A wise man named Joseph Conrad quoted, “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” A man alone has the power in his own hands to cause all the wickedness and evilness. Every action is responsible of the depth of a person’s beliefs. A person’s belief always effects their actions in many ways. Conversely, also selfishness can cause wickedness. There is always a story behind a man’s action. The supernatural be a major role in someone’s actions. In the play Macbeth, the supernatural was a major factor on the play’s style. Of the supernatural occurrence evident in the play were the witches, which they were the most important. Other occurrences were the dagger, the ghost, and the three apparitions. It all started when the three witches came to Macbeth and his best friend Banquo and said to Macbeth, “ All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (1.3.53). Regarding what the witches have notified what Macbeth’s good news are, Banquo also asks about his predictions and what his good news are, the witches also notify him that one of his sons will be a king. When Macbeth goes home, he shares the news with his wife, Lady Macbeth, and she tells him that he should be king and that she wants to be a queen as well, therefore she insinuates a plan that Macbeth must murder his cousin, King Duncan. Macbeth was not happy with his plan, but because of how much Lady Macbeth made him feel less of man and she kept pushing him. As Macbeth was walking to murder his cousin from the same blood, he starts hallucinating about the dagger, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I have thee still. Art thou not, f... ... middle of paper ... ...stions regardless of whether the consequence be violent and destructive to nature. The witches promise to answer and at Macbeth's choice they add further unnatural ingredients to the cauldron and call up their masters. This is where the prophetic apparitions appear. The first apparition is Macbeth's own head (later to be cut off by Macduff) confirming his fears of Macduff. The second apparition tells Macbeth that he can not be harmed by no one born of woman. This knowledge gives Macbeth a false sense of security because he believes that he cannot be harmed, yet Macduff was not of woman born, his mother was dead and a corpse when Macduff was born. This leads to Macbeth's downfall. A child with a crown on his head, the third apparition, represents Malcolm, Duncan's son. This apparition also gives Macbeth a false sense of security because of the Birnam Wood prophecy.
and be great, but they didn't tell him the price he would have to pay.
Soon after, Macbeth and his wife are discussing how they can murder the current king so that Macbeth will become king. This is wild thinking. Before Macbeth commits the murder he says, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: -- I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” (Shakespeare’s Masterpieces 18) Afterwards he says, “I have done the deed.” (Shakespeare’s Masterpieces 18)
The legendary plot of Macbeth, like those of many Shakespearean plays, relies heavily on the influence of the supernatural. The play itself reflects on the dark inane tendencies of humans to be evil, especially when faced with a thirst for power. Throughout its course, the reader is able to witness a man’s transformation from a brave soldier to a murdering madman. Without the impact of certain apparitions, hallucinations, and three bearded witches, the events of the story would not have unfolded as they did. The root evil is first planted in the minds of two ambitious people, creating in their minds a projection of how things will turn out. Unbeknownst to our two leading lunatics, the eventual outcome of the play will not be the scenario drawn up in their twisted minds.
In the play of Macbeth we notice the works of how the supernatural can control or change
The quote from the three witches, "Fair is foul and foul is fair," echoes throughout the story, and is the backbone of the many 'switches' that occur between and amongst the characters and their positions. Macbeth's opening line reinforces this theme with, "So foul and fair a day I have not yet seen." He describes the day as foul after having to brutally slay so many men. The day is fair because of his absolute triumph and assured rewards. This, as with many things in the play, see-saws back and forth: his fair winnings and heightened position turn foul again by the end of the play.
Supernatural is often defined in as something paranormal or unable to be explained by science or laws of nature. This abnormality or paranormal behavior occurs throughout numerous scenes of Shakespeare 's The Tragedy of Macbeth. The play is set in mid 11th century Scotland, and there was a stark contrast between the way of life back then and today. The Scottish general and Thane of Glamis, Macbeth, is a powerful man, but not a virtuous man. Banquo, who is another general and co-leader of the Scottish army along Macbeth, finds out that his children will be the future king. He is easily persuaded by his devious wife Lady Macbeth of achieving a higher rank in the kingdom of Scotland and they will go on extreme lengths to make sure it happens.
The Importance of the Supernatural in Macbeth by William Shakespeare The supernatural is to play an essential part in the play 'Macbeth'; this is made clear from the first paragraph of the play, when the three witches are introduced. It is represented in many different forms, mainly: the witches, the dagger and the ghost of Banquo. Shakespeare's use of imagery and creative language in the play creates tension, fear and clearly displays the importance of the supernatural theme. At the start of the play, the supernatural is disguised in the form of nature, in this case a storm. Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to describe the strong force of nature- "Thunder and lightning - Enter three Witches.
The belief in the existence and power of witches was widely believed in Shakespeare's day, as demonstrated by the European witch craze, during which an estimated nine million women were put to death for being perceived as witches (The Burning Times). The practice of witchcraft was seen to subvert the established order of religion and society, and hence was not tolerated. Witch hunting was a respectable, moral, and highly intellectual pursuit through much of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries (Best ). The belief of the majority during the seventeenth century suggests that the witches are powerful figures who can exercise great power over Macbeth; however, strong arguments to the contrary were in existence at the same time. The intensity of the tragedy is dependent on whether the witches are perceived to be able to control the otherwise innocent Macbeth's actions, or if he is entirely responsible for his own demise.
From the very beginning of the play, supernatural and unnatural forces have inspired and encouraged Macbeth. They interfere with natural events and completely change the character of Macbeth and his wife. Witches, apparitions, ghosts, and other unnatural images are used to demonstrate the evil effects and consequences those forces can have. Shakespeare is successful in telling his audience that only evil will come when Macbeth or any other person tampers with natural forces for personal gain.
Everyone has a slightly different interpretation of the supernatural but the interpretation which we can start with is Shakespeare’s. Everyone of Shakespeare’s time found the supernatural fascinating. Shakespeare interpreted the supernatural as witches, magic, unnatural and evil and he expressed his beliefs in the play, “Macbeth” very clearly, as he portrayed the three deformed women with control over the weather and the ability to predict the future. These three evil witches with magical powers were the creation of Shakespeare’s interpretation of the supernatural. Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed in the supernatural very strongly and a majority of them were frightened of it, including the king of that time, King James I of England.
The last person you would expect to encourage you to commit a crime would be your wife. Macbeth is motivated by his wife and by three Witches and gradually becomes more ruthless, evil, and murderous as the play progresses.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the supernatural and the role they play in motivating characters is apparent throughout the duration of the play. 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 future conflict by motivating Macbeth to kill Duncan so he could become king of Scotland. Through temptation, the supernatural motivates characters to think arrogantly and for their own benefit. The supernatural in Macbeth presents prophecies which tempt Macbeth and Banquo with the idea of power. This leads Macbeth to contradict his loyal and courageous personality by planning a treacherous murder on Duncan with the arrogant intention of becoming king and later killing other characters in the play with the only purpose of keeping his own powers. Both Macbeth and Banquo were also tempted by the original prophecies and showed clear motivation to act upon them. However, there is a clear contrast between the immediacy in which the two characters began taking actions and the logic put into their decisions.
The deliberately ambiguous apparitions play on Macbeth’s hubris and they make him feel so overconfident that he feels invincible and unstoppable. In his castle, Macbeth jokes that he will never fail “till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane” (V.iii.2) thinking that the apparition literally means that the forest will pick itself up and move to Dunsinane which he thinks is impossible despite all the supernatural events he has experienced. However, the forest does not move by itself but it does move to Dunsinane because of Malcolm’s ingenious strategy. As Malcolm approaches Macbeth’s castle with the English forces, he orders each soldier to cut off the branches of the trees of Birnam Wood to use as camouflage. This greatly contributes to Macbeth’s downfall since he was nowhere near ready for an invasion of the English forces. However, because of his hubris, he is still confident that he is unstoppable as he believes no one “borne a woman” (V.iii.6) can harm him. Unbeknown to him, Macduff was born through a caesarean section and thus not “borne” so much as “taken” from a woman. This lack of access to the entire truth sees Macbeth eventually
To conclude Shakespeare used the supernatural, to show how easily someone’s fatal flaw can be exploited to bring them to an end. This is extremely relevant to his audience at that time as well, no one knows, but Shakespeare could have been a non believer in the supernatural and wanted to show it as a figment of the mind, that can only result in insanity or he could have believed the popular opinion that the supernatural did exist and caused terror and evil throughout that period. Either way he wrote Macbeth in such a way to leave questions about the supernatural in peoples mind.
The supernatural was a popular element in many of the plays written in Shakespeare's time (including Hamlet) and everyone of Shakespeare's time found the supernatural fascinating. Even King James I took a special interest in the supernatural and wrote a book, Daemonologie, on witchcraft. It must be remembered that, in Shakespeare's day, supernatural referred to things that were "above Nature"; things which existed, but not part of the normal human life and unexplainable. The play Macbeth involves many supernatural actions that act as a catalyst for suspense and thrill, insight into character, foreshadowing of future events as well as making connections with the theme. In the opening scene of the play, the entrance of the three witches depicts the first presence of supernatural in Macbeth.