actions and murders of Macbeth and his wife. The reversal of the natural order is announced from the introductory lines of the play, in the discourse of the three witches: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair"(1.1.12) The main plot of the play, the killing of Duncan, the king of Scotland, is a common subject for tragedy during the Renaissance age, and a recurrent one in Shakespeare's plays. The belief that royalty was foreordained by divinity explains why the act of murdering a king was considered as a reversal of order and of values. When the murder is done, the old man significantly proclaims it as "unnatural", comparing it to the killing of a falconer by an owl. Thus, throughout the play, there are direct hints to the reversal of nature caused by the dreadful murders, as well as descriptions that reveal absolute natural disorder, like the sun's refusal to shine for example. Thus, the virtues attributed to man by the Renaissance humanism become corrupted in Macbeth. Giving in to evil, Macbeth betrays his own humanity. Significantly, at first the thane is the rescuer and the hero of the kingdom, gaining thus the sincere appreciation of king Duncan. Under the spur of his unnatural ambition, his good character becomes corrupted. He willingly fights against his humane instincts that tell him to abandon the murderous plans and tries to bend his own nature and to ply his character to his new role as a perpetrator of evil: "I am settled and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat./ Away, and mock the time with fairest show; False face must hide what the false heart doth know." (Macbeth, I. vii. 79-82) The need o the false guise indicates that Macbeth struggles to overcome his own humanity and thus transforms himself into an instrument of evil. After the first murder, Macbeth already loses the use of his re
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