Leadership naturally consists of formal positions and defined responsibilities, but it also occurs informally in any relation between two people. Leaders tend to possess a mixture of traits—at times they show good leadership, but at other times they show less than desirable leadership. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is no exception. In the first two acts, he uses the characters of King Duncan, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth, in part, to show a wide array of contexts and ways in which people can exhibit both good and bad leadership traits. While these characters exhibit good leadership traits ranging from likeability, creativity, and strategy, they also have leadership weaknesses including submissiveness, aloofness, bitterness, and manipulation. Although …show more content…
Namely, Duncan’s likeability among his subjects projects an image that he is a great king, causing his subjects to generally revere him for his humbleness, lack of corruption, and how he treats everybody. Macbeth is no exception and initially admires Duncan for the same reasons as many people do: “Besides this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels…” (I.7.16-20). Macbeth thus illustrates the perspective that many of Duncan’s subjects have wanted him to remain their leader, finding him effective because of his personal traits like his likeability, humility, and straight-forwardness. Nonetheless, Duncan is not a perfect leader, for he is unable to prevent his kingdom from experiencing civil war and ward off threats from other kingdoms. For instance, the Captain warns Duncan that “But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, with furbished arms and new supplies of men, began a fresh assault” (I.II.35). This assault occurs immediately after the civil war has been handled. The downside to Duncan’s leadership is attributed to him not having complete control over his kingdom and permitting his subjects too much freedom—allowing them to do as they please. As a result, the people of Scotland may like Duncan as their leader because of his positive traits, such as his likeability and lack of corruption, but his lack of control is a negative trait, ultimately causing his kingdom to go to