Evil can not always be seen and it leads to major problems. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, evil is a predominant theme. Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare leads the plot into dark scenes with the copious amounts of murder, witchcraft and evil desires of the characters. In the play, the character, Lady Macbeth hears the prophecy from three witches that her husband will be king. Quickly, she decided to take matters into her own hands; however, it ends up leading her husband, Macbeth, down a dark path of destruction. He becomes a tyrant and not able to control his power. Darkness covers the town after Macbeth becomes out of control. Shakespeare uses the theme of evil throughout the play and it can even be seen through the characters. …show more content…
On the outside she may be seen as an angel to the people around her but when her inner thoughts are revealed her nefarious side shines through. In an incident involving her evil side is when Lady Macbeth was thinking killing King Duncan she prays to evil spirits, “... fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up the access and passage to remorse…” (Act 1, scene 5, lines 43-45). Praying to the spirits and asking to be filled with cruelty, characterized her as being evil. A primary reason for this is that the reader sees that she is talking to dark spirits and trying to become more cruel therefore revealing that she is evil. An example of her being portrayed as angelic is when she talks to King Duncan; “Your servants ever Have theirs , themselves, and what is theirs in compt…” (Act 1, scene 6, lines 26-27). Kindly she talked to Duncan about him staying at their house and she acted sweet by saying that they were his servants and everything was at his disposal. This characterizes her as a type of angel because the reader sees her being overly kind and welcoming to Duncan. Together, her evil thoughts and her angelic actions work together to characterize her as an “evil angel” because she has evil thoughts about Duncan but then acts kindly to him. All in all, characterization is shown to contribute in how Lady Macbeth is portrayed but the imagery used also come into