If Duncan was in fact blind, then he would be level-headed because I could guess that having one less sense has a considerable impact on how someone behaves.
Duncan has these qualities: devotion, temperance, stableness and bounty, which suggests that Macbeth does support the claim by Malcolm because Duncan has a selection of the qualities suggested by Malcolm. Macbeth and Malcolm himself have other qualities that Malcolm suggests a King should have, which I will show later on in this essay.
Duncan also seems to have the support and general feeling of his people, which would warrant him to be a good King. This is because if the people like a King then he is probably doing the right things that the general population want him to be doing. Therefore, for the people to like him, he must be acting correctly and not be doing things that would not appeal to the general consensus of the people. There is a suggestion of this in the play when Duncan meets Lady Macbeth he makes a little joke about the social problems that he faces being a King:
“See, see, our honour'd hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
How you shall bid God 'ield us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble. (Act I, vi, 10-14)
This speech by Duncan is based around the ancient customs of a guest asking something of their guest and then saying that they do not want to trouble them and then the host saying that it is their pleasure. By saying that his people's love is sometimes his "trouble," Duncan is saying that his loving people go to a great deal of trouble for him, and he is troubled by the fact that they take all that trouble. Nevertheless, when people take trouble for him, he knows that they do it because they love their king, so he thanks them for their love. Next, referring to himself royally as "us," Duncan jokingly tells Lady Macbeth that he is saying all of this so that, instead of him thanking her for taking trouble, she will thank God and him for giving her trouble.
In Machiavellian terms, a good King is one that guarantees the happiness of his people even if he himself is a murdering swine, for example. Also Machiavelli said that a King does not have to have all of the qualities laid out in the quotation. Therefore, Macbeth denies the claim because being a Machiavellian King is not included in the claim but it does make a King a good King.
Macbeth is the second King that we come across in Macbeth. He comes to the throne only after committing treason by killing the rightful King in the first place, Duncan. His relationship with Lady Macbeth changes throughout the play. At first it is Lady Macbeth who is evil and persuades Macbeth to murder Duncan, but slowly as the play develops these roles reverse and Macbeth becomes the evil one killing a lot of people and Lady Macbeth becoming cowardly.
Macbeth does not seem to have verity because he lies about things that he has done. The first sign of this is in Act II, ii where Macbeth goes along with Lady Macbeth’s plan of going back to their chambers and putting on their night gowns to lie about whether they had been asleep or not when everyone wakes up to find Duncan has been murdered. He lies several times in Act II but one stands out spectacularly, which is (Act II, iii, 105-15). This quotation shows Macbeth lying about his feelings and how he killed the guards in his anger.
Macbeth is not at all temperate or stable either. He has momentary lapses into madness where he sees apparitions. Macbeth discovers that the ghost of Banquo is only visible to him and not the others:
“Prithee, see there!
Why, what care I if thou canst nod! Speak, too!
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury, back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites” (Act III, iv, 67-72)
The language used by Macbeth suggests the erratic behaviour that Macbeth demonstrates at this point in the play. Macbeth is saying that if all that we bury return from the grave then we will have to feed their remains to birds of prey to eat. Macbeth does not have the qualities, stableness and temperance because Macbeth constantly goes into fits of madness, therefore, extreme personality levels, which is not what a stable and temperate person does, they stay level-headed.
Macbeth does not either have mercy. This is obvious because Macbeth kills a lot of people in cold blood simply for his own self-good. Another sign of Macbeth having no mercy is when he kills the entire household of Macduff even though he only wants Macduff dead for being a traitor to him. Macbeth knows Macduff is a traitor because he ran away to England and did not come to the dining of all the Lords in the Kingdom. He tells Lady Macbeth of his spy in Macduff’s household, and in the same speech gives Lady Macbeth the impression that he will have Macduff’s family murdered:
“I hear it by the way. But I will send.
There’s not one of them, but in his house
I keep a servant fee’d.” (Act III, iv, 129-131)
The last line of this quotation shows us that he bribes a servant to spy on Macduff’s house. And further on in this speech Macbeth gives the reference of murdering Macduff’s family:
“I am in blood
Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as to go’er” (Act III, iv, 134-137)
Macbeth also murders Young Seyward in battle, which also shows Macbeth’s lack of mercy. Even if Macbeth kills Young Seyward in battle, Macbeth is still killing a child, which does not show mercy. Macbeth not having any of these qualities, verity, temperance, stableness or mercy, denies the claim of Malcolm’s that a King should have the virtues listed in the extract.
Macbeth, on the other hand, does have lowliness. His attitude does change throughout the play from good to evil and it is when he is acting as a good person that he has lowliness. He admits that he is wrong several times after he kills Duncan:
“Whence is that knocking?
How is’t with me when every noise appals me?
What hands are here! Ha-they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.” (Act II, ii, 57-63)
Macbeth says that his hands are stained with the blood of Duncan, but what he really means is that Macbeth is now stained with the murder of Duncan and he will never be able to wash it from him even with all of God’s will and forgiveness. This reference to “Neptune’s ocean” actually refers to God but it was thought that God should not be spoken at the time this play was written.
Macbeth has devotion in some respects but not in others. He does not have devotion to his country, which is what he should have, but he does have to his wife and to himself. At the beginning of the play Macbeth, however, is devoted to his King and country it seems because he fights and risks his life for them. For his bravery he was awarded Thane of Cawdor by Duncan. Macbeth then becomes a tyrant under the influence of his evil wife. Macbeth kills Duncan and this sets off a chain of events that leads to Macbeth, at the end of the play, being devoted only to himself and to his wife and not to his country, even though he is in command of it. This shows that a person can change and, therefore, maybe develop the qualities needed to be a King, some of which are shown in the quotation from Malcolm.
Macbeth in Act III shows perseverance. This is when he says:
“I am in blood
Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go’er.” (Act III, iv, 135-137)
Macbeth is saying that he has already killed a large number of people, he might as well kill a few more because if he stops then people will find out he has been murdering and he will be killed. This shows Macbeth persevering to try to get away from the trouble that he is in, although it is not a very good way of doing it.
Macbeth has, lowliness, devotion (in some ways and times) and perseverance. Having these merits supports Malcolm’s claim that a King should have the virtues stated in the extract. In Machiavellian terms Macbeth is not a good King at all because he does not satisfy the greater happiness of the greater number. This is illustrated by everyone in Scotland, by the end of the play, turning against Macbeth and disliking him when Ross says what he does in Act IV, iii, 164-173).
The third King in the play is Malcolm. The audience do not see him rule Scotland for very long but there is still a lot of information in Act IV, iii about Malcolm that we, the audience, can extract and analyse. Malcolm comes to the throne of Scotland by turning the grief of Macduff’s into anger so that he could kill Macbeth for Malcolm because Malcolm knew that Macduff was the only man who could kill Macbeth, as he was not born of woman, like the witches told Macbeth. The following lines spoken by Malcolm show this:
“Be comforted.
Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge
To cure this deadly grief” (Act IV, iii, 213-215)
Malcolm’s first lines in this scene show him as very cowardly and do not give a very good impression of him at first glance.
“Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there
Weep our sad bosoms empty.” (Act VI, iii, 1-2)
One gets the impression from the phrases, “desolate shade” and “Weep our sad bosoms empty” that Malcolm just wants to hide from all the bad things and cry. This is not what a brave man should be doing. Malcolm should be a strong King who would want to fight: Macduff’s first lines are what he should be saying:
“Let us rather
Hold fast the mortal sword: and like good men
Bestride our down-fallen birthdom.” (Act VI, iii, 3-5)
By this Malcolm does not seem to be a very courageous King but, as the audience and with the benefit of hindsight because I have read and seen the play, I know that Malcolm is much more of a strategist than a soldier. This shows that Malcolm does not have fortitude because he cannot fight but it does show that Malcolm has intelligence. This means that a King should have intelligence so it denies the claim he makes.
Malcolm also has patience because he bides his time with Macduff to make sure that he is dealing with someone loyal to him. This again shows his intelligence and strategic mind as he plays a game with Macduff by saying he would make a bad King and that a King should have the comments made in the claim and that he has none of them. He then knows that if Macduff said, ”don’t worry you should still be king”, then Malcolm knows that Macduff is a traitor to him; whereas if Macduff says, “fine if you are that bad then do not be King”, Malcolm knows that Macduff is loyal to Scotland, therefore him, because it demonstrates that Macduff does not want to replace one tyrant with another. This takes a lot of time and Malcolm has the patience to do this. The uncovering of Malcolm’s plan is in Act IV, iii, 100-138.
Justice is also a quality that Malcolm possesses because he is looks and wants to solve the problems in Scotland, under the leadership of Macbeth.
“I am not treacherous.”
“But Macbeth is” (Act IV, iii, 17-18)
These two lines show that Malcolm knows Macbeth is a bad person and ruler and therefore he wants to bring justice to Scotland by bringing Macbeth down. This quality supports the claim.
Malcolm, at the end of the play, says:
“My thanes and kinsmen,
Henceforth be earls, the first Scotland
In such an honour named.” Act V, vi, 101-103)
This shows bounty in Malcolm because he rewards all of his loyal people, who helped him defeat Macbeth, the right to be called earls. Malcolm rewards the right people in this case just like Duncan does to Macbeth at the beginning of the play.
Malcolm also shows devotion from Act IV on. He shows devotion to his country, Scotland, by wanting to save it from the rule of a tyrant, Macbeth. The evidence is the quotation, Act IV, iii, 115-137). Malcolm gathers up an English army and spends a lot of time testing Macduff all to save Scotland from Macbeth’s murderous terror.
Malcolm by having, devotion, bounty, patience and justice, supports the claim that Malcolm himself says in Act IV because he becomes King and he has some of the qualities that he mentions. He could also have temperance and stableness but there is some evidence to suggest that he gets a little mad towards the end of Act IV, iii:
“Be this the whetstone of your sword; let grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.” (Act IV, iii, 227-228)
“Enrage it,” suggests that Malcolm is getting angry so that when he comes to fight he can let that anger go and perform well. Malcolm also has intelligence, which in my opinion, is also a quality that no King should be without. I think this because if the leader of the country does not possess intelligence then he will most probably not know how to rule the country and therefore, be a bad King who, in Machiavellian terms, will not provide the greater happiness of the greater number in his Kingdom. This denies the claim that a King should only have these qualities because intelligence, in my opinion, should be the most important merit.
In a few of Shakespeare’s plays there is a good, rightful saint-like King, who is no good at ruling. This is the same as Edward the Confessor, who was seen as the holiest of Kings that could heal people’s illnesses by simply touching them, but who ruined his Kingship by bringing his dynasty to the ground. Edward is held up, in Macbeth, as a figure for comparison. Being a holy King is a good thing but the King must be able to find a dynasty and rule his people to guarantee their greater happiness. In that way, Edward is a really holy and religious King, which is a good thing to be, as well as others, but this quality is not on the list. The following is a quotation from Macbeth that gives a direct reference to Edward, King of England at the time.
“There are a crew of wretched souls
That stay his cure. Their maladies convinces
The great assay of art; but at his touch,
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
They presently amend.” (Act IV, iii, 141-145)
In this way, Macbeth demonstrates to the audience that it is good to be a holy King, along with other merits, but this quality is not on the list so it shows that Macbeth is denying the claim because there are other qualities that a King should have other than those that Malcolm states.
Using all of this analysis of the play, Macbeth, I can come to the conclusion that Macbeth denies the claim made by Malcolm. Malcolm says, in this quotation, that a King should have the qualities that he lists. The Kings in Macbeth do have all of the qualities he lists between them but they also have other qualities that are important to being a King and there are also other qualities that the Kings do not have and that aren’t listed that I think a king should have, such as intelligence and being religious. Some people might say that because the Kings in Macbeth do have the qualities described in the extract that Macbeth supports the claim. This is, however, wrong in my opinion because the Kings, in Macbeth, have other qualities that a suitable King should have that need to be thought of in answering this question and, as I have said, there are other virtues a King should have to rule a kingdom.
Bibliography
Macbeth, William Shakespeare, ed. G.K. Hunter, Penguin, 1967
