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Macbeths State of Mind After Killing the King

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Explain Macbeth’s state of mind immediately before and after killing the king.

William Shakespeare wrote the play “Macbeth” somewhere in the years from 1606 to 1611. In this play, Shakespeare takes Scottish history and dramatises it so that it appeals to the new Scottish king, King James VI, who is a descendant of Banquo. Banquo is also in the play. This play also appeals to King James because he is very interested about witches and witchcraft and he opposes strongly against them. Witches were seen as agents of the devil, who use equivocate speech to draw a man in and trap him with promises of power and wealth, so therefore corrupting innocent and noble men and bring chaos and disorder upon every one. Whereas the king was seen as an agent of God, bringing order and peace to everybody. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony very well in this play as Macbeth was, in reality, a good king, and Duncan was actually the tyrant. At the time when the play was first being acted out, Guy Fawkes’ plan was in action which links in really well with this play where people are trying to kill the king.

At this time in the past, the three worst sins against God were Murder, of anybody, Treason and Regicide. These sins were heavily punished. At the start of the play, the scene is set as thunder and lightning witch is a sign of disturbance and God not being happy. There is also a gathering of witches and they mention the eponymous character “Macbeth”, so we know straight away that this character will be influenced heavily by evil.

We see Macbeth at the beginning as “…valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” and “…brave Macbeth…” but we, as an audience, know that is about to change. Macbeth has just fought a war against a traitor and one, which is ironic as he is about to do the same thing. He is riding home from war with his good friend Banquo and Macbeth says “…so foul and fair a

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