Order Established Through Chaos

With rebellion and betrayal plaguing England, King Henry IV struggles to maintain some semblance of order within his divided kingdom and court. The one who restores normalcy to the nation is actually one who previously lived his life in a shameful manner. Prince Hal establishes a life at a pub, drinking with commoners and resorting to pulling pranks. His father describes his lifestyle as one of “dishonor and riot” (Act I, Scene i). Hal’s actions seem to disqualify him from such the esteemed and powerful position of heir to the throne. Although he reveals later that these actions falsely represent him, that he only intends to deceive people with them, they still reflect the inner turmoil he experiences. He fluctuates between a teenage delinquent and the Prince of England. His indecision divides him between his fatherly friend Falstaff, and his actual sire the King. In the end though, he turns his back on his sack, wench-loving companion and strives to win back his father’s trust and love.

In Hal’s life, his father represents structure, while Old Jack is disorder and dishonor. Hal finds himself drawn towards the older man, engaging him in banter and pulling juvenile pranks on him, behavior hardly common of a noble towards his subject. This fondness for a commoner pulls Hal away from the natural order of a monarchy. When war spreads across the kingdom, Hal is snapped back to reason and returns his attention to his real father. Through the chaos of the war, Hal returns to his senses and emerges from the war as a hero, and a son his father is proud of. Yet the return of order to his life brings on more responsibility; more war, more problems to solve within his life. His sense of normalcy as a prince brings only more disruption to his life, compared to his rambunctious lifestyle at the pub, which while causing him to stir up trouble, granted him a time of peace. So the question is when is order more valued? When it is established through minor chaotic actions, or when it results in more mayhem?

The anarchy experienced throughout the kingdom reflects the mayhem that Hal wrestles within himself. Although he ultimately desires to emerge as a leader, as a king, as a son that his father is proud of, he struggles facing that responsibility. He frequents a pub, and when he decides to change his lifestyle, he utilizes deception and the pandemonium of war to further himself in his father’s eyes and the eyes of his people. His father welcomes him back, stating proudly, “thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion” (Act 5 Scene iv). Hal finds his life and honor restored, but at the cost of chaos in his kingdom. Chaos won him glory and respect, but established a precedent in his life of responsibility and the burdens that only a king knows.

Order Obliterates Ignorance

Typically I think of order in a positive light. It is consistent, organized; safe. But in Oedipus Rex, order results in Oedipus’ banishment. Amidst the chaos and conflict within his kingdom, Oedipus’ true identity remains undiscovered, hidden among mistaken assumptions and lies. He unwittingly refers to his real history, one of incest and murder, when he assures Thebes that, “Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I” (Line 63). It is only after the puzzle pieces are sifted through and Oedipus’ jumbled past is reorganized that the truth emerges: his birth and existence are a sin, doomed from the beginning. He can longer claim that he is “a child of Luck; I can not be dishonored. Luck is my mother” (Lines 1025 – 1026), when ironically his own wife is his mother, and the blood on his hands belonged to his father.

At the same time however, thanks to order, Oedipus experiences redemption. He pays for the crime of incest and attempts to remove the curse that has fallen on his family and Thebes. Oedipus blinds himself, explaining with conviction, “How could I bear to see/ When all my sight was horror everywhere?” (Lines 1291-1292). He admirably abandons his home in order to “purge my father’s Thebes of the pollution of my living here” (Lines 1399-1400). Without knowing the truth, as woeful as it is, Oedipus may not have had the opportunity to correct his mistakes.

Despite the bleak future that lies before Oedipus, he is redeemed at the end. Originally, order results in a brutal sentence for Oedipus, stripping away his ignorance of the sinful life he had led; but the catharsis established after he atones for his wrongdoings demonstrates the positive aspect of order. Chaos may conceal the truth and protect us from reality, but order is necessary in order for us to understand our faults in order to fix them.

What are the positive and negative aspects of both chaos and order?

I hate change.



I am perfectly content to live my life as I always have. To me, change is uncertainty. It only leads to an unknown outcome, whether favorable or unpleasant. Our ever changing society is a result of chaos. A maelstrom of incidents, happenstances, coincidences. Maybe even fate. It is through this howling chaos and change that we seek order. Chaos and unexpected occurences temporarily cripple us. But it is through a strong desire to establish order, to regain control, that we persevere through change.



In Kent Haruf's Plainsong, order and chaos churn the small town of Holt, ripping families apart and slapping broken ones together. Bobby and Ike, two boys who live alone with their father, suffer from confusion and disappointment when their mother abandons them due to her emotional instability. In order to cope with the instability in their lives, the boys seek out order by replacing their mother with someone else. The chaos left in the wake of her leaving forces the boys to turn to others for maternal affection. They latch onto an elderly woman whose paper they deliver, reestablishing the role of a guardian in their lives. The boys were emotionally weakened by the trauma in their lives, yet it was through their struggles that they overcame their sense of abandonment and sought some form of normalcy.

Odysseus is a pawn in the chaotic game of life that the gods play. His terrifying adventures and his exile on an island throw him into an unimaginable depression. The Odyssey describes Odysseus' fight through the undesired obstacles in his life, showing that through strife one's true potential is discovered. By enduring his trials, he finds the resolve to return to his old life; his life with his wife and son on the island of Ithaka.

Order seems a relatively safe place to dwell, while chaos is a culmination of unexpected and often undesired twists and turns in our lives. Yet chaos forces us to become stronger. It forces us to deal with whatever life decides to throw at us, giving us the endurance to return to a state of order.