Written Task 2
Prescribed Question: How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?
Title of text for analysis: Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The part of the course of which the task refers: Part 4
My critical response will:

Explore how kings are represented in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. (While kings may not
ordinarily be regarded as a ‘social group’, they did represent the pinnacle of society when
Shakespeare was writing in the early modern era. The play features two actual kings
(Duncan and Macbeth), the rightful heir (Malcolm).

Examine how Duncan, Macbeth and Malcolm represent different approaches to kingship.

Comment on how these approaches interrogate belief in the Divine Right of Kings and
the approach to leadership advocated by Machiavelli.

Conclude that the presentation of kingship is linked to the politics of Jacobean England.
In his play ‘Macbeth’ Shakespeare examines different approaches to kingship through the
characters of Duncan, Macbeth and Malcolm. At the time Shakespeare was writing, the concept
of the ‘Divine Right’ was prevalent. This belief claimed that the king was chosen by God and by
implication was innately good. This view was propounded by James I’ in his book, ‘Basilikon
Doron’, in which he stated that a king “acknowledgeth himself ordained for his people, having
received from God a burden of government.”1 However, the sixteenth century Italian political
theorist, Machiavelli, recommended that princes sometimes needed to commit immoral acts in
order to maintain power which would seem to reject the notion of ‘Divine Right’. This somewhat
reductive view that Machiavelli’s philosophy was inherently evil was widespread in Elizabethan
1
Sharpe, K. Remapping Early Modern England: The Culture of Seventeenth-Century Politics
p.175
and Jacobean England, being the inspiration for many stage villains.2 It is through these two
lenses that I intend to examine the ways in which Shakespeare presents kings in ‘Macbeth’.
Shakespeare established Duncan as the rightful King of Scotland, portraying him as a good man
who embodies the kingly “graces” of “justice, verity, temperance, stableness/[and] Bounty.”3
Duncan’s sense of justice is portrayed early in the play when he sentences the traitorous Thane of
Cawdor to death and rewards Macbeth’s loyalty and bravery. Even the ambitious Macbeth
reasons that he should not kill Duncan because he is a king who “Hath borne his faculties so
meek, hath been/So clear in his great office, that his virtues/ Will plead like angels, trumpettongued, against/The deep damnation of his taking-off”4. However, despite his right to the
throne and his virtue, Duncan is also portrayed as somewhat naïve. This is most strikingly
achieved through dramatic irony when Lady Macbeth’s ‘unsex me’ soliloquy is juxtaposed with
the arrival of Duncan at Dunsinane. The audience witness Lady Macbeth call upon the spirits of
evil to assist with the murder of Duncan while in the very next scene Duncan comments how
Dunsinane appears welcoming with its “pleasant seat”5. Even though he has been recently
betrayed by a man on whom he “built an absolute trust”6, he is easily beguiled by Lady
Macbeth’s obsequious welcome. It is this lack of guile and suspicion that enables Macbeth to
murder Duncan, raising questions about how a king needs to behave in order to secure his
personal safety in a world of ambitious would-be usurpers. While Duncan appears to be a
2
The British Library. Machievelli’s The Prince
IV iii
4
I vii
5
I vi
6
I iv
3
‘sainted’ king who exhibits the qualities of a monarch chosen by God, he is still vulnerable to
treachery.
Macbeth is much more wary of potential assassins than Duncan and employs Machiavellian
tactics to ensure he is maintains the crown. One of his first acts is to arrange for assassins to
murder Banquo, the only man who knows of the witches’ prophesy and who suspects Macbeth
has ‘played most foully’7 for the throne. Macbeth also instructs the assassins to murder Banquo’s
young son, Fleance in order to avoid him becoming king and even sends a third assassin to check
that the pair he has hired complete the job. Macbeth is suspicious of MacDuff as he did not
attend his coronation and therefore has ‘a servant fee’d’8 to spy on Macduff. When MacDuff
flees to England to ask Malcolm to return to Scotland and take up his rightful place as king,
Macbeth has MacDuff’s family murdered. While these kind of actions are recommended by
Machiavelli in ‘The Prince’, it does not ensure Macbeth’s hold on power. In fact, his thanes
desert him and he faces invasion by Malcolm supported by the English forces as well as the
Scottish thanes. Angus comments that “those he commands move only in command, nothing in
love” and that his title now hangs loose on him “like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief”9. This
simile suggests that Macbeth is not equal to the task of kingship and that it has overwhelmed
him. This is largely due to the fact that he has usurped the rightful ruler, but also because he has
been unable to gain the love and respect of his subjects. Towards the end of the play, Macbeth
laments that he commands no true loyalty, but only receives ‘mouth honour’10 – obsequious
7
III I 3
III iv
9
V ii
10
V iii
8
words which are not truly felt. Thus, Shakespeare appears to support Duncan’s ‘Divine Right’ as
Macbeth, for all his Machiavellian deviousness and cruelty has failed as a monarch.
Malcolm seems to strike more of balance between Macbeth’s Machiavellianism and Duncan’s
innocent and trusting nature. This is illustrated when Macduff travels to England to ask Malcolm
to overthrow Macbeth and take the throne. Malcolm is suspicious of Macduff’s intentions as he
could easily be attempting to lure him into a trap. Therefore Malcolm pretends to be lustful and
avaricious, bearing none of the kingly graces. If Macduff had still tried to persuade Malcom to
come to Scotland, he would have assumed that Maduff was an agent from Macbeth intent on
luring him into trap where he could be killed. This shows that Malcolm is more cautious and
cunning than his father and is thus able to ensure his own survival in a world of ambitious thanes
who would seek to gain the throne. However, unlike Macbeth, Malcolm appears to support the
kingly graces as he lists them and later tells Macduff, that far from being lustful, he is a virgin
and rather than being avaricious, he barely owns anything.
Macbeth, written 1606, coincided with the early years of King James I’s reign. It is therefore
likely that Shakespeare, who benefited from the king’s patronage, presented the Machiavellian
usurper as doomed to failure. However, while Duncan is portrayed as a ‘sainted’ king who is the
rightful ruler, his Divine Right does not protect him from treachery. This was particularly topical
since the Gunpowder Plot (1605) had threatened the life of King James. It therefore seems that
Shakespeare was suggesting a middle way: a king, although divinely ordained, had to adopt the
cunning recommended by Machiavelli.
Word Count 1024
References
Shakespeare W. Macbeth.
Sharpe, K (2000) “Remapping Early Modern England: The Culture of Seventeenth-Century
Politics.” Cambridge University Press.
The British Library. “Machiavelli’s The Prince” (n.d) [ONLINE] https://www.bl.uk/collectionitems/machiavellis-the-prince [Accessed 24/4/19]