Looking Down on War and Usurpation

England has a very shaky history upon which it was built to say the least. Many years are littered with bloodshed and rulers being plucked from their positions only to be immediately replaced by their rivals, which aids in implanting these violent images into the public consciousness. War and usurpation are closely associated with each other in the works of Shakespeare, particularly when looking at the plays Macbeth and Henry V. While he is not necessarily a pacifist as seen by his writing favorably of gruesome acts that are vital to the defeat of many antagonists in his stories, Shakespeare does not condone unneeded war or usurpation of a rightful ruler. His beliefs on these issues can be seen by the way he associates unfavorable attributes with the characters Macbeth and Henry V in their respective plays when they are doing something of which he disapproves.

In Shakespeare’s age the threat of usurpation was a constant for quite some time. Especially in the beginning of her reign, Elizabeth I was forever being criticized as an illegitimate ruler and plotted against so that the throne could be within reach of someone else. Even though Macbeth was written during the reign of James I, the country still had uneasy thoughts at that time because the current king was pulled from the distant relations of the former ruler since she died childless. The fear of usurpation and the idea of the unnaturalness of it had to rear its head in some form during the play because of this continued threat looming over the country and all the trouble it could bring with it. The whole play revolves around the wrongful seizure of the Scottish throne and the attempt of powerful men to put the world back into order. The actions of Macbeth taking what is not rightfully his are portrayed as aberrant. When studying the guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth, the Doctor, using rhyme and repetition to draw the audience’s attention to the line, even states that “unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles” even though he does not know exactly what Lady Macbeth is supposed to have done (Macbeth 5.1.65-66). Murder is one of the most unnatural acts a human being can commit; and it is clear that by having an unbiased side character say that Lady Macbeth’s abnormal problems are caused from an act considered to be appalling to the point where it cannot be of the earth Shakespeare is tying usurpation to being something as anomalous as murder.

Another way that Shakespeare relates usurpation to the unnatural is to show a connection with the supernatural. The witches in Macbeth play the crucial role of embodying everything repulsive and outside the normal realm. Since Macbeth chooses to not only associate with them but to embrace everything that they say, he becomes bonded to their characters and what they represent, which are normal things that are inclined to be perverted when combined such as their appearance of a man and a woman and their mixtures to make magic potions. After he becomes well acquainted with the supernatural, Macbeth is driven into the unnatural state of madness where he has hallucinations of floating daggers and ghosts. Acting as a counter to Macbeth in these instances, Banquo decides to doubt that any good will come of the prophecies of the witches. Banquo states that “oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths” instead of bursting with happiness and calling the foresights cheerful “promises” as Macbeth does when he finds out that he has been given the title of Cawdor (1.3.129-130). With his head held away from the unnaturalness of the witches, Banquo continues to live his life as a good man with no blemishes upon his soul. He also brings up another interesting contrast that casts Macbeth in the light of someone that is very selfish. While Macbeth begins the play as a fearless hero who wants nothing more than victory for his country and to be loyal to his king, he starts to transition to one who thinks only of himself.

Macbeth wants the kingship so badly that all he can think about is how he was the special one to be chosen in the prophecies of the witches. Stomping on the tower of his former life, Macbeth wipes away the man that he was after he kills Duncan by stating “To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself”—making use of a ploce to draw special attention to the significance of “knowing” that he is his deed and realizing that he has changed from warrior to murderer (2.2.88). His epiphany that he has fallen to the low rank of a criminal begins his decent into thinking only of himself and his new throne that he will not relinquish without a fight. He cares so much for himself after the regicide that he sets out to kill his best friend Banquo, partially out of jealousy that Banquo has an heir while he has none and partially out of paranoia that he will tell someone of their encounter with the witches. The witches later show Macbeth a vision that he calls a “horrible sight” which shows the might of Banquo’s kingly line that will go on as he sits there as a single man with no heirs (4.1.131). Banquo chose to ignore the witches and keep with his family, sacrificing himself so his son had time to get away. Macbeth chose to embrace himself and ignore everyone around him including his eventually suicidal wife, which puts him into the position that he saw in the vision. Creating the self-fulfilling prophecy of what happens when a person becomes absorbed in one’s self, Macbeth dies alone with no heritage to continue once he is gone. He goes down as one of the greatest villains in history, the usurper of a rightful king, and passes away all alone.

Even though Henry V is connected to the idea of usurpation because his father’s legitimacy for the throne was highly questionable, his story is more about the idea of war and how an unnecessary war is not an honorable fight. In Henry V Shakespeare takes on the age-old idea of a selfish ruler and unites it with the act of an unnatural war. This play was written to be like a modernized King Arthur legend for the English populace living in Shakespeare’s time. Shakespeare wished to write the already popular history of Henry V as an epic play that embodied the king’s greatness for all the people to enjoy and love. However, Shakespeare decided to put in some political commentary of his own about wars and what reasons people could possibly have in order to begin a justified fight in the first act of the play. To avoid forfeiting a great deal of the Church’s wealth to the king from the passage of a bill, the Archbishop of Canterbury confesses to the Bishop of Ely that he will distract Henry V by giving him a legitimate reason to go to war with the French since Henry was thinking about it anyway. Even though the two men also talk about how much the king has changed since his youth, the fact that they mention his past with tongue-in-cheek remarks like how “His hours fill’d up with riots, banquets, sports, / And never noted in him any study” makes one wonder if they are simply trying to take blows at the young king who wishes to go to war with the French on a whim (Henry V 1.1.57-58). The word “noted” is curious because it could be referring to the Archbishop not noticing Henry was studying at all because Henry appeared to be ignorant on the occasions that he was able to speak with him before his transformation. It could also be that Henry himself actually did not note his studies or go to classes, meaning the two men think he did some serious catching up once he was appointed ruler. The twisted statement and the fact Henry’s past mishaps were mentioned at all could be Shakespeare’s way of showing his disapproval of an unneeded war by associating the king with his rocky past since the cause for war was merely manipulated to fit the king’s desires (as seen by the Archbishop’s wonderfully loop-holed speech).

However, just after Henry takes the Archbishops twisted truth as a real claim because of how badly he wishes to go to France, he finally gets a real reason to be angry at the neighboring country. The gift of tennis balls from the Dauphin would be enough of a gesture to irritate the common people of England because of how it is an act of the French insulting their newly reformed king. Shakespeare uses this incident to finally bring Henry V into his full light of greatness since Henry is now not using his own mind to make leaps in a tangled web of faulty reasoning to find grounds for war. He has a real cause to be enraged by the French and push his loose claim on their throne into action, even if it is a slightly petty reason. By the end of the play, Henry begins ranting how “if it be a sin to covet honour, / (He is) the most offending soul alive,” using the technique of having a bad term like “covet” be used in excess for something favorable like “honor” (4.3.28-29). Unlike Macbeth, Henry gets to save the day, marry the girl, and is the hero because even though he started out the play with no real cause to go to war he got enough of one and was able to be the warrior hero people wanted him to be.

Usurpation and war are two topics that held a great deal of Shakespeare’s interest because of the massive effect each had on a country. He showed his distain for unrighteous usurpation because of how it skewed the natural order of the ruling line by representing Macbeth as a scoundrel who associated with witches and cared too much for himself in Macbeth. He disapproved of illegitimate warfare as seen by his casting Henry in a not so great light at the beginning of Henry V to remind the audience he is still that rowdy boy even though he has grown into a man before he gets a real reason to go to war. Shakespeare put so much of himself and his viewpoints in his plays through his subtle use of situations that surround his characters instead of outright saying what he thought—a gift that makes him one of the most persuasive men in the world because of how he can make readers experience whatever he wants them to feel.