MacBeth Gothic elements essay - 9th grade

MacBeth is regarded as one of the best tragedies by Shakespeare, it depicts a change of MacBeth from hero at the beginning of the play to a tyrannical king. Even though the Gothic genre was pioneered by Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (1764) while Macbeth was first played in 1606. MacBeth holds multiple elements like gothic stories, like events of horror and violence, its location is also set in an ancient castle in Scotland’s heaths. Gothic texts depend on the sentiment of terror, horror and revealing the issues of our society. MacBeth is the perfect example of that: even though he is described as a loyal soldier he kills the king avid for power, due to his wife’s bad influence. This play uses many gothic features: supernatural creatures, murderers and ghosts, wild landscapes and even notions of isolation and loneliness; this helps create a creepy atmosphere.

Right from the beginning of the play, we are plunged into a world of foulness, with the witches’ appearance: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair…” In this scene, we learn about the prophecy and the setting of this act, a deserted heath with thunder and lightning where the witches meet to greet Macbeth. Thunder, rain and deserted places often appear in modern gothic stories. The weather on the heath is hostile to human like in most modern gothic stories: “fog and filthy air”, this can be seen as a sign of the evil events to come.

Other representative gothic elements appear throughout the play, like the night: symbol of death. All key scenes such as the murder of King Duncan, and the appearance of Banquo’s ghost happen in nighttime, surrounded with darkness. Other gothic features like castles that often are associated with murder appear in Macbeth. In Macbeth, the castle is an essential location since it is where the new fife of Cawdor is manipulated by his wife, Lady Macbeth and kills Duncan. All the important actions also take place in castles: Duncan’s death and the conspiracy against Macbeth. The castle first appears when Lady Macbeth reads the letter about the prophecy that Macbeth sent her, it is in this scene that Lady Macbeth decides to achieve the fulfillment of the witches’ prophecy.

Everything that happens to Macbeth from the very beginning of the play to the end have Gothic elements: the prophecy, the murder of King Duncan and his tragic end. When first reading this play, we can think that Macbeth is only manipulated by his wife. However, MacBeth said: “let not light see my black and deep desires” whilst talking about the prince of Cumberland, this clearly stipulates that MacBeth has a desire to get rid of him since he is the only one standing between him and the throne. This proves that MacBeth is a tyrannical ruler like in most gothic fictions: he is brutal, and his hands are obsessed with blood. MacBeth’s priority after getting crowned was to order the murder of his closest friend: Banquo, whose child is said to be king according to the Witches. This order helps create a scary and fearful atmosphere. Even though MacBeth is the main character, he is not the only one to own gothic vibes, one of the main characters in this play featuring gothic elements is Lady MacBeth. MacBeth’s

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