And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and certain) / Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, / Turn’d wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, / Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would make / War with mankind.
Act II, Scene 4
Context
Ross adds another unnatural phenomenon to the Old Man's account: Duncan's horses broke out of their stalls and became violent, as if rebelling against human control.
Analysis
Ross frames the horses' rebellion with the phrase 'Contending 'gainst obedience,' borrowing political language to describe animal behavior. This choice of words makes the horses sound like insurgents in a civil war, reinforcing the idea that Duncan's murder has triggered rebellion at every level of creation. The escalating syntax—'Turn'd wild,' 'broke,' 'flung out'—mimics the horses' own violent energy, letting form enact content.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Shakespeare layers political vocabulary onto natural events to show that tyranny destabilizes all relationships of obedience—even animals refuse to submit once the king has been killed, proving that legitimate rule is what holds the whole world in order.