How Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are Influenced by the Supernatural in Macbeth by William Shakespeare

How Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are Influenced by the Supernatural in Macbeth by William Shakespeare

In Shakespeare’s time witches were believed to have many powers. They

were believed to talk to the devil, the dead and evil spirits. They

were believed to predict the future (act 1. Scene 1 – ‘When shall we

three meet again in thunder lightning or in rain?’) and change the

weather. People thought they could fly throuhg air and make themselves

invisible at will. People also thought they could kill or make them

fall ill at a distance. Many witches were killed in Scotland between

1590 and 1680, more than 4400 women were executed. Most were accused

of worshipping the devil in a church at night, flying around a raising

stormsto attempt the murder of king James. Most of the supposed powers

were included in ‘Macbeth’.

When we fist meet the witches in act 1 scene 1 they are predicting and

altering the future with their spells (‘When shall we three… there to

meet with Macbeth’). Through out the play the witches also possess

animal shaped creatures, in act 1 scene five the ‘raven’ mentioned by

lady Macbeth in her speech is an attendant spirit the raven was

thought as an evil bird 400 years ago. In Act 1 Scene 1 the witches

are waiting for Macbeth, this seems to suggest that

they have something in mind – they are creatures of supernatural

origin The witches are presented as evil and powerful, in act 1 scene

3 one of the three witches describes how she is going to torment a

sailor whose wife has been rude to her. This is meant to scare King

James and show him what the witches can do and how they can influence

people and things.

We find o...

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... In act 5 scene 8 Macbeth enters, contemplating whether or not he

should kill himself, and resolving that he is too brave to do so.

Macduff finds him and challenges him. Macbeth replies that he has

avoided Macduff until his point, but now he will fight. Macduff

unsheathes his sword, saying that his sword will speak for him and the

men fight. As they fight, Macbeth tells him that he leads a charmed

life; he will only fall to a man who is not born of woman.

Throughout the play, dreams, fantasy, and imagination enter the "real

world." The witches' words become truth. The "dagger of the mind"

points the way to a murder done with a real dagger. And in the Porter

scene (II.iii), a porter imagining that he guards the gate to Hell

turns out to guard the gate to a real hell in which the king is

actually murdered in his sleep.