Using Examples From Three Or Four Scenes, Show How Shakespeare Deals With The Twin Themes Loyalty And Treachery

A detailed Summary of Using Examples From Three Or Four Scenes, Show How Shakespeare Deals With The Twin Themes Loyalty And Treachery

In Shakespeare's play MacBeth we see many themes from loyalty and treachery to guilt and ambition. Shakespeare shows us how someone with extreme loyalty to king and country can change to utter treachery and betrayal against what he was so loyal to.

Macbeth is a fearless warrior and an important lord, however as we see in the play his fatal weakness is ambition. As the play progresses he allows the witches' prophecy and his wife's pushiness to undermine his loyalty.

Macbeth starts off at the beginning of the play by being extremely loyal to his king and his country and this is shown in the first act where MacBeth goes off to fight for the king to kill the traitor, The Thane Of Cawdor, who was made an outcast by joining forces with the Norwegians who were fighting Scotland at the time. In the battle the captain reported back to the king saying on act 1 scene 2 line 16-18

"With his brandished steel Which smoked with execution"

This showed MacBeth's loyalty to Duncan (the King) and that he was willing to slaughter so many people for his king and country.

Duncan the king, although he disappears at the end of act 1 shows what a king should be, he is honest, sincere and honourable. This is a term

Loyalty is not the only theme in this play there is something much more sinister, treachery, which is shown in many parts of the play. This is seen in a very potent way with the scene where Macbeth kills the king Duncan. The murder is planned by Lady Macbeth who wait with apprehension for Macbeth to return. When Macbeth returns he is almost in a state of hysterics and is still carrying the two daggers. This shows that Macbeth, has initially at least had a problem with coming to terms with the murder in his conscience.

Macbeth's final and perhaps greatest treachery of the play seems to be that when told of his wife's death he appears to think that it is an inconvenience when he is going off to war, and is totally emotionless.

In the Middle Ages women used to be completely loyal to their husbands through any circumstance, this is no different with lady Macbeth, she is totally loyal to Macbeth and is always there to support him when his resolve falters, such as when she returns the daggers to Duncan's murder scene.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lady Macbeth, , Duncan King, Middle Ages, Thane Cawdor, MacBeth MacBeth, Brave MacBeth, lady macbeth, act 1, act 1 scene, 1 scene, king country, scene 3 line, scene macbeth, loyalty shown, loyal macbeth, loyal king, 3 line, scene 3,

Approximate Word count = 870
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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