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Natural Order And Corruption In Macbeth

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Only a true king can sit upon the holy throne. Kingship: being a king, a king’s position or reign. Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s well-known tragedies. A tragedy is a type of entertainment that is serious and has a sad ending. In this play, a series of events take place: starting with Macbeth being prophesied as being king, his ambition to seize the throne, and his death as a corrupted ruler. The word “kingship” in this play implies both goodness and corruption that leads to the overall theme of disrupting the natural order and the expansion of distrust within the royal court. Macbeth’s ambition to be “Scotland’s King” starts when the weird sisters announce, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! /All hail, Macbeth! …show more content…

Banquo, who had trusted Macbeth and promised to serve him forever, becomes suspicious and is killed by Macbeth’s hired murderers. His best friend’s betrayal of him is not the only backstab in the story. Another disloyalty happens with the “kings” death. Malcolm, the previous king’s eldest son, knew that the trust has been broken, so he and his brother flee to England in order to survive. So when Macduff goes to Malcolm and asks him to take his rightful place, Malcolm answers, “Boundless temperance in nature is a tyranny; it hath been Th’untimely emptying of the happy throne and the fall of many kings” (4.3. 67-69). Basically what he is saying is that he has a corrupted soul. However, this was a test to assert Macduff’s sincerity, to see if he is trustworthy. And later, he proves himself to be more than trustworthy when he pledges his allegiance to Malcolm and serves Macbeth’s head on a stake. In the end, he reverses the disruption of the Great Chain of Beings, bringing order back to the great nation of Scotland. The transition of the word “kingship” changes throughout the story when different monarch come into power, and depending on the royal personage, the kingdom will either be one of goodness, or one of corruption. A good leader, such as Macbeth, is not a good king; however, a good king, that is Duncan, is a good leader. So crown or king means: being a king, a king’s

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