Kingship

→ Duncan is the first king which we see, he is presented as kind and noble

→ Macbeth says “his virtues will plead like angels”

→ he is using a simile to associate Duncan with angels, which links to the divine right of kings and shows that Duncan is a rightful king

→ he is also said to have “golden blood”

→ However, while Duncan is a moral and rightful king he is not necessarily a good king, because he is too trusting

→ he refers to Macbeth as “valiant cousin”

→ this suggests there are close enough to be family and Duncan is extremely trusting of him

→ also the Norwegians invade and he is betrayed by the previous thane of Cawdor

→ however this is an example of proleptic irony because as readers we know that Macbeth will go on to betray Duncan

→ the divine right of kings was very important at this time and Duncan is clearly a rightful king however this does not mean he was a good king

→ perhaps Shakespeare is trying to show the dangers of being too trusting or kind

→ Shakespeare presents the importance of being a strong and valiant king as well as being a rightful king

→ Macbeth is a terrible king because he usurped the throne even though he is not a rightful king

→ “the raven himself is hoarse”

→ alliteration

→ this shows how the natural order is being upset because Macbeth is not a rightful king

→ “they placed a fruitless crown upon my head”

→ clearly Macbeth is not the rightful King

→ divine right of kings

→ “amen stuck in my throat”

→ Shakespeare is saying that a king who is not rightful and worthy will meet a terrible end

→ he is sucking up to king James I

→ if you take the throne that is not yours God will punish you → divine right of kings

→ Macbeth is clearly being punished for what he did

→ “Macbeth hath murder sleep”

→ Malcolm will be a good king because he is the rightful king and he is not blindly trusting

→ he tests Macduff’s loyalty before he is willing to trust him