Macbeth Supernatural

1001 Words3 Pages

Magic, monsters, the mystical, mythical and anything else that exceeds the normality we believe in, can be sorted under a single category, the supernatural. The supernatural has had a major role in our daily lives, through literature, art, music and even our beliefs. The supernatural had a particularly important role in the story Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Macbeth was a tragic story about a Scottish noble, his desire to become the king of Scotland and the results of his ambition. However, it was the supernatural elements within the story that made it such a tragedy. The witches began the story with their prophecy of Macbeth, what followed after was a chain of death and misery caused by none other than Macbeth. Nonetheless, even the dead …show more content…

The witches were Shakespeare’s own version of the moirai/moirae from Greek mythology. The moirai were the three sister goddesses who personified fate, the myth said that one goddess would spin the string of a person’s life, another would measure the length of the string and the final goddess would cut the string. In the beginning the witches had a prophecy, “All Hail Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter”(I,iii,53). This prophecy said that Macbeth would be king, this warped the mind of Macbeth. He did not think that being king was even possible for him, but with the other things the witches said being true, he thought it was within his reach. What started out as simple ambition had been twisted into greed, Macbeth simply wanted to let fate be, “If chance have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir.”(I,iii,154-156). However the temptation of being king, was too good for him to leave to fate and decided to take fate into his own hands. Shakespeare was trying to say in the possibility of achieving one's desire, they will do anything to obtain it. Macbeth had done horrific acts of treachery and murder, in the name of his “inevitable” power. In the possibility he did not know his future, he would not have committed such …show more content…

The revelation of the prophecy was done through apparitions. Each apparition reveals more of his destiny, but in ambiguous messages, similar to putting the fine print in small letters. For example the second apparition said, “Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth” (IV,i,86-88). Even how the apparitions appeared had revealed what was going to happen, the floating armed head showed the decapitation of Macbeth, the bloody child showed the “child not born of woman” and the crowned child with a tree in his hand, represented Malcolm and the movement of the trees in Dunsinane. The prophecies spoken by these apparitions were told in a way that stroked Macbeth’s already large ego, it made him throw caution to the wind. The witches manipulated Macbeth in believing no man could kill him, he was invincible, he was greater than a king, and it worked, Macbeth believed it

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