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Literary analysis: On considering who is responsible for the death of King Duncan in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

Macbeth, in my opinion, was a wimp subjugated to Lady Macbeth's (the primary and 4th witch?) ambitions in terms of 'what women want'; even today, in Scotland and elsewhere.

Macbeth's action of murdering Duncan, however, is a crime that he chose to commit. A premeditated murder. A conscious act of sniveling weakling who tried to rationalize what he did through intricate re-associations of primitive thoughts common among psychotics, by their own definitions, who, today we hope, are kept confined in elaborate royal zoos, prisons and institutes, LEST WE FORGET what sane humans, Canadians anyway, have evolved from.

I read Macbeth in grade 10, 45 years ago, and am still an admirer of MacDuff, The Thane of Fife, for ridding humanity of one character representing leaches on Scotland's public trusts of those times.

However, I suspect Shakespeare was alluding to the inevitability of The Rule of Common Law eventually replacing the rule of chiefs, kings, queens, emperors, dictators and other adult aged children in such plays and, hopefully, in real life?

Toward democracy eventually, as in Canada today, electing only the brightest and best among us into public (funded) office.

Perhaps also in The USA where 'knowledge rules' and socially and otherwise literate populations of sane Adults have always voted for America's elite scholars, intellectuals and philosophers to form governments of the people, for the people and by the people.

Macbeth was a coward who murdered a guest in his home. Duncan was an idiot for trusting Macbeth. Lady Macbeth and the other witches merely made suggestions?

To quote Shakespeare "the play is the thing that will catch the conscience of a king" (Hamlet)perhaps meaning that kings, generally, never were very bright?

Today the Macbeth character would probably be a CEO of an international borderless mindless globally embarrassing corporation with no worthwhile products, or like Enron , with no products at all? Duncan would be victim of a hostile takeover of companies that don't produce anything worth buying but get bailed out by juvenile governments trying to preserve mediocrity in America. Lady Macbeth would be the mistress of any survivor with wealth and power? And The 3 Witches would perhaps represent liberated women doing all the hard labor, dangerous jobs and other stuff sane men don't enjoy doing either?

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Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Literary analysis: On considering who is responsible for the death of King Duncan in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

  • 1 of 9

    by Stella Mcintyre

    Macbeth would have scant defense in a court of law. After all, no matter what the inducements, he was the one who wielded

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  • 2 of 9

    by Alex Storey

    Duncan, King of Scotland was actually crowned in 1034 AD and ruled for 6 years. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, there are a number

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  • 3 of 9

    by Amber Vayo

    There is one person responsible for Duncan's death-Macbeth. While many argue that Lady Macbeth or the three witches forced

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  • 4 of 9

    by Bryan Clifford

    Macbeth, in my opinion, was a wimp subjugated to Lady Macbeth's (the primary and 4th witch?) ambitions in terms of 'what

    read more

  • 5 of 9

    by Caroline Tibit

    The Degradation of Lady Macbeth

    Lady Macbeth, one of the main characters in Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, goes

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Literary analysis: On considering who is responsible for the death of King Duncan in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

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