Wa Equivocation In Macbeth

Shakespeare was a very influential playwright in the English language. One of his most famous pieces of work was The Tragedy Of Macbeth. He created Macbeth to gain money by pleasing King James I .Within the play there are a number of allusions to the king that support this theory. Though this would become one of his most read and performed plays of all time, he never intended it to impress anyone but the king of england. He was aware that the king had strong feelings towards religion and witchcraft , so he included both of these in macbeth. Shakespeare wrote macbeth intentionally playing on his King’s interests in order to impress him enough to receive a large paycheck.

Throughout Macbeth topics that involved the king are alluded to. The play was performed in 1606, which is only one year after the famous gunpowder plot. The gunpowder plot was a failed assassination attempt against the king. James I was a protestant which made him the perfect candidate to be elizabeth's successor. His right to the throne was questioned because he

In Act 2 scene 3 of macbeth shakespeare wrote “Knock, knock! Who’s there, in the other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. Oh, come in, equivocator.”In the lines above shakespeare was referring directly to Henry Garnet. Father Henry was a jesuit priest that was executed for withholding information about the gunpowder plot. He claimed that he could not tell authorities about the plot because he learned of the plan during a confession. Even so, Father Henry had wrote a book in the preceding years that made his testimony look faulty. His book was called “ A Treatise Of Equivocation .“ Authorities of England saw Equivocation as a sin and a lie. The book made Father Henry seem like he had profound knowledge on lying and led to his