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GCSE AQA 'Macbeth': The Death of King Duncan Essay.
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The death of King Duncan was a very shocking and disturbing event to a Jacobean audience.King Duncan was the rightful King of Scotland, and therefore the untimely death would
shock the subjects of the Scottish King, and the Jacobeans. The King was the head of
Scotland and in killing Duncan, in committing regicide, Macbeth had beheaded Scotland.
Everyone in the extract is shown to be repulsed and shocked by Duncan’s death.
At the start of the scene, Lennox describes the wild nature of the weather to set the scene.
The unnatural nature of the weather creates unease in the audience, ‘The night has been
unruly’, depicts the weather as wild and the adjective ‘unruly’ reminds us of Macbeth’s
sinful behaviour. The reference to ‘strange screams of deaths’ reinforces the murder that
has taken place. The use of sibilance reinforces the sinister nature of the event; Lennox also
references an ‘obscure bird’, which is an owl. The Jacobeans believed owls were evil and
were linked with death. This reinforces that the act committed was evil and unnatural.
Lennox also refers to ‘dire combustion and confused events’ referencing to the Gunpowder
Plot where Catholic rebels attempted to commit treason. The play would remind the
potential plotters what happened to Guy Fawkes and his accomplices.
Interestingly, the first reaction to King Duncan’s murder is from Macduff, who ultimately
restores Scotland at the end of the play. Macduff repeats the exclamation ‘horror’ three
times. He uses a metaphor to highlight that he struggles to comprehend the atrocity,
‘Tongue nor heart cannot conceive’. The heinous murder would have disturbed him, as a
crime against a King was a crime against God, as the divine right of Kings lead the King’s
subjects to believe that he was appointed by God.
Macduff goes on to use a religious metaphor to flatter King James I, ‘Sacrilegious murder
hath broke ope The Lord’s anounted temple’. He compares Duncan’s body to a temple to
further reinforce that a King was there because of the Divine Rights of Kings, appointed by
God. This would have reminded ambitious subjects of King James I, that an attempt on his
life would be judged by God. Guy Fawkes had already tried to assassinate the King and King
James I was paranoid that malicious Catholics were trying to kill him.
On being questioned further by Lennox and Macbeth, Macduff uses a hyperbolic metaphor
to show his horror at the sight of Duncan ‘approach the chamber and destroy your sight’.
The imperative verb ‘destroy’ shows the negative and unnatural effect the murder of King
Duncan has had upon Macduff. He refuses to even verbalise what has happened. This links
to the health of Scotland and the murder has disrupted the order of being that plunges
Scotland into chaos.
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