Essay On Good And Evil In Macbeth

Throughout the play, Macbeth is constantly torn between good and evil. His whole life he is believed to be a good man, so this decision to most wouldn't even be a conflict. They would assume that he'd be a good, loyal, and honest man until the day he died. Macbeth crossed paths with three ugly witches. He may have not known at the time but the witches planted a seed in Macbeth causing his soul to turn away from good eternally.

During Shakespeare's time, witchcraft, superstition, and black magic were very popular topics. Most stories and plays had some sort of witchcraft or supernatural element in them. The superstitions that were popular during this era were based on many religious beliefs (Pillai). It is recorded that close to 247 women were taken to trail for engaging in witchcraft (Pillai). These women were blamed for causing the bubonic plague, bad harvest times, death of animals, crop failures due to their work with witchcraft (Pillai).

When Shakespeare used witches in his works, he based the witches on the claims of witches during his era. He tried to make the witches in his play so real to catch his audiences attention. Witches during his time we're usually old, poor, single, and unprotected women who were widowed so they kept pets as their company (Alchin). Also, during his time they were looked at as demonic creatures from hell (Alchin). There were two types of witches, white witches that brought knowledge and information to the people (they we're considered good) and demonic witches that were obviously considered evil (Alchin). Shakespeare focused on the demonic witches to use for his works.

In 1597, the king of England, James I, had written and published a book called Demonology (Marotous). This book focused on the...

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...ches there would have been no play (Baugier). The witches added a plot twist to a normal mans life. The fact that Macbeth was a weak man who was easily manipulated didn't help his role. He let greed, ambition, and power get to his head. This made him do things no one would have ever suspected would come from him.

Macbeth did things such as kill King Duncan, the man who made him the thane of Cawdor, have his best friend Banquo killed for being too smart for his own good because he feared Banquo would discover he killed Duncan, and in the end being an adding factor to why his wife committed suicide. The witches were a main factor of why Macbeth made a 360 degree turn from good to evil in such a small amount of time. This play represents the ability for a man/woman to change in an instant once greed, power, riches, fame, and glory are brought into their life.