How does the disruption to the natural order foreshadow the deaths of Macbeth and lady Macbeth?

Answer 1

It doesn't, exactly. However, the idea that nature and the weather mirrors the condition of the political state is one which you will find in many of Shakespeare's plays: in Julius Caesar, a "tempest dropping fire", a terrific storm, mirrors the conspiracy to murder Caesar; in Hamlet, "something is rotten in the state of Denmark"; in Macbeth, chimneys are blown down and "Duncan's horses did eat each other". In King Lear, the terrific storm mirrors the king's mind. This device is related to the "pathetic fallacy", where inanimate things are given human emotions. In each case, the weather signals that something has gone wrong, and must be put right. The "disruption of the natural order" in the weather parallels the disruption of the "natural order" of the political state as understood by the Elizabethans and Jacobeans. This means primogeniture (so no succession by uncles or cousins or brothers when there is a son), no usurpation of the king while he is alive, no change in government by assassinating the ruler. Whenever any of these things happens in a Shakespeare play, the time will be out of joint, and society will fall apart. It is usually put right by the death of the usurper or assassin, like Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar, Claudius in Hamlet, and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. The history cycle from Richard II to Richard III starts with the usurpation and murder of a king, which is not put right by the death of the usurper, and which leads to increasing chaos through the eight-play cycle, ending finally with Richard III, who breaks all three rules but is killed in battle to restore the "natural order". Thus the turmoil in nature which arises on Duncan's murder will not be resolved until the perpetrators die. In this sense the death of the Macbeths is implied, if not exactly foreshadowed, by the disruptions.