by Stella Mcintyre

Created on: February 21, 2009

Macbeth would have scant defense in a court of law. After all, no matter what the inducements, he was the one who wielded the knife and killed a gentle old man in his sleep. It is Macbeth's hands that are covered in blood. Of course he could plead temporary insanity brought on by the influence of the witches. He could implicate his wife as an accomplice and add Banquo to the same list.

The original story of Macbeth, Duncan and Banquo comes from Hollinshead's "Chronicles of Scotland". As with so many of his plays, Shakespeare took this story and molded it into a work of art. There are some distinct changes made in the story. I would argue that not all the changes were made for purely literary reasons.

In the original version of the story Duncan was a weak and ineffectual king. Scotland was in chaos as Duncan failed to rein in the excesses of some of the Thanes. A group of about thirty Thanes colluded in Duncan's assassination; amongst them were Macbeth and Banquo. Macbeth became king and ruled successfully for seventeen years.

The play "Macbeth" was first performed at the court of King James the First. Shakespeare would have made significant changes to the original story to appease James. James had been the target of the Gunpowder Plot. The last thing he would want as entertainment is a play about a conspiracy to overthrow a king. James was obsessed with witchcraft: he wrote a book on the subject; dreamt that witches cast a spell on his boat causing it to sink and he had more women tried and executed for witchcraft than at any other time in history. The addition of the supernatural in the play could have been a way of feeding that interest. Shakespeare also considerably lessens Banquo's role in Duncan's murder, largely due to James being a direct descendant of Banquo. It is these changes that seem to lay the blame for Duncan's murder solely on Macbeth.

Macbeth is shown to be a disastrous ruler as Scotland falls into chaos and disorder. The Elizabethan world view, known as the Great Chain of Being, held firmly to the idea that a king was ordained by God. To kill a king was to go against God. Macbeth has to be punished in this world and expect suffering and anguish in the afterlife for disturbing the natural order. Shakespeare reflects this disorder in nature through the natural calamities that occur on the night of the murder; the wind destroys chimneys, disciplined horses attack each other and strange wailing is heard on the wind.

Macbeth knows he has sold his soul

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