Macbeth and the Human Potential for EvilMacbeth is a study of the human potential for evil; illustrates, although not completely in a religious context, the Christian concept of humanity's loss of God's grace. The triumph of evil in a man with many good qualities becomes evident, as the reader is made aware that the potential for evil is frighteningly present in all humanity and requires only the wrong circumstances and a relaxation of our desire for good to consume your own mind. The good in Macbeth cries out shrillly through his feverish imagination, but the instigation of a supernatural power, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth's worldly ambition combine to crush his better nature. Shakespeare's representation of supernatural evil in Macbeth takes shape within Macbeth, who himself is the representation. of the supernatural world; this is seen as his ambition leads him to an addiction to witches and their predictions, and it is this addiction that consumes him and allows evil and the supernatural to command his life. Evil exists outside of the protagonist, in the world of black magic, most strikingly represented by witches. The appearance of these incarnations of the Devil in the opening act establishes the play's tone of mysterious evil. The witches cause Macbeth to respond in ways that, along with the witches' predictions, fuel his ambition. When Macbeth finally recognizes that their predictions were not what they seemed, he denounces "'the demon's equivocation, that lies as the truth'". As the words roll off his tongue, Macbeth touches on the Witch's most important quality, which warps the vine they interfere with because they disturb a necessary... medium of paper... a power of evil. Macbeth gives in to temptation in an almost ritualistic way. He recognizes all evil and then proceeds, ready to accept “deep damnation” from the moment he first recognizes the temptation until he has no alternative left (1.7). Even though Macbeth is equipped with this knowledge, he begins a downward spiral that ultimately leads to his demise. Macbeth, which contains some of Shakespeare's greatest poems, offers one of literature's most striking accounts of an individual's soul's descent into the darkness of evil, and subsequent isolation from society. Macbeth's rejection of morality and its consequences—the loss of his soul and the upheaval of the society he influences—horrifies the reader. This is a tragedy as terrifying as the plots and wars of the real kings and usurpers of Shakespeare's time.