We see a trio of howling, shrieking ugly hags gathered in a thunderstorm, cackling greedily over their evil plans. ... The antithesis suggests a metaphysical game, which is about to be played with good and evil. ... Colossal and awe-inspiring though they may be, Shakespeare seems to be saying that evil is also banal and petty. ... Mac Beth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. ... The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one's quest for power, it is dif...

• Word Count: 1690
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography

Stein sums up the problem as: If Satan is a tragic hero, it is because we are not honestly willing to test good by evil. ... The heroism in Satan is so evident that it can even help the reader see past the omnipotence of God for a moment. ... They are defiled by the evil to which they are consecrated. ... Everything that can be seen as good in Satan can just as easily be seen as perverted in evil, and the situation is the same with his evil traits. ... The only way he can find happiness is to do evil. ...

• Word Count: 2236
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

From then on, after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth entered into a life of evil. ... Macbeth wanted to ensure that he would reach his ambition without problems. ... For example, his fighting in Duncan's service is magnificent and courageous, and his evident joy in it is traceable in art to the natural pleasure which accompanies the explosive expenditure of prodigious physical energy and the euphoria which follows. ... Indeed his imagination and passions are so vivid under this evil impulse from without that "nothing is but what is not"; and his reason is so impeded that he judges, "These ...

• Word Count: 2254
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate