Aspects Of The Gothic

Aspects of the Gothic (AO2, AO3, AO4)
Power
It is a much later aphorism that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but this seems to define the core of Macbeth nicely.   Power is a recurrent theme in Gothic texts.   In Paradise Lost Satan resents God’s power and yearns for his own; Dr Faustus revolves around the idea that knowledge is power (and yet ironically, once he has access to unlimited knowledge Faustus fails to capitalise on it); Frankenstein and Dracula explore the power of life and death.   Macbeth sits well in this tradition – we have all sorts of power, from the physical power of Macbeth who can slice a man in two on the battlefield through the power of women over men to the power of guilt to drive one to madness.

Title
There is a tendency for Gothic texts to have an eponymous (anti-)hero – ie their name is also the title.   Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr Faustus, The Monk (OK, not a name, but kind of), Christabel, Hamlet, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – all the way down to modern Gothic texts such as Stephen King’s Carrie.   Not really a good analytical point, but quite a nice throwaway remark if the question’s right.

Night-time Action
Macbeth is full of the imagery of darkness.   Early in the play Macbeth pleads that the ‘stars hide [their] fires / Let not light see my black and deep desires’, and from then on most of the key plot points – the killing of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the arrival of Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking – take place in darkness.   Linked to this idea is the theme of sleep.   On killing Duncan, Macbeth fears he ‘shall sleep no more’; his actions leave him unable to reap the benefits of the ‘Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care’.   The message is rather unsubtly put across – that night time is a time to sleep, not to murder.  

Horror and Terror
There are plenty of instances of both horror and terror in the text.   At a crude level the two themes meet the differing needs of the...