Abhijit Bhattacharjee                                                Back to Showcase

Mr. Steen

AP Literature and Composition

3 January 2004

Historical Background of Macbeth

Shakespeare derived much of the plot of his play Macbeth from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland.  He changed history—drastically, in some instances—to portray the mysterious King Macbeth as a brutal murderer.  The real Macbeth, however, was a very different person in real life, as were other characters in the play.  Although Macbeth is one of the most well-known Scottish kings, he also has one of the worst reputations among the Scots, because of Shakespeare’s play and the writings of other 15^th century authors.

Macbeth was born around 1000 CE in early medieval Scotland, then called Alba.  He was born into a country where power struggles were prevalent among family members.  His father was slain by Macbeth’s cousins, led by Gillacomgain.  Sometime after this incident, Gillacomgain and fifty of his men were burned alive in their residence.  Some say that the murder may have been connected with Macbeth, who supposedly wrought vengeance upon his cousin for his father’s death.  At any rate, Macbeth did marry his cousin’s widow (Shakespeare’s “Lady Macbeth”) and thus gained various lands and titles that formerly belonged to Gillacomgain.  It was a common practice in Scotland at that time to marry an enemy’s widow after vanquishing him (“Macbeth” 1).

Herein we find some information about Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play.  Although it does not seem that Macbeth and his wife ever had a child together, Lady Macbeth had children with her former husband, as one can tell from her reference in Act I, vii, 54-55: “I have given suck, and know/ How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me.”  More specifically, she had a son named Lulach, whom Malcolm III slew after returning from England and ending Macbeth’s reign (“Historical Context” 1).  Also, she had been married to a conspirator against Macbeth’s father.  One could surmise, then, that when Lady Macbeth drove Macbeth to kill King Duncan, it was not the first time she had manipulated her husband to fulfill her murderous aims.  The truth, however, is that Lady Macbeth, whose name was actually Lady Gruoch, did not play a salient role in Macbeth’s decision to depose Duncan (“Macbeth” 1).  Macbeth had different reasons.

For starters, Duncan was not nearly as virtuous as Shakespeare made him out to be.  Macbeth says in his soliloquy (I, vii, 16-19): “This Duncan/ Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/ So clear in his great office, that his virtues/ Will plead like angels…”  History turns out the opposite.  After the death of Malcom II, Duncan ruled for only six years before his demise.  He spent most of his time as king going on raids in England, which were not very successful.  He was particularly ineffectual, and it is even said that Duncan was “killed by his own subjects” in a revolt headed by Macbeth (qtd. in “Macbeth” 1).  In addition, Macbeth’s claim to the Scottish throne was actually greater than Duncan’s, because he and his wife both traced their bloodlines back to Scottish Kings Malcolm I and Kenneth III.  For these reasons, Macbeth’s position as a usurper of the throne is misrepresented in Macbeth.  Shakespeare deliberately did this in order to give his audience a definite villain figure to despise.

In addition to vilifying Macbeth out of proportion, Shakespeare exalted the position of Banquo, who was the ancestor of King James I.  Shakespeare wrote the play Macbeth for King James and took several opportunities to offer him panegyric.  One of these instances was the elevation of Banquo’s moral stature.  Shakespeare did not want to anger the king by portraying his ancestor in truth: according to Holinshed, Banquo was a co-conspirator against Duncan.  Instead, he clears Banquo of all guilt, illustrated by Act III, i, 1-3: “Thou hast it now.  King, Cawdor, Glamis, all/ As the weird women promised, and I fear/ Thou play’dst most foully for ‘t,” as if Banquo had no idea of the evil plot to kill King Duncan.

Historically, though, Macbeth did not murder Duncan in his sleep.  Duncan met his end on the fields of battle against Macbeth and Banquo.  Shakespeare combined two events to make Macbeth more interesting: Duncan’s death and the cold-blooded murder of King Duff by his retainer Donwald (“Historical Context” 1).  This had the effect of making the tone of the play far more sinister.  But sinister is exactly what the true Macbeth was not.

There was a very unusual system of succession in 11^th-century Scotland.  The crown hardly ever went from father to son, and it usually involved a power struggle.  Kingship generally alternated between two major branches of the family line.  Duncan’s coup d’etat was actually against Celtic custom; he came to power because his grandfather Malcom II ensured it by annihilating Duncan’s rivals.  Therefore, Macbeth’s ascension was not unusual at all; he was not a usurper, at least, to his contemporaries.  Even modern historians believe that Macbeth acted with the support of the populace in opposing Duncan, especially since Duncan had broken the customary “rules” of succession (“Macbeth” 1).  But in Shakespeare’s day, most writers viewed Macbeth’s method of accession as inconceivable and atrocious.  So, Macbeth’s reputation was doomed to gradual decadence.

Macbeth ruled for 17 years as king, and faced numerous tribulations within and without Scotland, but he was not hated by his people.  Few people loathed Macbeth enough to inspire emotions similar to the young siward in Act V, vii, 7-8: “The Devil himself could not pronounce a title/ More hateful to mine ear.”  Shakespeare and his contemporaries believed that people in general held this viewpoint at the time, which is simply not the case.  However, it did make for a successful and bloody tragedy!

Thus, in drawing from historical sources such as Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, Shakespeare found that he could make a far more effective play by interlarding it with fiction.  Many characters had their roles changed from their real life counterparts, some even reversed.  Even Macbeth was not nearly the scoundrel that Shakespeare depicted him as.  Shakespeare’s creativity with history and regicide made it possible to fabricate a drama that deviated far from the truth yet appeared authentic.

Works Cited

"Macbeth." DISCovering World History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in Student Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale Group. October, 2001. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC/.

Shakespeare, William.  The Tragedy of Macbeth. The Collected Works of William Shakespeare. Ed. G.B. Harrison. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc., 1952.

"The Historical Context of Macbeth." EXPLORING Shakespeare. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in Student Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale Group. October, 2001. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC/.