In contrast to these good and honourable men, there are characters in the play that are evil and cause more harm than good. The witches, even though they only feature in three scenes, control and strongly influence the plot. The premonitions given to Macbeth cause him to turn to evil and by foretelling the premonitions the witches dictate the plot. The evil deeds that they speak of are such that they cause storms; kill people; ‘killing swine’, and other tragic events. They cause changes in the weather; as the witches enter each scene thunder is heard and in Act 1 scene 3 and they speak of control the weather; ‘I’ll give thee a wind’. This control of the weather reflects the opinion of the witches throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. They were seen as outcasts of society and both Banquo and Macbeth describe them as ‘weird sisters’, showing that they are not truly human and this is also shown due to their strong evil nature, which humans do not naturally have.
Some characters do however sway between good and evil. Macbeth at the start of the play is a good spirited and a trustworthy man, like Macduff later in the play. Macbeth is a strong character but as the play develops his encounter with the witches in Act 1 scene 3, his character changes from a good nobleman to an evil murderer. This change takes place due to exterior influences such as Lady Macbeth and the Witches who sway his thoughts and opinions to evil ones. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan, even though Macbeth originally he persuades himself not to do it in Act 1 scene 7. The witches inspire Macbeth to continue carrying out the murders as their foretelling are prosperous and show a great and positive outlook as far as gaining control is concerned. The thought of the witches soon controls Macbeth and he is unable to prevent the evil from processing his thoughts. The point in the play when he becomes evil is in Act 2 Scene 2 when he admits that he ‘could not say ‘Amen’’. He becomes so involved in evil ‘that should I [Macbeth] wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er’. The evil has taken such a great hold on Macbeth that he has totally lost all sights of regaining his righteousness again.
Lady Macbeth also sways between good and evil, but the witches do not influence her. It is Lady Macbeth that influences and persuades Macbeth to commit the first murder. She requests the aid of the evil spirits and orders them to ‘unsex me [Lady Macbeth] here.’ This request takes her femininity away from her, leaving her with no sensitive feelings and emotions, allowing her to commit the murder and immediately feel no guilt from it. However as the play develops Lady Macbeth starts to regain this femininity and she feels guilty for the murder of Duncan, is scared of darkness and becomes very small and passive in her relationship with Macbeth. Her sleep patterns become disturbed and she is unable to sleep peacefully, constantly awaking and sleep walking (Act 5 scene 1). The collapse and weakening of her evil nature causes Lady Macbeth to lose her own mind and in effect has a nervous breakdown, eventually committing suicide. She is tormented by evil and as she is tormented by it and not welcoming it shows that at the end of the play she is not evil, but instead scared of it.
It is not only the characters that struggle between the presence of good and evil, but nature too is unable to stand up to evil. On the night that Duncan was murdered great storms that had never been seen before were experienced. Nature was turned to the wrong way; owls killed falcons and horses escaped and ate each other. These acts reflected those done by Macbeth. In terms of the King, Macbeth was far lower than him in the hierarchy, like an owl is not as dominant as a falcon. However, Macbeth and Duncan were both considered to be good and honest men, so they were the same as far as goodness is concerned so the horses eating each other shows this.
Natural patterns such as sleep are also disturbed by the occurrence of evil. Macbeth hears voices saying to him, ‘Sleep no more: / Macbeth does murder sleep’, meaning that he shall sleep like Duncan did on the night of his murder; troubled and disturbed. This panics him because sleep allows the body to recover and as a result start the net day fresh and alive, but if Macbeth is unable to sleep he cannot start the day anew and will deteriorate in his mental condition. Lady Macbeth is also greatly affected by sleep and after the murder she is unable to sleep peacefully. She sleep walks during the night and is haunted by the blood on her hands trying to wash away the stains on her hand. The stains on her hands are her guilt that she cannot remove with water. Although she said ‘A little water clears us of this dead.’ allowing her to remove the outward guilt, she is destroyed and troubled by her permanent memories of the murder of Duncan. She cannot erase this and both the imagery of blood and sleep is shown through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to be the consequences of evil.
Light and darkness also features very strongly in the play and is one of the main themes, which stems from the theme of good and evil. Light represents good and darkness represents evil. Before any murder is carried out both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth ask for darkness; ‘Stars hide your fires’, ‘Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,’. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are initially ashamed and certainly not proud of the murder they commit but as they believe it is necessary, in order for Macbeth to become King they carry the murder out but under ‘the blanket of dark’ so no one sees what they do.
The witches are said to be able to control the weather and the weather changes according to events in the play. As the play turns towards evil the weather get more disturbing and tormenting. At each murder, where a good man is killed the weather becomes violent and such that it is compared to ‘strange screams of death’. The morning after Duncan’s murder Lennox commented that ‘The night has been unruly… Some say, the earth / Was feverous and did shake.’ This unnatural nature of the weather reflects the unnatural character of the evil present in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
The extent of the influence of evil in Macbeth and the Witches is so strong that Lennox describes as a destroyed country; ‘Alas, poor country, / Almost afraid to know itself… good men’s lives/ Expire before the flowers in their caps, / Dying or they are sicken.’ By this statement he means that no good man in Scotland is safe for fear of being killed due to the evil influence in the country. The good men of Scotland cannot stand the country any longer as it is under the ruling of Macbeth, so Macduff, Lennox, Ross, and other noblemen of the country go to England to find Malcolm and restore the rightful heir to the throne. This conflict between the good men of Scotland and the evil Macbeth is the main struggle between good and evil and allows much imagery and metaphors to form from this plot.
The plot is such that it forms a circle. The beginning of the play is good with a strong influence from the good noblemen and the King but as the power of evil takes effect on Scotland the plot turns evil and reaches its climax. This when Macbeth says; ‘that should I [Macbeth] wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er’ and when Lady Macbeth notes that there is no difference between the day and the night. However the play takes a U-turn and Macduff causes the play to replace evil with good. The play ends with good triumphant over evil; killing Macbeth and regaining control over Scotland.
The struggle between good and evil is such that it moulds the plot and control the character’s actions. The good characters fall under the power of the of the evil characters at the start of the play but regain their composure and regain their strength at the end taking control of the play and causing good to become the overall most righteous. Evil is strong but is unable to last the length of the play or stand up to good when faced with a battle between the two. The play shows that to be good is the right thing to do as evil only leads to confusion and distress of the mind.
