William Shakespeare's Macbeth

William Shakespeare's Macbeth

William Shakespeare who had already written numerous plays on the

subject of kingship wrote Macbeth in 1605/6. This play is a tragedy,

much like that of Hamlet, which depicts the murder of a King and all

the consequences that follow such a crime. This play was performed

before King James VI of Scotland, I of Great Britain, who came to the

English throne in 1603. There are all sorts of issues that can be

drawn from this fact such as, King James had a fascination with

witchcraft, which suggests that Macbeth might have been centred around

witches to please the King. Shakespeare spent a lot of his time

writing about Kings, especially English ones.

The quotation is from Act IV, iii where Malcolm, son of Duncan, is

testing Macduff to see whether he is a traitor or not and then, once

it is established that Macduff is on Malcolm's side, they start to

plan how they are going to fight Macbeth. The quotation is a list of

qualities that Malcolm says a King should have. Then he goes on to say

that he has none of these qualities, but this is all part of the

trickery he is playing on Macduff. Malcolm knows that Macduff is

truthful to him because Malcolm says that he would not have one

tyrant, Macbeth, replaced with another, Malcolm, which shows that

Macduff is loyal to Scotland, therefore Malcolm, the rightful King,

and not Macbeth.

"Fit to govern!

No, not to live! O nation miserable,

With an untitled tyrant" (Act IV, iii, 103-105)

This is the quotation with which Macduff proves to Malcolm his loyalty

to him and not Macbeth.

Our first encounter with a King in Macbeth is Duncan. The scene is

t...

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... the qualities that he

lists. The Kings in Macbeth do have all of the qualities he lists

between them but they also have other qualities that are important to

being a King and there are also other qualities that the Kings do not

have and that aren't listed that I think a king should have, such as

intelligence and being religious. Some people might say that because

the Kings in Macbeth do have the qualities described in the extract

that Macbeth supports the claim. This is, however, wrong in my opinion

because the Kings, in Macbeth, have other qualities that a suitable

King should have that need to be thought of in answering this question

and, as I have said, there are other virtues a King should have to

rule a kingdom.

Bibliography

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Macbeth, William Shakespeare, ed. G.K. Hunter, Penguin, 1967