, and non-living things such as minerals and stones at the bottom.
The Elizabethans believed that the human body was controlled by the 4 humours:
Yellow Bile(or Choler): Causes anger and irritability.
Black Bile (or Tears): Causes sadness.
Blood: Causes happiness and excitement.
Phlegm: Causes boredom.
The writers of Elizabethan times (notably Shakespeare) used the idea of the tragic flaw to expand their writing. A tragic flaw is a flaw in the personality of the character which would eventually be their downfall. For example, Macbeth’s flaw was his ambition.
Together, all these Elizabethan ideas can help us deduce the writings of Shakespeare.