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Asif Nazerally
Mr. Murray
ENG 3UE
October 26th, 2012
Regicide: A Suicide Mission
There is nothing that can describe a lose-lose situation more efficaciously than
the act of killing a Monarch, also known as regicide. The two most predominant
examples that demonstrate the melancholic but unequivocal outcome of regicide are
The Tragedy of Macbeth, the play written by William Shakespeare, and the Gunpowder
Treason Plot of 1605, which both ended in failure (of a sense). These situations display
the facts that there is an inevitable deadly consequence for performing such a deed and
even if you were to succeed; the repercussions would always outweigh the rewards.
The only possible explanation there was for even thinking about such an ideology would
be because it was whispered by the lips of the devil.
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot’s primary goal was to kill King James I of
England and VI of Scotland, but the plan was thwarted by an anonymous letter sent to
the authorities. A search was conducted at the House of Lords and Guy Fawkes, one of
the thirteen conspirators, was discovered, along with 36 barrels of gunpowder which
were destined to bring down the House of Lords and kill anyone who was inside. Mr.
Fawkes was then sentenced to death, in the most abominate and cruel manner one
could possibly ever imagine. He was to be hanged until near-death, and then taken
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down only to have certain organs removed. He was beheaded and furthermore, cut into
four pieces.
In the story of the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, the protagonist Macbeth is
encountered by three witches who speak of provocative prophecies, and deliberately
cause Macbeth to infer that he shall become king. He decides that he will carry out the
aforementioned prophecies by conducting regicide. Macbeth then succeeds in his
regicidal quest to kill the King of Scotland, King Duncan, with the help of his wife, Lady
Macbeth, when he spent the night at Macbeth’s house. Macbeth was then crowned with
the title of King of Scotland. Now although Macbeth succeeded with his act of regicide,
the reason one would believe that he has still failed to obtain overall victory is because
Macbeth was not brought a prosperous future. He ended up ordering many murders
upon potential threats to his kingship until finally, one of the victims of Macbeth’s
demands decided to exact revenge, killing him and bringing the rightful heir to the
throne.
Both of these examples are evidence that regicide will always end with an overall
negative outcome. Macbeth prevailed in killing the king, and became king himself, but
this only lead to guilt, turmoil, and dismal misfortune. Macbeth was then murdered,
which is what determined the end of his reign. In the example of the Gunpowder Plot of
1605, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators failed in executing their plans. The ones
who were caught were ordained to death, and the ones who weren’t had to flee the
country, giving up everything they had. Who is to say, that even though Macbeth was
able to kill the king, that he was successful? What would have happened to England if
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the conspirators overthrew the King? Would the outcome be of a reward for the
plotters?
Regicide will always result in an overall negative score, whether you succeed or
not. In the instance of the Gunpowder Plot, it is understood what happened when they
did not succeed in their plans. But what if they were to accomplish their goal? What if
the House of Lords was brought to ashes and the king was vaporized in the explosion?
Well, an easily-relatable question would be: what would happen if the Parliament was
destroyed, along with our Prime Minister? One thing is for sure, there would be
complete and unmitigated chaos, terror in the streets. Riots would break out, and the
“natural” order and government of the country would crumble; only leaving panic. The
people of England would be terrorized, and left vulnerable to the negative possibilities of
what is to come, and what would happen to their families and possession. The plan of
the plotters was to then mount Princess Elizabeth onto the throne, due to her Protestant
beliefs as opposed to the Catholic King James, but due to the catastrophic calibre of the
situation at hand and the rage brought upon the English Roman Catholics from it, there
would very likely be a rebellion forming against Princess Elizabeth.
Macbeth was granted the king’s crown upon completion of crusade, but he was
explicitly deprived of the emotional perks. Macbeth and his wife lived their royal lives in
fear and guilt. After Macbeth ordered a hit on one of his best friends, Banquo, his ghost
returns and haunts Macbeth at the dinner table with all of the noblemen present.
Macbeth begins speaking to the ghost:
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What a man dare, I dare. Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, The
armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger, Take any shape but that, and my firm
nerves Shall never tremble. Or be alive again And dare me to the desert
with thy sword. If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl.
Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mock’ry, hence! Why so, being gone, I am
a man again. – Pray you sit still. (Macbeth, 3.4.121-131)
It is apparent that Macbeth is delirious from his own guilt, proving that his
kingship did not grant him a rich and prosperous life, which also applies to Lady
Macbeth when she was found sleepwalking, trying to wash the metaphorical blood
stains off of her hands:
Out, damned spot, out, I say! One. two. Why then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is
murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who
knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have
thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. (Macbeth, 5.1.3742)
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exhibit the psychological cataclysm
going on within their minds. Neither of them can withstand the repercussions of
their own decisions, leading up to and during their royalty.
In both cases, upon actually or hypothetically carrying out their regicidal
plots, neither of them prospered in a beneficial way for themselves, or the people
they were meant to govern. In either of the situations, there is no justifiable
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reason to carry out the act of killing a Monarch, but English Catholics had a
theory on why someone would get such an idea.
In England, the vast majority of the population were English Catholics, who
praised their king. At the time, it was believed that the only way to rationalize the
ideology of killing the king would be because you were tempted by a satanic
figure. This is only very transparent in the example of Macbeth. If anything were
to symbolize the devil, it would be the existence of witches, and this was a crucial
issue during those times. Witches would only bring harm through temptation and
corruption, and in The Tragedy of Macbeth, this is exactly what had happened.
The witches had implanted the thought that Macbeth could become king in his
head when they greeted him with “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”
(1.3.53).
If it wasn’t for this cleverly delivered phrase from the satanic figures,
Macbeth would have never thought to commit regicide, especially since he was
just given the title Thane of Cawdor and Thane of Glamis. Even Banquo
recognizes the deceiving manner of the witches and states that “to win us to our
harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths, / Win us with honest trifles, to
betray ‘s / In deepest consequence” (Macbeth, 1.3.135-138). He explicitly
announces to Macbeth the technique the witches use and the indubitable
destructive fate that lies ahead of him if he were to adhere to their words, and
chooses to walk astray from the path of the witches. Unfortunately for King
Duncan and Macbeth, Macbeth decides to ignore Banquo’s regard for his
wellbeing and throws himself into his abysmal doom.
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There is no way to rationalize the act of regicide, and frankly no logical
reason to kill a Monarch .Whether it be the Gunpowder Treason Plot of 1605, or
the play The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, they both
demonstrate that whether you succeed or not, there will always be an overall
negative outcome that usually results in death, and the only reason that someone
would ever conduct a regicide is if they were influenced by the words of the devil.