Keywords
Shakespeare
Literature and Politics
King James
Divine Right
How to Cite
Abstract
Upon the English coronation of King James VI and I, Shakespeare’s company was named The King’s Men. Soon after this promotion, Shakespeare completed and staged Macbeth, a play portraying James’s family’s ancestral struggle for the throne of Scotland. In this play (ostensibly written as gift to the king) Shakespeare includes a veiled critique of James’s teachings in The Trew Law of Free Monarchies on the divine right of kings. Shakespeare employs the Weird Sisters as a twisted parody of the Holy Trinity, legitimizing Macbeth’s rule through direct revelations. Although Shakespeare treats divine right elsewhere (notably his history plays), this analysis proves his most pointed, self-contained, and concise. Seen in this greater context, Macbeth emerges as a forceful political play, both in theoretical content and practical intent. These factors mutually reinforce each other, lending increased emphasis to every political teaching in the play.
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