![]() He becomes more concerned with what might happen rather than reality ('nothing is, but what is not') and uses evil methods to achieve his desires. The wicked thoughts he has are almost worse than the actual deeds ('Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings'). Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is, /īefore the first murder of the play takes place there is a slow build up as Macbeth wrestles with his conscience. Shakes so my single state of man that function / My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, / As well as murder, Macbeth is also guilty of lying, deception, cowardice, seeking out further contact with evil forces, behaving brutally with both physical and verbal violence and showing a lack of love and concern for others. The Witches' predictions encourage Macbeth to think wicked thoughts and carry out evil deeds. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses evil and the supernatural as a background to all the events which take place. When Shakespeare came to write his play, he knew that his audience would find the theme of evil and the supernatural very interesting indeed. The interest came from the very top, led by King James I himself who published a book on the subject called Demonology. Hundreds of innocent people (mostly women) were executed as suspected witches. In particular there was a fascination with witches and witchcraft. In Shakespeare's time, the powers of evil were thought to be absolutely real to most people Hell was an actual place and the Devil a constant threat to their souls. ![]() ![]() Witches and witchcraft were thought to be real in Shakespeare's time ![]()
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