Macbeth

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There are many types of supernatural phenomena in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. No matter which form each phenomena took, such as a witch or ghost, they all acted as a type of catalyst. When Macbeth first met the witches, they told him he would be a king and when Macbeth saw his friend Banquo's ghost, it set him off on a downward spiral. The Supernatural phenomena all influenced Macbeth and his wife to do things that they would never have thought of doing such as killing King Duncan. All of the projected outcomes came true, however the eventual outcomes that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth predicted did not. In the third scene of the first act of Macbeth, Macbeth is introduced along with his best friend Banquo. MacBeth was a Scottish nobleman who was considered to be a war hero because he routed two armies and killed a rebel leader. In this scene, they met three witches who were recounting all of the evil things that they had done. For example, the second witch said she had been killing swine and according to Thomas Marc Parrot, "Killing swine. One of the commonest charges brought against supposed witches in Shakespeare's day was that they maliciously killed by pestilence, or the evil eye, the domestic animals of those they had a grudge against."(Parrot 2). When the witches saw Macbeth and Banquo, they hailed Macbeth; the first witch called him the thane of Glamis, the second called him the thane of Cawdor, and the third called him the future king along with telling Banqou's that his children would become kings as well. Immediately thereafter, the witches vanished. Later, two messengers from the king arrived to tell Macbeth that King Duncan had heard so much about him and he was going to make him the thane of Cawdor because the pre... ... middle of paper ... ...e, the ambition of Lady Macbeth and her husband got in the way and they started to kill their way to the top. The three prophecies of the apparitions came true as well, just not the way Macbeth interpreted them and ultimately he and his wife's ambitions lead to their downfall. Lady Macbeth committed suicide because of the guilt caused by her nightmares of washing King Duncan's blood out of her clothes and Macbeth met his fate at the hands of Macduff because he was too cocky. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Salt Lake City, UT: Project Gutenburg, 2010. Web. Shmoop Editorial Team. "Macbeth". Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear Macbeth.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. Parrot, Thomas M. "The Witches Meet Macbeth." The Witches Meet Macbeth. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

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