Macbeth and Duncan

In the play, both of the kings of Scotland, Duncan and Macbeth, met tragic endings at the hands of their subordinates. While Duncan was murdered by Macbeth out of greed and ambition, Macduff killed Macbeth for revenge and to free Scotland from Macbeth’s tyranny. Although Duncan and Macbeth’s killers had different motivations, Macbeth’s downfall could be comparable to Duncan’s in that they both died due to their trust and naivety.

King Duncan was a benevolent and just king who trusted easily. When Duncan arrived at Macbeth’s palace, Macbeth himself described him to be ‘here in double trust’ (1.7.12), which indicated that he naively placed complete trust in Macbeth and didn’t suspect that Macbeth would want to harm him in any way at all. This means that Duncan probably let down his guard fully at Macbeth’s palace, which made it very easy for Macbeth to succeed at his plans and murder Duncan.

When Macbeth heard the second prophecy from the Witches in act 4 scene 1, he foolishly took the witches’ words at their face value, thinking that he would never be defeated since every man is born to a woman and the forest of Birnam couldn’t possible move to Dunsinane Hill. Macbeth believed the prophecy even until right before his death, when he boasted to Macduff that “[He] bear a charmed life which must not yield to one of woman born” (5.7.42-43). Trusting the witches made Macbeth overconfident, causing him to be completely unprepared when Macduff and Malcolm lead the English army to Dunsinane Hill. This contributed greatly to Macbeth losing the battle, which he paid for with death.