Context & the Jacobean World
Shakespeare’s England in 1606
When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth around 1606, England had a new king. James I had come to the throne in 1603, uniting the English and Scottish crowns for the first time. James was a deeply superstitious man who genuinely believed in witchcraft — he had written his own book on the subject, Daemonologie (1597), and had personally attended witch trials in Scotland. For Shakespeare, writing a play about Scottish witchcraft and regicide was a calculated move to please his new royal patron.
Understanding this context is essential for the Edexcel exam. The Shakespeare question requires you to show understanding of the relationship between the text and the context in which it was written (AO3). Every scene in Macbeth is shaped by Jacobean beliefs about power, the supernatural, and the moral order.
King James I wrote Daemonologie in 1597 and personally attended witch trials. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth partly to appeal to the king’s fascination with witchcraft and partly to warn against the dangers of regicide.
The Gunpowder Plot (1605)
Just a year before Macbeth was likely first performed, a group of Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James. The Gunpowder Plot was the greatest act of treason in English history, and it sent shockwaves through the nation. The plotters were executed in horrific public displays — hanged, drawn, and quartered — as a warning to anyone who might challenge the king’s authority.
Shakespeare’s audience would have watched Macbeth with the Gunpowder Plot fresh in their minds. The play’s central act — the murder of a king — would have felt dangerously topical. The Porter’s reference to an “equivocator” in Act 2, Scene 3 is widely believed to allude to Father Henry Garnet, a Catholic priest executed for his role in the Plot. Equivocation — the use of deliberately misleading language — became a key theme in the play.
In Act 2, Scene 3, the drunken Porter imagines himself as the gatekeeper of Hell. He mentions “an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God’s sake.” This is almost certainly a reference to Father Garnet, who argued that Catholics could lie under oath if they mentally reserved the true meaning. For a 1606 audience, this dark comedy would have been a pointed reminder of real-world treason. The scene also functions as dramatic irony: Macbeth’s castle genuinely has become a kind of Hell after Duncan’s murder.
The Divine Right of Kings
Jacobean society was built on a rigid hierarchy called the Great Chain of Being. God sat at the top, followed by the monarch, then nobles, commoners, and finally animals. The king ruled by divine right — his authority came directly from God, and to challenge or kill the king was to sin against God himself. Regicide was not merely a political crime; it was an act of cosmic rebellion.
When Macbeth murders Duncan, Shakespeare shows the entire natural order collapsing. In Act 2, Scene 4, Ross and the Old Man describe how “dark night strangles the travelling lamp” (the sun is blocked), a falcon is killed by an owl, and Duncan’s horses “turned wild in nature” and ate each other. These pathetic fallacy details show that regicide does not just destroy a man — it tears apart the fabric of nature itself.
Regicide disrupts the Great Chain of Being. Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy — blocked sun, savage animals, storms — to show that killing a king has cosmic consequences, reflecting Jacobean beliefs about divine order.
Jacobean Attitudes to Witchcraft
In early seventeenth-century England, witchcraft was not a myth — it was a criminal offence. The 1604 Witchcraft Act, passed under James I, made it a capital crime to invoke evil spirits. Witches were believed to be servants of the Devil who could predict the future, cause disease, and destroy crops. Their animal companions, known as familiars, were considered proof of a pact with Satan.
Shakespeare exploits these fears from the play’s opening scene. The witches’ familiars — “Graymalkin” (a cat) and “Paddock” (a toad) — would have immediately signalled demonic allegiance to a Jacobean audience. The witches speak in trochaic tetrameter rather than the iambic pentameter used by noble characters, making them sound unnatural and otherworldly.
A modern audience reads Macbeth differently from Shakespeare’s original viewers. We might see the witches as psychological symbols representing Macbeth’s inner darkness, whereas a Jacobean audience would have believed they were genuinely dangerous supernatural beings. Similarly, modern audiences may focus on Macbeth’s psychological journey, while an Elizabethan/Jacobean viewer would have been more concerned with the political message: loyalty to the king is sacred, and traitors will be punished. In the exam, showing awareness of both perspectives demonstrates sophisticated understanding of context (AO3).
Shakespeare’s Purpose
Macbeth was written to entertain, but it also served a clear political purpose. By showing that regicide leads to madness, guilt, and death, Shakespeare reinforces the idea that the king’s authority is sacred. The play flatters James I in several ways: it is set in Scotland (James’s homeland), it dramatises events from Holinshed’s Chronicles (a source James knew), and it traces Banquo’s descendants as the future kings of Scotland — James himself claimed descent from Banquo.
For the Edexcel exam, remember that Shakespeare is not just telling a story — he is making an argument about power, order, and the consequences of ambition. Every creative decision serves this purpose.