_______ V fo r Vendetta : A Graphic Retelling of Macbeth
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It is Duncan’s gentleness that causes his constant misjudgment of character
and situation, thereby causing his failure to contain the treason. He says in 1.4
“Is execution done on Cawdor?” (1) and after hearing of Cawdor’s confession
and death replies, “There’s no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face: /
He was a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust—” (12-14). His poor
judgment, willingness to trust, and extreme gentleness is depicted again upon his
arrival at the Macbeth’s castle; Duncan tells the others, “This castle hath a
pleasant seat; the air / Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / Unto our gentle
senses” (1.6.1-3). This innocuous reply shows clearly that Duncan is completely
lacking in instinct; while he has no reason to believe the Macbeths wish him
harm, for Duncan to be depicted so completely trusting after just avoiding
usurpation reveals him as having learned nothing from Cawdor. Duncan appears
to be the only one who has learned nothing from the recent uprising (Lemon,
95).
Duncan is a king who is just as incapable of controlling his subjects,
thereby endangering the peace of the kingdom, as a tyrant king inspiring civil
unrest would be. Because Duncan is incapable of ruling he creates disorder. As
Coddon has observed, “Macbeth, then, is not the victim so much as the effect of
a disorder that manifestly precedes and . . . produces him” (490). Macbeth, a
subject of a weak kingdom, has seen the possibility of a stronger Scotland
through the witches’ prophecy; a stronger Scotland would benefit the people. As
a king it is Duncan’s duty to protect his people, but he fails to do so. Instead
Macbeth, Banquo and others must constantly protect him (Lemon, 97). Duncan
accepts Malcolm’s report of Cawdor’s death despite its possible falsehood—this
shows his complete dependence on Malcolm and his other subjects (Lemon, 97).
Duncan, firmly established as a “gentle” king, is nonetheless a bad king. This
inability to control treason is the most obvious sign of Macbeth's subversive
role. By weaving the subversive message in the text so subtly, Macbeth was
easily interpreted by those horrified by the Gunpowder Plot as a chastisement of
it, but for those familiar with double-effect and Shakespeare’s own associations,
a context for a much different interpretation was available.
Defining a “hero” by his defeat of bad or dangerous men is not an unusual
move for an author to make. In fact, it is exactly this move that makes V an
acceptable hero. V is immediately accepted as a hero despite his apparel, the
Guy Fawkes mask, and his aligning himself with Macbeth, because he saves
Evey, his friend, his victim and his protege, from being raped. Evey is seen
attempting to prostitute herself for the first time because, as she says, “I . . . I’ve
got a job in munitions, but the money is, you know, it isn’t enough . . . Look
mister, I really need that money. I’d be okay. I mean, I’m sixteen. I know what
I’m doing . . . ” (11). Immediately the reader’s sympathies are directed towards
Evey as we see the man she has propositioned revealed as a Fingerman,3 the
equivalent of an undercover policemen, and her plea, “Oh no. Look, please,
Mister, it was my first time, I’ll do anything you want. Please don’t kill me” (11)
prompting the response from the Fingerman, “You’ve got it wrong, miss. You’ll