The Supernatural In Macbeth

In the play of ‘Macbeth' by William Shakespeare the witches have an important effect on Macbeth, the characters, the plot, the theme and the audience. They help construct the play and without them it would have been a totally different story line. The three weird sisters influence Macbeth in his acts, they effect characters lives, orientate the plot, they are related to most of the themes and appeal the audience's attention.

Automatically the audience views Macbeth’s association with the witches to be an association with the devil. During the time of when this play was written witches were viewed in a totally different light than they are today. Back then witches were viewed as the devils spawn, or a piece of hell on earth. These characters interested the audience in a certain way that they had an evil effect on the play. The people were intrigued by the supernatural beings, they were curious to comprehend these characters. By including witches into the play it could have

Macbeth, a tragedy, a well-known work of Shakespeare filled with physiological challenges, supernatural events, and even death, is a part of many superstitions. There is a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish Curse that says it is considered bad luck to say the name Macbeth inside a theater because it will cause the performance to end in disaster. Some people say that the supernatural events in the play Macbeth can only truly be seen as supernatural; others say the events are just a product of insanity. Many supernatural events in Macbeth such as his encounter with the witches, are a product of the insanity of the one and only Macbeth, himself. The results of Macbeth’s insanity originate from the true supernatural events, the actions of his wife, Lady Macbeth, and all of the murder he commits.

The witches play an important role they have the ability to predict the future and affect it too. Without their warnings and predictions Macbeth wouldn’t have chosen to act in the way he did. In their second appearance they prophesize that that he cannot be harmed by no one born of woman, a child with a crown represents Malcolm, and he’s warned about the moving Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill. “But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate” (4.1.83-84).

When Shakespeare wrote his play, Macbeth in 1606 a large majority of people were interested in witchcraft. This is why Shakespeare made the witches and the witches’ prophecies play a major part in the storyline of the play. In the time of Macbeth witches were not thought to be supernatural beings themselves, but supposedly gained their powers by selling their souls to Satan. There can be little doubt that most of Shakespeare’s audience would have believed in witches, and for the purpose of the play, at least, Shakespeare also accepted their reality.

The supernatural has always fascinated and continues to intrigue mankind. In many of Shakespeare’s plays, he uses the supernatural to strengthen a particular scene or to influence the impression the audience has about someone or something. This was not strange or uncommon in Shakespeare’s time. In fact, during the 1500s, many people still believed in witches and witchcraft. Even in today’s society, with such advanced science and technology, many people are still influenced, if not dictated by the supernatural. For example, religious people have the belief that their saviour, Jesus Christ was a man of many miracles; one of which was he turned water into wine. Despite the fact that it

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are many fascinating sections which could be focused on due to the suspense and the connection of the supernatural. The supernatural is what causes conflict in the play and the prophecies from the witches in act one scene three is the inciting action in the piece. The supernatural causes the forthcoming conflict by inspiring Macbeth to execute Duncan so he could become king of Scotland. Through temptation, the supernatural stimulates Macbeth to contemplate arrogantly and for his own advantage. The supernatural in Macbeth presents prophecies which tempt Macbeth with the idea of power. This leads Macbeth to contradict his faithful and courageous nature by planning an assassination on King Duncan with the egotistical intention of becoming king and later annihilating other characters in the play with the determination of retaining his own powers. Macbeth was tempted by the original prophecies and showed clear motivation to act upon them.

Firstly, the use of the witches in the play is a key element in the

In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the supernatural and the role it plays in motivating characters is present throughout the duration of the play. The supernatural causes conflict in the play and the prophecies from the witches in act one is the inciting action. The apparition, Banquos ghost, and the dagger are examples of how the presence of the supernatural causes conflict. The theme of the supernatural causing conflict in Macbeth plays an important role in the plot of the play.

Thunder and lightning is used once again to open Act I Scene 3. As the

In Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare uses an underlying motif of the supernatural to control the characters and add a new dimension to the play.

How does Shakespeare present the Supernatural in Macbeth? There are several ways in which the Supernatural is presented throughout the tragedy Macbeth, including the abnormal characteristics of the witches, through Macbeth’s hallucinations and through acts of transgression, which chronicle how deeply Macbeth is affected by the supernatural. The witches are presented as dark, sinister creatures as Macbeth was written in 1606, when a Jacobean audience would be very fearful of any type of witchcraft because they were thought to be working with the devil and would bring harm to the Jacobean community. Additionally the witches are a major part of the play because everything Macbeth does is predicted by the witches and due to the Monarch’s obsession and paranoia with witchcraft. One influential way Shakespeare exposes the presence of the supernatural is at the onset of Act 1, Scene 1 when the stage directions call for ‘(thunder and lighting)’

It is human nature to be intrigued by all things mystical and dangerous. We fear the unknown but seek it nonetheless out of greed. Most of Shakespeare’s works hold an element of the supernatural and the play Macbeth is no exception. In this play we see a contemporary morality that warns of the dangers of trafficking with instruments of darkness; the witches in the play prophesize of Macbeths future as king, and Macbeth blinded by his hunger for power fails to recognize that the witches prophecies are luring him to evil . In act 1 scène 3 we see the effect that the excitement of the prophecies has had on his imagination as he begins to contemplate murdering the king. As Macbeth gets closer to

In the beginning of the story the witches were a catalyst to Macbeth's development of being overzealous because they gave him the prophecy of being king but not how he would become king. Macbeth says, "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are different themes that occur in the play. Two important themes that take place in Macbeth are the supernatural and prophecy. The supernatural and the prophecy are essential to Macbeth because it carries the atmosphere of how the play is presented through the book. In essence by using the supernatural and prophecy in the play, we see how it affects Macbeth and the decisions he elects that is his freewill.