kingship

Question 1

what is the theme in kingship

Answer 1

teaching King James to be a good king

Question 2

AO3 context

Answer 2

• didactic message
  ↳don’t kill kings to normal people
  ↳also teaching king james how to not be like Macbeth and be a good king
• divine right of kings

Question 3

there’s no art​ to find the mind’s construction in the face:

Answer 3

• Here Duncan candidly reveals his biggest flaw.
• Duncan has no ‘art’ or skill to read the inner ‘construction’ or workings of another’s mind by looking at their ‘face’.
• Duncan was a virtuous king, but he trusted to easily and was not suspicious of the motives of others.
• This trusting nature ending in death. Shakespeare is suggesting that a good king must be shrewd with those he surrounds himself with.
• The King’s advisors play a crucial role, and if he trusts the wrong ones it will bring devastation to the nation.
• This could be viewed as a warning to King James to be more careful about who he surrounds himself with, and advises not to trust people based on how they appear because appearances can be deceptive.

Question 4

The night has been unruly: where we lay our chimneys were blown down; and as they say,/Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death./The obscure bird clamourld the livelong night:/Some say the earth was feverish and did shake.

Answer 4

• Religious thinkers in the Middle Ages had upheld the idea of ‘The Great Chain of Being’.
• This was the belief that God had designed an ordered system for both nature and humankind within which every creature and person had an allotted place.
• It was considered an offence against God for anyone to try to alter their station in life.
• After death, however, all would be raised in the kingdom of heaven, if they respected God’s will.
• Since royal rank was bestowed by God, it was a sin to aspire to it.
• This doctrine – a convenient one for King James – was still widely held in Shakespeare’s day.​
• The noun ‘Earth’ suggests Lennox is referring to the whole world, rather than just Macbeth’s lands in Scotland.
• This is emphasising the far reaching effects of killing a king.
• The whole world is in chaos because Macbeth is threatening the ‘Great Chain of Being’.
• it shows that Macbeth is a really bad king and King james should not act like him