Macbeth

Shakespeare's Macbeth is a study of the evil that is in every human heart, and of one man's downfall as he wilfully gives way to its

temptations. Returning from battle, Macbeth is greeted by three witches, who tell him that he will one day become king. As a reward

for his military successes, he then receives the title of Thane of Cawdor from King Duncan, confirming part of the witches' prophecy.

Once Macbeth arrives back at his estate, Lady Macbeth spurs her husband's ambition forward, and together they hatch a plan to kill

the king and thereby hasten Macbeth's accession to the throne. In Act 2, Scene ii, Lady Macbeth is waiting while her husband carries

out the murder. When he enters in disarray, the murder weapons still in his bloodstained hands, she takes it upon herself to frame

Duncan's grooms for the killing, and to ensure that her husband's guilt is concealed. The Lady's purposeful activity provides a stark

contrast to Macbeth's almost paralytic state as he becomes locked into an obsessive contemplation of the bloody deed. Lady Macbeth

berates him for allowing such fearful imaginings to distract him, but to a 17th-century audience Macbeth's account of his inability to

say "amen" to the grooms' prayer clearly illustrates the real peril of his soul. Transfixed by the horror of his crime and the power that

it promises, he consciously rejects the possibility of repentance, salvation, and an eternal future for the man that he has been--he