Shakespeare - His View On Kingship

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and so the Anglo-Scottish revolt sees Macbeth to his death and Malcolm the son of Duncan is proclaimed king of Scotland.
Macbeth is the main character in the play and starts the play as a very hard fighting, loyal soldier whose bravery had just led the way to a victory over the Norwegians. It could be an essay in its own right to talk about how the character of Macbeth develops and changes, at the beginning he is a god-like hero –a firm, strong, loyal character. But through allowing his ambition to suppress his good qualities, he becomes ‘this tyrant’ (act4 sc3 L12 –Malcolm), this ‘dwarfish thief’ (act5 sc3 L12 –Angus) and this ‘hellhound’ (act5 sc6 L42 –Macduff). The character of Macbeth is a study of how one person can degenerate from ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’ (act1 sc2 L55) to ‘this dead butcher’ (act5 sc6 L108). Ambition is his fatal weakness. He allows, first the witches’ prophecy act1 sc3 L46-50 and then his wife’s ambition for him, to undermine his integrity act1 sc5 L58-68. He ...

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smacking of every sin that has a name.’ Macduff shows a point that he believes that a king should be chosen by divine right (this also shows that Shakespeare as well believes in divine right) in act4 sc3, ‘with an untitled tyrant…’ But this is very different from the start of the play where words like ‘worthy thane’ were used to greet Macbeth. Also totally different to what is said about Duncan, ‘my liege’, ‘great king’ and after his death he is called an ‘angel’.
Duncan is Shakespeare’s idea of a perfect, impartial king. Shakespeare shows Duncan to be an example to all other kings and people, he shows love for his country when he asks the captain news from the war. He speaks to people ...

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