Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's four great tragedies encompassing witchcraft bloody murder ghostly apparitions as well as high poetry blended in such a way as to demonstrate the assured dramatic touch of Shakespeare's maturity. Macbeth's tragedy is that of a good brave & honourable man turned into the personification of evil by the workings of unreasonable ambition. It was a lesson lost on King James I & VI for whom the play was written.