english macbeth

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BY RAHELA RAHMAN 10N

‘Macbeth is a cautionary tale, warning against ambition and the dangers of the supernatural.’ Discuss

Macbeth is amongst the best known of William Shakespeare’s tragic plays. The play is loosely based upon the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by Raphael Hollinshed and the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece. This often seen to be a tale in regards to the dangers of the lust for power and betrayal of friends. He becomes so ambitious he doesn’t see the dangers of the supernatural. There are many themes in this play such as the supernatural, deception, secrecy, loyalty, betrayal, greed and ambition. The supernatural include the three ‘weird sisters’ who tell Macbeth the prophecies which lead to all the deception and secrecy. Throughout the play the idea of ‘Fair is foul, foul is fair’ is portrayed, what appears to be good can be harmful, Macbeth also says to Banquo ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’, referring back to the paradox. Shakespeare uses this paradox to create recurring images as a technique, e.g. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.  

The supernatural phenomena called the weird sisters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth are known to be the three fates in classical mythology. The first introduction of the three weird sisters was in Act1 scene 1, where they decide to meet with Macbeth. In the play the witches always have appalling weather accompanying them, such as the ‘in thunder, lightning or in rain’ and ‘the fog and filthy air’ (I.1). Also in Act 4 scene1 they meet Macbeth in an ‘isolated place’, which creates an atmosphere of mystery, because we never, as an audience, read where they meet Macbeth.

The witches are in a group of three, apparently the magical number, and have the power to control winds and to make life miserable for men; an example of this would be when the first witch proudly produces a pilot’s thumb. We get the implication that the torturing of man will remain in the play, mainly aiming at Macbeth and later Banquo. They give prophecies to Macbeth and Banquo, but also later show brief apparitions to Macbeth. In the play you get a sense that the witches like torturing Macbeth, because no matter what, they keep feeding him more and more insight to his future, which strengthens his ambition and again shows a danger of the supernatural.  . In Act 1 scene 3 they meet Macbeth, but just before they do they have a conversation, starting with the first witch asking ‘where has thou been, sister?’ the second witch replies ‘killing swine’. And the conversation goes on about what happened, even though the captain’s wife insulted the witch she plans to torture the man instead. ‘Though his bark cannot be lost’, the witches can injure humans but not kill them, this to me shows that they are cruel to humans.  Shakespeare uses his craft, by telling us what the witches plan to do the sailor, because it gives us the indication that they will, like the sailor, torture Macbeth. They could’ve chosen Banquo instead to torture; however Macbeth has more to lose as he is King, through this they get a greater enjoyment and pleasure.                                                                                    

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The ghosts in the play are there to taunt Macbeth; they’re there to show his heinous deeds. The ghost of Banquo upsets Macbeth as we soon see him loose control, this part of Shakespeare’s craft, a tool for revealing dramatic irony; this is another element of the supernatural. The prophecies the witches made were ‘all hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor’,/ ‘all hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor’,/ ‘all hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter’. These prophecies lead Macbeth to commit regicide; Shakespeare’s audience would be outraged after reading about such an act, because ...

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