Shakespeare uses power to drive the tragic downfall of Macbeth, a noble Scottish warrior corrupted by his ambition for power and the throne. The play reflects contemporary anxieties about kingship, betrayal and the supernatural, particularly as it follows the gunpowder plot. Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s decline and the witches to show the harsh consequences of driving yourself up the chain of being. Ultimately, Shakespeare reveals that we are all capable of evil and must resist it. In Act 1 Scene 2, Shakespeare presents Macbeth’s physical power as noble and righteous. Macbeth is described as “valour’s minion”; the metaphor shows Macbeth’s direct link with bravery and power on the battlefield. Shakespeare also personifies “valour”, with Macbeth as its “minion”, to show how Macbeth controls his power and seemingly knows his place. Macbeth’s sword “smoked with bloody execution”; the shocking violent imagery doesn’t make Macbeth seem evil but instead makes him “brave” and “noble”. Ultimately, Shakespeare shows Macbeth’s violence as an act of righteousness because Macbeth is not ambitious for more power at this point. Instead he controls his physical power, because Shakespeare is revealing that having power is not the issue and can easily make someone even more noble, rather than corrupt them. However, after this Shakespeare reveals the harsh consequences that losing power over your own thoughts and actions can have. After meeting with the witches, Banquo separates himself from them; “Have we eaten on the insane root?” Through this rhetoric question, Banquo gives himself the power to answer his own question. This contrasts Macbeth who begs the “imperfect speakers” to “stay” them in the hope that they will answer his questions. In doing so Macbeth allows the witches to gain power over him when it is clear from Banquo that he did not have to. Shakespeare is warning a Christian, contemporary audience that we are all capable of evil but we must resist it, reflecting even Eve in the garden of Eden. Macbeth has allowed the witches – who worship Satan – to take control of him, which would not favour him in the afterlife. Ultimately, Shakespeare is revealing that everybody has responsibility to control their ambition and maintain power over your own actions. Shakespeare then reveals how power can both corrupt or strengthen through his contrast of Macbeth and Duncan on the Scottish throne. Duncan uses power to make Scotland a strong country; however, when Macbeth kills him it is described as a “sacrilege”. Shakespeare uses religious imagery to show how the destructive nature of Macbeth’s power is a direct threat to the divine right to rule. Macbeth creates a country that is “bloody” and “where good men die”; the semantic field of blood and death mirrors Macbeth’s internal corruption which is now spreading out into Scotland like blood exiting his arteries uncontrollably. By contrasting the worthy and orderly rule of Duncan to Macbeth’s chaotic reign, Shakespeare warns that when power is separated from morality and left uncontrolled, it can lead to the collapse of a nation. Finally, in Act 3 Scene 1, Shakespeare presents uncontrolled power that is achieved through evil as worthless. Shakespeare uses the metaphor of a “fruitless crown” to reveal how Macbeth may have gained power for himself, but has left no legacy. The paranoia of this illegitimate power then causes him to kill his best friend and innocents like Macduff’s family, shown through the zoomorphism of “chickens”. This further separates himself from a normal life and reduces him to just prey on an innocent animal. His final realisation is that power is “a tale told by an idiot”, showing personification and the total emptiness that his ambition has provided him with. But crucially, the use of theatre imagery almost breaks the fourth wall. This literally makes Macbeth the closest to his audience when his life is worthless and meaningless. Ultimately, through Macbeth’s tragic decline Shakespeare warns the contemporary audience not to chase power as it can lead to evil, and instead they must resist it or their lives will be meaningless.