Journals

Macduff is probably plotting with that traitor, Malcolm. I care not. They cannot touch me! The witches predicted that I shall not be killed until Birnam Woods comes to Dunsinane! Who can move a forest? I am safe.
Banquo has quit my conscience. I am glad I am not plaugued with such dreams any more. I can prove to my lady that I am indeed a man.
I have no qualms about killing now. I shall dispose of anyone who dares to speak against me, just like I did with Banquo and Macduff's family. I shall have ears everywhere, to tell me who plots against me. I am King Macbeth!
My attendants tell me my lady is not well. She is weak, like I was weak at the beginning, but now I am stronger. I will call a doctor to cure her. I do not have the time to see her condition myself. Her sickness may infect me again, and besides, I have a rebellion to shut down. My reports tell me Malcolm is coming back to fight me. Ha! He shall not kill me; I know he was born of woman. Who do I have to fear?
I will not die in this battle. It will only prove my strength as King of Scotland. The English cannot bring the woods to this castle!
Each day brings words that the Thanes leave me. I would kill the traitors, but I cannot spare the men. Each day brings the English closer and I must build my defenses. They can join the English. I will just kill them on the battlefield.
I will kill Malcolm, Macduff and Donalbain. Then I will return to my lady, victorious and she will be cured. She will see there are no longer any opponets and our reign will be secured. Our minds can then be at ease. I must prepare fo battle!
Damn it all! Even as I write, the woods come to Dunsinane! Now part of the witches prediction has come. Will I die in this battle? Only a man not born of woman can kill me... I would fly and discover not the truth in the witches' prophecy, but the woods surround us. Let them come!
The womens' wailing are sharp daggers in my head. Will they not cease?! My wife is dead by her own hand, but I do not have the time to mourn for her. Oh my Lady!
We go to battle now. If I write again, I am victorious. If I cometh not again, then the cursed man has found me and slain me.

Dictators and Leaders

Although we no longer have kings and queens, we do in the 21st century have world leaders.

Do the guidelines for "good" kings still apply to today, or are they modified to fit today's world. If so, what are the modifications? Are some of the criteria for good/bad kings irrelevant to today?

Quotes from Macbeth

"Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For goodness dare not check thee. "

"I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
It weeps, it bleeds and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds. "

Some Old Journals

I was haunting my old castle Inverness and I stumbled upon some of my old journals... thought I'd show some to you. They're really quite amusing leading up to my death; they show what a raving mad man I was.

I went to see the weird witches today to see if they would divine some more of mine future. Horrid women! Chanting in riddles, weaving their spells around me! I implored them to part with their knowledge, but they were deaf to my pleas. Instead, with their magic, terrible apperations appeared to me, which told me my fate. Macduff, they said was no harm to me, but I will dispach of him just the same. Much as I dislike the act, it must be done. I put my faith completly in the witches, for they have not prophecied wrong.

My lords tell me Macduff has fled to England. Curses! No matter; I will send my murders to Fife anyway, and order them to kill Macduff's family. That will scare him enough to stay in England and never return to his native land.

The deed is done. My murderers have returned to find me anxious and unwell, but their news heartens my dark soul. Macduff's family is all slain. Not a slave, woman or child is alive in Fife. The lady and son, they tell me, gave them some trouble, but they both lie with their throats slit.

My nightmares grow worse. I see Banquo 'round every corner, holding out his bloodied hands at me. There is a spear lodged in his back. Sometimes he seems to be smiling at me and it is that smile that does haunt my dreams. Sometimes I dream that I am the one dying and it is Banquo who stands above me, with my crown upon his head. "Haunt me not, " I cry, "'twas not I who killed thee!" And then he gives me that awful, crooked, broken smile. I cannot stand how my Lady is able to bear all this death. She, not I, the man, accustomed to war and blood. It is shameful.

Qualities of a King

In Macbeth, we get the sense that Duncan is a good king and that all his lords respect and honor him. When Macbeth becomes king, some of the lords respect him, but there is also Lennox, who suspects Macbeth of foul play in Duncan's death.

What would you say makes a king "good"? What makes a bad king? Also, is a bad king always a tyrannt?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creater with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the peruit of happiness... The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having the direct ofbject the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States." -Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

"...In the democratic republic... there the body is left free, and the soul enslaved. The sovereign can no longer say, 'You shall think as I do on pain of death'; but he says 'You are free to think differently from me, and to retain your life, your property, and all that you possess; but if such be your determination, you are henceforth an alien among your people. You may retain your civil rights, but they will be useless to you... You will remain among men, but you will be deprived of the rights of mankind. Your fellow creatures will shun you like an impure being, and those who are most persuaded of your innocence will abandon you too, lest they should be shunned in their turn. Go in peace! I have given you your life, but it is an existance incomparably worse than death'". -Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America