Supernatural Elements in Shakespeare's Macbeth

Consider the use that Shakespeare makes of supernatural elements in the play Macbeth.

In the Shakespearean era, there was an eruption of superstition and alleged witchcraft. The people of that time had strong hatred for the ‘devil worshiping’ witches and had various trials and tests to determine their fate. Shakespeare used this as inspiration for his play ‘Macbeth’

We see the character of Macbeth go through a personality transformation after a powerful predicament from Three witches. Starting as the highly thought of thane of Glamis, Macbeth is told he shall become thane of Cawdor and then king. The witches, quickly portrayed as evil, could have predicted these events, or simply planted the idea in Macbeth’s head, to exploit his fatal flaw.

As the play begins, we are introduced to the witches. They speak in rhyming couplets, just as all supernatural elements in Shakespeare’s work do. This could have been to let the audience, which would have been aware of this technique, that the witches are in fact, or simply appear magical. The stage directions indicate “thunder and lightning,” every time the witches appear, this same stage direction is given throughout the play to set the intended atmosphere, this is pathetic fallacy. The witches discuss the soon to come meeting with Macbeth, “apon the heath” “there to meet Macbeth”(Act1,scene1) Thus showing the witches knew about Macbeth before the meeting and the predictions were intentionally given.

As Macbeth returns from a victorious war, he is unaware of the forthcoming encounter with the witches. Before he arrives ‘apon the heath’ the witches show a first glimpse of evil, one tells a tale of a woman whose husband she will curse. “he shall live a man forbid.” Meaning he will lived ...

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...im. At this moment Macbeth realises his fate, and fights to his death with Macduff. Malcom then becomes king, and Macbeth’s head it placed on a steak.

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.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 2008.