At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as a “noble” and obedient subject when introduced to us after his recent victory for the king. However, on his journey home from battle, he comes across three witches whose prophecies both intrigue and unnerve him with their seductive promises of power "you will be king from now on!". His attitude towards these predictions, although initially apprehensive, "why do you flinch and seem to be afraid?" it will soon turn into desire "he seems rapt" this would have been considered irrational behavior to the Jacobean public of the time who treated the supernatural with fear and suspicion. Macbeth's natural inclination to escape the witches is contrasted by his overriding desire for power and position "stay, ye imperfect orators tell me more", this demonstrates his desire for power, which indicates that although he is a hero there are latent flaws in him. his character as well as his ambition which he allows to dictate his actions. His reactions contrast with Banqou's line "May the devil speak true" which embodies the Jacobean attitude of the time and serves to further highlight the irrationality of Macbeth's response. Contradictorily, at the beginning of Sir Conan Doyle's novel, Sherlock is described as "the most perfect reasoning and observing machine the world has ever seen", his comparison with a machine and his aversion to emotions give us the clear impression of a "cold" and calculating character. However, in direct contrast to this, Watson gives us a description of his mood swings "alternating between cocaine and ambition", as well as his initial behavior "pacing back and forth around the room rapidly, enthusiastically" challenges this previous impression of his "perfection" with his v. ..... middle of paper ...... mental imbalance is made clear to the audience by his impatience for the battle to begin, 'creeps into this mean pace from today' the use of personification with the word 'creeps' suggests Macbeth feels that every minute is boring and eternal now that he has no reason to live it. Furthermore this impression is reinforced by his subsequent self-exclaimed death wish, "Out, out the brief candle", which signifies for the audience his final recognition of all he has done in his ambition-fueled effort for power and his subsequent interpretation of life being nothing. "but a walking shadow" is used to imply that he now believes that life is transitory and meaningless and that all of his sacrifices, such as his afterlife, were for something of little significance. For the contextual audience this would represent his definitive transformation into an irrefutably disturbed character