History, Memory, and Storytelling Theme Analysis

Lady Macbeth is a novel concerned with how storytelling and personal memory can affect greater historical narratives. Basing the story on real events, historical accounts, and religious archives surrounding one of history’s most infamous queens, author Susan Fraser King has done her best to reconstruct Lady Macbeth’s life, imbuing her with motivations, emotions, and depth that have been erased by the passage of time. This interest in the narrative of history exists within the world of the novel as well. Having been taught about the past through songs and stories, King’s characters are specifically concerned with how history is recorded—something they understand will influence how they are remembered by future generations. History is often written by the victors, the novel suggests, or else manipulated for different intended audiences. In both cases, Lady Macbeth ultimately argues that there is no single truth when it comes to how events and people are remembered, and that storytelling determines history as much as does history itself.

Throughout the novel, characters are preoccupied with how history will remember them. Gruadh (that is, Lady Macbeth) has one child with her first husband, Gilcomgan, but she and Macbeth are unable to conceive children who live past one or two years old. Gruadh is aware that “no doubt history will say the mulier bona Macbeth, the good wife of Macbeth, was barren” because of this, even though Macbeth will adopt her son, Lulach, as his heir. Later in the novel Gruadh notes, “here is what the annals will say of Macbeth’s kingship: very little.” Because his reign was primarily peaceful, with few wars or scandals to record, Gruadh is aware it will be barely recorded at all. Although she understands that she has little control over how she or Macbeth is remembered, especially considering the sitting king at the end of the novel, Malcolm mac Duncan—Macbeth’s enemy and murderer—will control how this legacy is seen, and will “ill seek to ruin [Macbeth’s] deeds” in the annals of history. 

The bards and historians that appear throughout the novel further reflect the importance of history and storytelling. Bards’ songs, as well as myths and legends, give characters strength to carry on and teach lessons of the past to apply to the future. Bards act as living libraries of sorts, offering knowledge of politics, history, and geography that would otherwise be inaccessible. Apart from the monks who maintain written records of political and religious events, bards are the nation’s primary record keepers and reference books. That’s why, before her marriage to her first husband, Gilcomgan, Gruadh asks her father Bodhe’s personal bard, Luag, about her new home in the region of Moray. Later, after her second marriage to Macbeth, when Gruadh attends her father’s funeral, Luag ceremonially recites “the lists of names that stretched from the Pictish kings down to Bodhe and his son and two grandsons.” Bodhe was murdered because he and his family represented a threat to King Malcolm, so hearing her own heritage read back to her reminds Gruadh of the danger her bloodline is in, and how essential it is for her to protect her son and their precious, powerful lineage.

Bards also have an important ceremonial role in this culture. They are present for battles and unify the army through song. Additionally, Macbeth’s bard, Dermot, is present at his coronation and recites “an invocation of power,” an essential component of the ceremony that adds legitimacy and brings people together. That bards are held in such esteem reflects this society’s respect for the importance of history, yet that such facts also rely on inherently fallible human memory underscores the subjectivity of that history.

The potential—and consequences—of such storytelling for its subjects is clear throughout the book. For example, old Celtic stories passed down by bards of warrior women like the bana-ghaigeach, “the great Irish queen, Macha, and Princess Scathach of Skye” inspire Gruadh’s own decision to learn how to handle a sword and march into battle; she observes, “Celtic women have fought beside men since before the names of kings were remembered.” In addition to shaping the reception of the past, flattering depictions in songs and tales improve public opinion of the story’s subjects in the present. Gruadh is won over by her first husband Gilcomgan’s talent for storytelling. Because Gilcomgan is so charismatic, Gruadh relates she “half forgot my husband had taken part in the murder of his own uncle.” Later, while Gruadh is visiting one of King Malcolm’s thanes, the bard present sings a song flattering the men and women gathered that day. Gruadh is described as a “swan-necked beauty” whose eyes are “like stars” and whose voice is “like a lark.” It’s the novel’s first indication that Gruadh is beautiful, and Macbeth, who is also present, although still married, likely takes note of her beauty in this moment.

Gruadh and Macbeth were real historical figures, and Lady Macbeth often assumes readers are aware of the famous play documenting some of the same events—William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Yet these two works tell markedly different stories, and within Lady Macbeth King often makes allusion to the famous tragedy, either to push back against unflattering or simplistic depictions of its characters, or else to provide more detailed historical nuance. Readers who know Shakespeare’s Macbeth will recognize subtle allusions to it throughout. Often, however, these allusions are twisted, and scenes are made new; indeed, the ways in which Lady Macbeth interacts with Macbeth emphasizes that there is no single, empirical version of history, and that every story has an agenda. Gruadh, as narrator, is aware of this, and the entire book is her attempt to relay her own version of history. A well-told story has power—to change the present and to change others’ perceptions of the past.