Macbeth

Macbeth

1. Links to the Gothic

   • Gothic villain - Macbeth himself or Lady Macbeth? M overcomes being "valient" and "too full of the milk of human kindness" to become a much more evil character - does this make him worse than Lady M who is always evil and eventually repents??
   • Castles are where much of the action takes place - Duncan is killed at Macbeth's castle and Macduff's castle is the scene of Lady Macduff and her son's murder
   • Supernatural element - the witches, Hecate, the storm when Duncan dies, all part of The Gothic. In fact, the supernatural is what drives much of the plot
   • Liminality - liminal spaces also provide important places for scenes to take place e.g. Macbeth meets the witches "upon the heath", and Banquo's murder takes place on a path to the castle - nowhere in particular
   • A central struggle between good and evil - evil Macbeth and Lady M have gone against nature, God and the natural order and are being fought by Malcolm and Macduff etc
   • Gothic heroine is missing - Lady Macbeth is intrinsically evil and all other females are absent - though this can be a Gothic characteristic too
   • Is actually pre-Gothic as Castle of Otranto comes after, but can be said to have been the inspiration behind the Gothic
   • Isolation and loneliness - Macbeth is isolated in his fears about treason; "bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague th' inventor," and Lady M becomes more isolated as she goes mad - "what's done cannot be undone"

2. Lady Macebth

   • Persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan - yet is this due to her being intrinsically evil or because M manipulates her into doing so? "screw your courage to the sticking place"