Macbeth is a play majorly concerned with the battle between good and evil - throughout the play we continually see signs of a supernatural struggle between the two, with evil 'winning' over good when Macbeth finally murders the king and also when good finally defeats evil when Macbeth is slain. Yet as for Lady Macbeth we see that she can no longer cope with the guilt of evil and therefore chooses to take her own life. Let us look at the theme of good and evil in greater depths.
The play opens with the immediate introduction of the Three Witches. It is important that the witches are on stage for the beginning Scene as it will immediately establish a mood of suspicion and fear. During the period religion was paramount yet at the same time they were very superstitious. Therefore it would be alarming for them to have immediately met the Witches. The suggestion of black magic would have made the audience feel tense as they felt that the Witches were capable of all kinds of arcane deeds. Many even went on to say that they were in a league with the devil. It is here that we have the introduction of evil into the play. In this scene also we have the very simple stage direction of, "thunder and lightning."" It is here once more that we have the presentation of evil from an external force and Shakespeare uses the dramatic tool of pathetic fallacy, where the mood reflects that of the character on stage.Further King James had a fascination with the occult and he wrote a text on the supernatural called demonology. In doing so, James tapped into the societal fear of witchcraft. .
Immediately, Lady Macbeth is presented as a ruthless, driven woman who breaks all social conventions. When we first see her in Act I scene V her duplicity can be seen when she says, "Look like th'innocent flower but be the serpent under't"." This shows us that she has no shame in lying or pretending to be someone else. Also a "serpent " has connotations of satan from the Bible within the book of Genesis.
