How has Shakespeare created a sense of growing evil by the end of Act 1 of Macbeth?

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How has Shakespeare created a sense of growing evil by the end of Act 1 of Macbeth?

Macbeth is a Shakespearean book on the theme of supernatural and in some sense horror. Throughout the book, you sense the evidence of evil growing, with it becoming more powerful and overpowering the good until the final battle. The bulk of the transformation from good to evil occurs in the first act, when both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are enticed with evil spirits. My essay will explain how evil is growing and becoming more influential in Act 1 especially in terms of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth paying special attention to the symbolism used.    

     The opening of Macbeth instantly starts with the spur of evil. The setting of the witches in the dark heath with the bad weather gives you the impression of evilness growing as they stir up their soup of words. It’s a supernatural introduction to the book, which as all books, is the most important part as it sets the storyline of the book and gives the reader a natural sense of the book. It’s an omen to the book. The fact that the sun is setting and that light is vanishing and that dark is beginning to peak and ‘grow’ shows the introduction of the metamorphosis.

     This second scene shows the introduction of the king, Macbeth and the other ‘noble’ warriors. Macbeth enters the story as a brave warrior, which just defeated a ‘traitor’ to the king and is being rewarded by the king in compliments. King Duncan also uses the phrase ‘that most disloyal traitor’ to the person Macbeth defeated, which we know is ironic as later on, Macbeth turns on the king. The king also uses a lot of epithets to describe Macbeth, which turns out to be the opposite of what he should have done. He also made Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, which was the title of the soldier he had killed in battle. The fact that the original Thane of Cawdor was a traitor and then Macbeth inherited the name and then he himself became a traitor signifies that he inherited everything, including his bad ways and treachery. The weather imagery comes back during the captain’s speech. He talks about terrible storms and disastrous thunder. This is a short scene, which symbolically means that good scenes are shortening and evil scenes are ‘growing’ and becoming longer.

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     The third scene shows the reintroduction of the witches as well as the introduction of Macbeth. Strangely enough, the first phrase Macbeth uses is ‘so foul and fair…’ which are also one of the first words which the witches use. This echo of words shows Macbeth as having the potential of being evil but not ready to employ it. This scene also plays with Macbeth’s mind a lot. It seems like the witches could be the figment of Macbeth’s mind. His mind shows confusion and weariness in this scene. He’s unclear about true fate. This is exaggerated when ...

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