Malcolm outlines his vices before he paints a magnificent “high and behold” picture of so called “king becoming graces”, which a monarch should posses. The test if anything emphasizes Macduff sworn sincerity to the throne, resounding praise to the honourable man Duncan was, and to his wife, Malcolm’s mother. As Malcolm is going to be king, we see the kind of man he is, the values he possesses, and yet again it places another reference to the kind of king Duncan was. This scene therefore plays a major role in exploring the issues of kinship.
Without deliberation the audience can differentiate contrasting kingship qualities as well as the persona of individual characters and the attributes they poses. The striking elements of a good king versus the bad king take to the foreground, placing Macbeth and Malcolm in opposing positions.
Of fundamental importance is the subtle yet clear contrast between King Macbeth and King Edward the Confessor. This poses the image of the tyrant king against the good king, mentioning the saintly work of Edward. Malcolm and Macduff further investigate the true virtues of kinship and how this is transmitted to succeeding monarchs.
Overall the scene does not specifically comment pertaining to the great and almighty king image. Rather it shows a clever comparison of Macbeth, the evil tyrant and Malcolm, Macduff and Edward the Confessor as the ones with a heart and a conscience that allows for reaction, reflection and response to situations that one as king would have to face.
Macduff is in many ways what one can call Macbeth’s alter ego. He is everything Macbeth is not. He is the Macbeth we briefly encountered in the beginning of the play. He presents the picture of innocence, the most obvious sincerity and loyalty and above all an unending patriotism for his country. The Macbeth we are familiar with in act four: scene three is a man that shrugs at the prospect of murder, nothing can get in the way of his success.
(b) He stood defiantly at the center of the Cold War. After nearly forty years of rule, he remains one of the most controversial political figures of the twentieth century. Fidel Castro led a remarkable six-year fight to rescue his country from a corrupt regime. Yet the rebel leader who claimed he was not interested in leading the new government soon became dictatorial, ordering executions and imprisoning many thousands of political opponents. His regime thrives strong in the heart of the Latin American continent of
Cuba till today.
As the world's most famous prisoner and, now, his country's leader, he exemplifies a moral integrity that shines far beyond South Africa. He is Nelson Mandela.
A few years ago, a mad man named Sadam Hussain invaded the little nation of Kuwait. With that invasion, he brought death disease and destruction to that little nation. Saudi Arabia, knowing that it would be next on Sadam’s hit list, called Washington, to President George Bush, and asked for help. Regardless of your political persuasion, you would have to agree that Bush was at his best. Because President Bush picked up the phone and called England and Canada and Spain, France, Italy and number of other countries around the world and built the famed coalition. Men and women from different backgrounds, ethnic groups, colors, races, all gathered in the Gulf with one singularly focused agenda. To draw a line in the sand – to serve notice on this madman, that not only could he not take more territory, but he would have to relinquish the territory he recently claimed. The coalition was to serve notice on him that his days for rule in the Gulf were over.
Mao Zedong’s ruthless vision united a fractured people and inspired revolutions far beyond China's borders.
These are just a few people that take to the foreground of leadership positions worldwide. Impact can be positive or negative, and amongst the examples above you will find both. Macbeth’s greed and absolute desire of power is not an absurd tale that Shakespeare wrote, in actuality it relates to our lives and it can be seen rampant in the leaders that govern our society today. Yet, at the same time, honesty and justice prevails, and in our world today it is evident that although there may be few, they fight hard and strong for the causes they believe in. Macbeth penetrates further than at a literary and academic level, it can in fact be interpreted as food for thought and even taken to the extent of being used to scrutinize the role of leadership in our lives. If we stop and look at our lives, analyze the world today, we will see that not much has changed since the days of the Elizabethan times, for starters corruption, deception, treachery and lies is commonplace here in the twenty-first century, so much so as it was then.
