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I’ve been thinking about this moment in **Macbeth** when we first meet Duncan and hear about Macbeth’s prowess on the battlefield.
What does it suggest about Duncan and Macbeth?
Some thoughts...
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What does it suggest about Duncan and Macbeth?
Some thoughts...
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So, first thing that interests me is that Duncan doesn’t fight, which in itself isn’t that noteworthy, but more that he doesn’t seem to have a clue what is going on!
He doesn’t know the current state of play or even who the sergeant is. ‘What bloody man is that?’
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He doesn’t know the current state of play or even who the sergeant is. ‘What bloody man is that?’
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This then immediately contrasts to Malcolm who does know the sergeant: ‘Hail, brave friend’. It’s also revealed Malcolm, unlike Duncan, has been involved more directly with the battle (he’s been held captive)
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We then go a level further and hear from the sergeant returning from battle who tells of Macbeth who is so in the thick of it that ‘his sword smoked with bloody execution’
What to make of this?
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What to make of this?
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I think this exchange neatly captures the hierarchical relation that exists between Duncan, Malcolm and Macbeth: a hierarchy mapped out by their respective proximity to the battle itself.
Duncan knows nothing of it, Malcolm a little more, but Macbeth is smeared with its blood
Duncan knows nothing of it, Malcolm a little more, but Macbeth is smeared with its blood
This suggests something, I think, of the natural order with which the play begins. Everything is in its rightful place: the king oversees but does not bloody himself, his heir a little closer, and the warrior, ‘brave Macbeth’, on the battlefield, where he belongs
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From the very start, the play sets out what ought to be and what Macbeth disrupts as his lust for power and ambition degrades that natural order, as he sets in motion a world in which it’s now possible for a mousing own to kill a towering falcon
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