Macbeth is a brave soldier who is living a double life.

He must ‘look like

th’innocent flower,’ this conveys how Macbeth portrays himself as soft and
patriotic. The use of the word flower shows how he must be gentle. These plays
into classic stereotypes as flowers are feminine and in the time that Macbeth was
written woman were seen as weak and futile. However Macbeth must also be a
‘serpent.’ This conveys how he must be sneaky. The use of serpent helps to play
into religious beliefs of Christians as the snake in Adam and Eve tempts them and
helps them to go behind God’s back, this is even more prevalent as the King is
said to be the divine appointment of God.

Lady Macbeth is portrayed as supernatural. She says ‘come, you spirits’. From
this the reader can infer that she is associated with the ‘metaphysical’ This
conveys how Lady Macbeth has power as in Shakespearian times woman did not
normally have power unless they were ‘Weïrd’. From this we can infer that
whilst Lady Macbeth has the power in her relationship with Macbeth it is
because she is associated with ‘spirits’ and therefore was believed to be
controlled by the ‘devil’.