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William Shakespeare 's Macbeth As A Key Source For Power

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During the early 16th century, a famous playwright by the name of William Shakespeare came out with play Macbeth. This well known play takes place in 10th century Scotland. During this time period there were numerous battles and the desire for power was strong . Although a fictional play, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written to impress King James I of Scotland, was based on real Scottish history.
Shakespeare made many alterations to the original history in order to appease King James I of Scotland. The Chronicles of Scotland, written by Raphael Holinshed, served as a key source for Shakespeare when writing Macbeth (Gill v). The story presented in The Chronicles of Scotland is about King James’ ancestors, Banquo and Fleance. The throne of Scotland was passed down through Banquo and Fleance, to James (Gill v). According to written history, Banquo assisted Macbeth in the slaying of Duncan, but in the play Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote Banquo’s character to be innocent (Gill vi). This is, assumably, due to the fact that King James I is a direct descendant of Banquo. Shakespeare tried to incorporate many of King James’s beliefs into his play. The final king depicted in Macbeth’s apparition of Banquo’s descendants is believed to be James (Morrow 20) . This supported King James’ belief in the divine right of kings (Morrow 20).
Shakespeare was well aware of James’ passion for all things supernatural, which compelled him to write about supernatural occurrences in Macbeth. Supposedly,

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