A setting in a castle, ancestral family home, vault or crypt.

This castle hath a pleasant seat. The air/Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself/Unto our gentle senses.; Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure Our setting down before t.

A vendetta or vengeance perpetrated against the protagonist and/or his/her family by the antagonist. Supernatural beings - monsters, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and such. Thunder and lightning. Three WITCHES enter Stage directions; What are these So withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth, Imagery; Double, double toil and trouble,Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. (Second witches)

A damsel (or 2, or 3!) in distress. Unexplainable events. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. Symbolism; Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep (After killing Duncan); (seeing the GHOST) Which one of you did this? (M seeing KD's Ghost); ow did you dareTo trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death,(Hecate to other witches); hunder. The FIRST APPARITION appears, looking like a head with an armored helmet.;

An unrequited love, or illicit love affair or romance. An ancient prophecy foretelling the doom of the All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king protagonist and/or his/her family. hereafter!; You are lesser than Macbeth but also greater.; Macduff was from his mothers womb/ Untimely ripped. (Macduff on himself) An exotic locale, often in a country other than that of the story's origin. An atmosphere of suspense and/or terror. A sound of knocking from offstage.(After killing Duncan- How is t with me when every noise appals me?- all noise scares him); Knock, knock, knock! Whos there, i' th' name of Beelzebub? (Drunken Porter after M kills KD. Adds to suspense of stage directions) Heres a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty...Faith, heres an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Repetition (Porter again here. All in Act 2, Scene 2); Yes, and a brave one, who dares to look at something that would frighten the devil. (M on KD ghost)

Women threatened by tyrannical male/patriarchal figures.

Thou marvelst at my words: but hold thee still. (M isolating self from LM); She should have died hereafter. (on LM deatg) Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep; the multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. (Blood on hands will make the sea red); Tis better thee without than he within. (M to murderer after killing Banquo. I'd rather see blood all over you than in his veins); His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls/ That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool. (M on killing all of B's relatives); Not in the legions/ Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned/ In evils to top Macbeth. (Macduff on M)
Come to my female breast and turn my mothers milk into poisonous acid;Theres nothing serious in

A preoccupation with all things grim and dark

Inducing fear, shock, horror, revulsion extremities of feeling - in the reader are characteristic purposes

mortality. (M saying life is a sick joke pretending- to be upset after KD's death); So is he mine; and in such bloody distance/ That every minute of his being thrusts/ Against my nearst of life. (Every minute he lives hurts, kills me)

Male protagonists may well be men of action, whose role is to overcome whatever the monster is, be it a real monster, or a monster of the mind; women are typically represented as victims

The prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap; We have scorched the snake, not killed it. (M to LM); We are yet but young in deed. (To LM after killing Duncan); Cure her of that.Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased (M telling Dr to cure LM nonchalantly); Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.
Fascination with the past, especially a medieval past Lady Macbeth- Femme Fatale Hurry home so I can persuade you and talk you out of whatever is keeping you from going after the crown (Hurry home so I can persuade you to take the crown); Have pluck'd my

nipple from the boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out; "too full o' the
milk of human kindness" (persuasive); she needs

the divine not a physician The ordered world is often threatened or overturned; the world of reason is overcome by the world of emotion; men and women are placed in situations where they lose control Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.; Two truths are told/ As happy prologues to the swelling act/ Of the imperial theme. aside; The prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap (M believes he has to overstep the King's sons.); but only/ Vaulting ambition; Yes, and a brave one, who dares to look at something that would frighten the devil. (M on KD ghost); I keep a servant feed. (M to LM, after going crazy at KD's ghost; his paranoia); Horrible sight! Now I see tis true; (M seeing B relatives as Kings in mirror); Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane/ I cannot taint with fear. Whats the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman?

Psychologically disturbed characters

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs Sefl-reflective narration (Macbeth essentinally wondering why he sees himself killing the King); Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness(LM worrying about M's kindish nature); Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here(LM wanting masculinity); But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,/ Wed jump the life to come. (M: I'd risk my soul for the position); Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/ And dashed the brains out imagery; Out, damned spot! Out, (LM on blood); She should have died hereafter. (on LM death)

Some stories conclude with the victory of the Gothic forces that disturb human order; some conclude with the victory of the rational and the ordered An interest in sensibility the capacity for quickness and strength of feeling

Why then, Gods soldier be he! (victory of the contextual rational- religion and the King); That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, We will perform in measure, time, and place. (similar)
O, never/ Shall sun that morrow see!(LM saying Duncan wont see tomorrow); Thou hast it now:

king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,/ As the weird women promised, and I fear Thou playedst most foully for t. Aside (Banquo, after Macbeth has been crowned King.); And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which

keeps me pale. (M on killing Banquo- his strong desire to do so.) Attack upon religion
I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.; Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a

knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell; But wherefore could not I pronounce Amen? I had most need of blessing(Why has God deserted me when I need him most); Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope The Lords anointed temple (Macduff); Banquo, thy souls flight,/ If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. (M after sending murderers after Banquo); Metaphor. Allegory. (Lennox stating what a crime it is to kill a father); though you untie the winds and let them fight Against the churches, though the yeasty waves Confound and swallow navigation up, (M to Witches; I don't care if you tear down the churches); Hanging a golden stamp about their necks/ Put on with holy prayers. And, tis spoken (Religion cures. Malcolm). Hell is murky! (Lm after blood on hands); Foul whisp'rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds/ Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds...More needs she the divine than the physician. (Doctor on LM)

Narratives may concern themselves with villainous aristocrats, often imprisoning, threatening, or exploiting their victims