Summary of D.S. Kastan essay "Macbeth and the "Name of the King""
(from Shakespeare after Theory)

Kastan's essay is a nice complement to Goldberg's essay, since it also articulates the multiplicy and instability of "source" history. Specifically, Kastan discusses the ways in which Shakespeare "erases the equivocations of the source material" (Kastan 173). The essay investigates the ways in which Shakespeare's Macbeth (and specifically his alterations to the Holinshed Chronicles) may support and diverge from the writings and ideology of James I.

Kastan first investigates the theme of usurpation, and the questions of patrilineal descent which Shakespeare's play raises. He argues that Shakespeare's play is primarily concerned with the question of succession, and the "contestable nature of heritary kingship" (Kastan 173). His essay points out the conflict between actual history and the need to present a version of history which reifies James' sovereign authority. Kastan argues that "the play's emphasis on Banquo… rather than Duncan has… the effect of avoiding the vexed problem of inheritance through the female, comfortably locating authority in the male body" (Kastan 169).

Kastan argues for a dual reading of Macbeth, as both "a moral play" and "a subversive one" in terms of the way the play treads a fine line between presenting a "lawful king" and a "usurping tyrant" (Kastan 175). In his analysis, Kastan highlights the character of Macduff and the way in which his role in the play complicates those two categories.

Through rewriting history and specifically English history, Kastan points out the ways in which Shakespeare's Macbeth conflicts with James' ideology of absolutism and authority "not merely through the contradictions present in the source material but in the absolutist logic itself" (Kastan 179). Kastan concludes his argument by pointing out the very instability of the "the name of the king" itself in relation to Macbeth. As Kastan points out, in the case of Macbeth, it is a title which seems equivocal and in need of constant investigation.