Gothic villain - Macbeth himself or Lady Macbeth? M overcomes
being "valient" and "too full of the milk of human kindness" to
become a much more evil character - does this make him worse
than Lady M who is always evil and eventually repents??
Castles are where much of the action takes place -
Duncan is killed at Macbeth's castle and Macduff's
castle is the scene of Lady Macduff and her son's
murder
Supernatural element - the witches, Hecate,
the storm when Duncan dies, all part of The
Gothic. In fact, the supernatural is what drives
much of the plot
Liminality - liminal spaces also provide important places
for scenes to take place e.g. Macbeth meets the witches
"upon the heath", and Banquo's murder takes place on a
path to the castle - nowhere in particular
A central struggle between good and evil - evil Macbeth and
Lady M have gone against nature, God and the natural order
and are being fought by Malcolm and Macduff etc
Gothic heroine is missing - Lady Macbeth
is intrinsically evil and all other females are
absent - though this can be a Gothic
characteristic too
Is actually pre-Gothic as Castle of
Otranto comes after, but can be said to
have been the inspiration behind the
Gothic
Isolation and loneliness - Macbeth is isolated in his fears
about treason; "bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
to plague th' inventor," and Lady M becomes more isolated as
she goes mad - "what's done cannot be undone"
Lady Macebth
Persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan - yet is this
due to her being intrinsically evil or because M
manipulates her into doing so? "screw your
courage to the sticking place"