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Duncan's Relationship In Macbeth

Decent Essays

To ensure future funding for his plays, Shakespeare spent a great deal writing about the qualities of a good king and a bad king so that the audience could compare them with the qualities of the current king. At the time, King James I sat in the English throne. Shakespeare knew that the king held the purse strings to his productions, so he made sure to glorify King James through his work. Shakespeare showed his support of the king by introducing James’s lineage into the play as a righteous, kingly lineage whose attributes mirrored gracious King Duncan’s attributes. In Macbeth, Shakespeare primarily defines good kingship and bad kingship using personalities. Malcolm, rightful heir to the throne in the play, clearly describes the “king-becoming …show more content…

His treacherous acts cause the deaths of two of the most virtuous men in the play, Duncan and Banquo. And to top it off, Macbeth murders Macduff’s wife and kids (IV.iii.76-81), and attempts to murder Banquo’s son (III.iv.17-20). Macbeth, fully aware of his wrongdoings, murders innocent people for his own, selfish motives. The guilt and paranoia Macbeth feels after committing these atrocities prove that his actions are evil. Before Macbeth murders Duncan he experiences an unnatural sickness of the mind: a hallucination of a floating dagger (II.ii.33-35). It’s a manifestation of his guilt, an acknowledgement of his wrongdoings. Rather than establishing loyalty like a good king should, Macbeth, in a paranoid fever, seeks the destruction of anyone distraught with his rule. Macbeth’s other most notable vice is his deceptiveness. Kings should honor verity, yet Macbeth hides all his dark desires. In his most successful façade, Macbeth innocently utters, “What’s the matter” and “What is’t you say? The life?” when he responds to Macduff’s terrible discovery—Duncan’s assassination (II.iii.59-65). The cruel act is something a good king would never do, and because Macbeth’s personality contrasts Banquo’s personality, James I obtains the impression of a good king through relation to

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