It is not the differences but the loss of them that gives rise to violence and chaos... The loss forces men into a perpetual confrontation, one that strips them of all their distinctive characteristics – in short, of their "identities." Language itself is put in jeopardy. 'Each thing meets/ In mere oppugnancy:' the adversaries are reduced to indefinite objects, "things" that wantonly collide with each other like loose cargo on the decks of a storm-tossed ship. The metaphor of the floodtide that transforms the earth's surface to a muddy mass is frequently employed by Shakespeare to designate the undifferentiated state of the world that is also portrayed in Genesis.