Supernatural in Macbeth

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's great tragedies. There's murder, battles, supernatural portents, and all the other elements of a well-worked drama and written in the 1600’s. This play is about a gentleman who is a warrior and he has too much ambition and greed once all this ambition and greed comes alive and then it elevates into a monstrosity, this is the cause of something he did against his own mind control and will, but to him he has almost a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ approach everything bad he does seems really good for him. The theme in this play is supernatural, in the Elizabethan times this would scare the audience but because the modern day audiences a more adapted to this is would intrigue and maybe bewilder them.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth opens straight away with a supernatural setting in Act 1 Scene 1 “Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. First Witch: When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? Second Witch: When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle's lost and won. Third Witch: That will be ere the set of sun. First Witch: Where the place? Second Witch: Upon the heath. Third Witch: There to meet with Macbeth. First Witch: I come, Graymalkin! Second Witch: Paddock calls. Third Witch: Anon. ALL: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.” Shakespeare constructs the opening scene in this way because this at the start builds up the supernatural feeling. In the Elizabethan period they burned or drowned people because they thought that were witches and they are real and this would scare that sort of audience, a modern day audience would act differently because we would know that witches aren’t real. In this scene we build up a dramatic tension by not showing wh...

... middle of paper ...

...o much ordinary human nature in him to "catch the nearest way out, so she used her sensual powers to charm him into following her ways. Lady Macbeth persuades her husband with these words, "look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it". She wanted Macbeth to look hospitable and honourable, but also to be a true man underneath, one that would fight and kill to become king.

In most of Shakespeare’s plays, the use of the supernatural is used to give another great effect to the plot of the story. In Macbeth, the supernatural abilities of the three Witches and the devilish fiends of Lady Macbeth were essential to the plot of the story. Without the coercion of his wife, Macbeth would have never been altered into a corrupt and ungodly man. Also, without the prophecies of the Witches, one would never know if Macbeth would have killed Duncan for the kingship.