Macbeth themes: Kingship

Macbeth themes: Kingship

1. Presented with many different images of Kings

   • Duncan
     • gracious fair king who rewards his 'deservers'
       • Contrast with Macbeth
   • Macbeth
     • Kingship achieved through the cowardly stabbing of Duncan, he disloyal murder of the king as well as the butchering the innocent family of Macduff
       • Reflects the disruption in the Great Chain of Being
         • committed the greater crime- sinning against God
       • Most important, the king must be loyal to Scotland above his own interests. Macbeth, by contrast, brings only chaos to Scotland—symbolized in the bad weather and bizarre supernatural events—and offers no real justice, only a habit of capriciously murdering those he sees as a threat. As the embodiment of tyranny, he must be overcome by Malcolm so that Scotland can have a true king once more.
     • 'barren' and 'fruitless'
     • 'tyrant'

2. Key part to the plot- because it involves the murder of a good king, the rise and overthrow of a wicked king and the succession of the rightful king.

3. Repeated references to artefacts of kingship e.g crown, sceptre and robes

   • Imagery associated with it
     • 'solely sovereign sway'
       • 'golden round'
     • royalty and grandeur of it

4. Revealed through the prophecies

   • 'King' repeated 18 times in Act 1 alone
   • 'king hereafter'
     • 'shalt get kings'
   • Fuel ambition, betrayal and treason to ignite within Macbeth
     • leads him to be deceptive and manipulative