“Your highness’ part
Is to receive our duties, and our duties
Are to your throne & state, children & servants” (I-iv lines 23-25)
This backs up the fact of what kingship represents, and what is expected of other people’s duties towards the king. Again Macbeth does not follow any of these duties. Duncan is very trusting of the loyalty of others towards him, as those were his expectations of others. This is clear to see when he is shocked & horrified to hear about the treachery of the Thane of Cawdor,
“There is no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face
He was a man on whom I built
An absolute trust” (I-iv lines 12-15)
Even Macbeth contemplates on how perfect and kind Duncan’s kingship has been,
“…Besides, this Duncan…
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking off” (I-vii lines 16,18-20)
As I have mentioned earlier, when Macbeth kills Duncan he undoes the values of kingship, therefore making him: untrustworthy, dishonorable, disloyal, & a liar. This should also mean that when Macbeth does become king, that his position will not be God given & this is evident when Ross says, “Thou seest the heavens, as troubles with man’s act”. There is also evidence to show that nature is acting different, as if their natural laws have been altered,
“ ’Tis unnatural
Even like the deed that’s done, On Tuesday last,
A falcon tow’ring in her pride of place
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed” (II-iv lines 10-13)
Technically even though Macbeth was the cousin of Duncan, he could not be the predecessor of the throne as Duncan had two sons, Malcolm & Donalbain. However because Malcolm and Donalbain ran away after the death of their father, Macbeth had to take over the kingship role. However as Macbeth is not king rightfully, and Malcolm finds out that is was Macbeth that killed his father, he wants to avenge his father’s death, and take over to lead as king. At the end of play we find that Malcolm has conjured up an army and has managed to kill Macbeth, so that he can be proclaimed the rightful heir to the throne by divine right. This ending in my opinion symbolizes how kingship should be, that the son takes over from the father, and I think that is what Shakespeare is trying to convey.
From the point in the play where Macbeth meets the witches for the first time it is as if he is cursed, and I think Shakespeare uses this to show that a rightful king would not be cursed, they would be gifted. All through the play, while Macbeth is king there are evil events, which Shakespeare may be using to symbolize hellish events, in a way the fight between good and evil. Therefore it is even more evidence that he is not the rightful divine king.
I have not mentioned Banquo that much so far, but the reason for that is because he is not really much to do with kingship, however there is still a lot to learn from him about kingship. Banquo is loyal to king Duncan, and he is also good friends with Macbeth, as well as a good warrior, and all the other qualities Macbeth seems to have at the very beginning of the play. However as the play progresses Shakespeare makes the two characters grow further and further apart from each other, allowing the audience to remember what the duties of people are to the king, through the character of Banquo, and what they should not be through Macbeth. They both have similar experiences of meeting the witches, and they also receive similar prophecies. After Macbeth kills Duncan, Banquo says, “In the great hand of God I stand” (II-iii line 123), showing that he wants to fight in the name of God, which in turn could mean fight in the name of the king. However this is the opposite of what Macbeth says,
“ Stars hide your fires,
Let not light see my black and evil desires” (I-iv lines 50-51)
This shows that he does not want God to see what he is doing, because of course otherwise he would not be given the kingship through divine right.
Another important issue, is the “possible influence of James I, king of England & Scotland when the play was written in 1606” on the way Shakespeare presented the characters, and how he might have altered the plot to please James I. If we look at the history of the period 1606, we find that the gunpowder plot has just occurred in 1605, this event would have terrified James I. To make James I feel more comfortable, Shakespeare links him to a descendant of Banquo, a legendary figure. This shows that he is a divine king, as we know that Banquos’ sons would be the rightful heirs’ to the throne by divine right.
Therefore in my opinion Shakespeare presents the issue of kingship as a major theme of the book, mainly through Macbeth and Duncan, and he uses Banquo as the character to compare to Macbeth, as they posses similar qualities early on. Shakespeare has also used the theme and belief that to be king you had to be given the right by God.