Gothic elements to Macbeth

I'll be totally honest, i don't for a minute believe there are any gothic elements to Macbeth as  the term "Gothic" stems from the 1800s, as an offshoot of the romantic movement. To be specific its origins are generally attributed to Horace Walpole's novel the Castle of Otaro; But on the other hand, can you have Freudian ideas before Freud? It appears so, as Freud has often been applied to Hamlet's supposed desire for his mother. However i would argue that in Shakespearean times, things that could be percieved as  "gothic elements" such as the witches meant very different things than they would mean in Gothic terms. The Gothic was a time fighting against the enlightenment, the 1800s was a time when everything could supposedly be explained, science was taking new steps and Gothicism was in a sense fighting against the idea. However the witches in Shakespearean times were real, people were being burnt at the stake for witchraft and the king at the time James the first had a strange obsession with witches and as a playwrite it was in his interest to be in the good books of the monarch. Ok i'll get on with it now.

The very first scene of Macbeth can be percieved as having got gothic written all over it.  The setting of ‘Thunder and lightning’ gives a dark tone to the play and the fact that the only characters introduced so far are 3 witches, (which i've already spoken about),  can also be percieved as setting the mood for the gothic themes to follow. The imagery used in this first short scene alone really set the mood for the rest of the play, simply using pathetic fallacy to set the scene and also with the language used by the witches ‘fair is foul and foul is fair:’, this riddley dialogue used by the witches adds mystery to their characters and also to the scene, it has the adience trying to work it out and so increases their attention to the scene. Already within the first scene as a reader we get the idea that something bad is going to happen from the setting and mysterious language, and we are asking questions; who, why?

 Moreover throughout the act there is evidence of prophecies and foreshadowing,  not only from the three witches but also from Banquo and Lady Macbeth, this emphasises the theme of methaphysicality within the play and  the gothic element that this entails. In Scene 3 (Line 120-126) Banquo says 'instruments of darkness tell us truths...to betray consequence', meaning that the witches tell part of the truth in order to cause trouble - this prediction as we know is spot on, but it is strange that Banquo makes this judgement especially since he makes such an almost impartial part in the play. Also in Scene 6, immediately Lady Macbeth doubts Macbeth's character 'Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o'th' milk of human kindness', in scene 7, this prophetical dialogue is proven true by Macbeth's immediate doubts of the murder of Duncan, ‘bloody instructions which being taught, return to plague th’inventor’.

An interesting gothic element of Act 1 which stands out to me is the idea of darkness and goodness; both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth make a reference to this. In Scene 4 Macbeth in a soliloquy says ‘Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires’ (L50-51). This suggests that Macbeth doesn’t want the stars to shine their light so that his evil deeds can be concealed in darkness, however I also interpreted this in a different way, that the ‘light’ of the stars refers to the good within people, and Macbeth does not want this good to shine on his evil deeds, as he knows he will be influenced, possible reference to Banquo? Or his own conscience? I feel this quote displays the dark, sinister torment that is going on inside Macbeth’s head, typical of the Gothic period.