Political Influence On Macbeth

For many years, scholars have analyzed the tragedy Macbeth and unearthed the background of the play. Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare in the 1600’s. Although Shakespeare had many original ideas, he was not uninfluenced by his surroundings. Political struggles were prevalent in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Two of the major issues were religious supremacy and King James’s II right to the throne. Like many people of the day, Shakespeare needed to prove his loyalty to the king and the Church of England. He used Macbeth to support his claims. The political influence infused in Macbeth is overwhelming. Also, Shakespeare’s Macbeth was similar to some of his other works with the same themes and character archetypes. The tragedies, in particular, were similar. Not only did Shakespeare have external forces pouring into him, but also internal forces compelling his work. During 1605, there were social and political topics that influenced Shakespeare’s Macbeth, as well as aspects of his own life. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses historical events to compliment King James and shows his loyalty to the crown. One example is the Gunpowder Plot. On November 4, 1605, Guy Fawkes and his conspirators were discovered trying to blow up the English Parliament with gunpowder they had been storing …show more content…
Shakespeare makes them out to have manly qualities and may not be women at all. The witches mirrors what the Church opposed.
On a cosmic level, their ‘supernatural soliciting’ contradicts the word of God; on a political level, the witches tempt Macbeth to usurp the throne by killing Duncan, a crime Macbeth himself is reluctant to commit, since the king was not only the representative of God, but also Macbeth’s relative and a man asleep, who could not defend himself. On an individual level, he undergoes one of the most frightening experiences of fear. (Brînzeu