The witches aren’t the only supernatural things in the play; there is Banquo’s ghost. Which comes back to Macbeths house during a dinner party. In this scene only Macbeth can see Banquo’s ghost, this is because he had him killed and committed an evil act. Shakespeare’s audience would immediately understand what is going on, as now days it’s a bit harder to understand, because there’s not as much superstition going on. In this scene Macbeth starts shouting out words, therefore his guest think he might be going a bit mad. Lady Macbeth try’s to cover up by saying he is ill, I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse: she says.
After the battle at the beginning of the play where Macbeth is fighting the Norwegians, him and Banquo pass three witches. As Macbeth sees them his first comment is So foul and fair a day I have not seen. He is saying, because he has seen them he has not seen a worse day. Then later he says Speak, if you can: what are you? So he is saying they are so hideous he can’t tell what they are, so he asks them. By this we already get a description of how awful these things look, and ugly things are usually associated with evil. The witches then praise Macbeth, and say All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Gkamis! They then say that he is thane of Cawdor, and that he shall be king. At this Banquo speaks and say that they are saying all these things about Macbeth, but what about him. Then the witches say Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Then they say that Banquo will be the farther of kings. After this both characters are very surprised. Macbeth can’t wait to tell his wife, so he sends a letter to her with all the details.
When reading this letter Lady Macbeth has already decided that they should kill Duncan. After meeting with the witches, Macbeth soon gets news that he is the Thane of Cawdor, and thinks that if that is true, then he might become king after all. This affects Macbeth, because he can not decide whether to wait for reign to come, or kill Duncan like his wife wants. This puzzles Macbeth and confuses him. He can’t make up his mind whether to believe the witches, or do what his wife wants. That isn’t the only time Macbeth meets with the witches.
When he is king and Banquo is dead he goes to see them again. This time the witches have prepared a cauldron full of spells for Macbeth, Macbeth is now very evil and has completely changed, which was after he met with the witches the first time. Macbeth now wants to see further in to the future, and asks the witches to show him because he worried. So the witches show Macbeth 3 apparitions. The first one says that he should beware of Macduff, who’s family he has murdered later in the play. The second says that no one born from a woman will harm Macbeth, Macbeth then says he need not fear Macduff at all. The third apparition says that Macbeth will never be vanquished until the great Birnam wood is moved to High Dunsinane Hill. At this Macbeth is amazed, and becomes over confident. It is a clever trick the witches use on Macbeth, making him believe that no harm will come to him unless the forest is moved to a different place, and that any one born from a women can not harm him. Even though Macbeth is over confident he still has Macduff’s family and servants murdered. This is an example of how evil Macbeth is and how his encounters with the witches have changed him a great deal.
The paranormal event in Act 2 scene one where Macbeth sees a dagger in the air which leads him towards Duncan’s chamber, is very important, especially how it effects Macbeth's character. These are the first signs of Macbeth going mad. It is the first scene where he looses his mind and starts to see things, it’s quite similar to the scene later in the play when he sees Banquo’s ghost. It starts with Macbeth saying to his wife, that he has decided not to kill Duncan, and they will proceed no further in this business. His wife then challenges his manhood and browbeats him into reconsidering. Then he is left alone by Duncan’s chamber where he sees the dagger. At first he does not know what’s going on, and isn’t sure what he sees. So he asks himself a rhetorical question. “Is this a dagger which I see before me”, he then tries to grab the dagger but he cannot. He then realizes that it must be from his mind, a figment of his imagination. The dagger then leads him towards Duncan’s chamber, where he will murder him. But what if the dagger wasn’t there, what if he couldn’t see it. I think that if he hadn’t seen the dagger he would of resisted from killing Duncan. So what I think is that the witches caused Macbeth to see the dagger, because if he didn’t he might not have killed Duncan, and that’s what the witches want him to do. As they say later in the play he is there plaything. So the dagger was planted there in order for the evil deed to be completed.
The play Macbeth is littered with evil; it is spoken in so many ways though out the play. For example Lady Macbeth’s speech, which she gives when she reads the letter from her husband is littered with evil speech. After reading it she then decides that fro Macbeth to become king they will have to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth then calls forward spirits to make her evil. It’s like she’s casting a spell over herself. She asks to be unsexed and filled with direst cruelty; she asks to be without remorse. She wants the milk in her breasts to be replaced with gall. Even though Lady Macbeth has called forward these spirits to possess her, they cannot be seen. These are very evil words which are used in the play, which complement the super natural and show how important it really it is. The language in the play is very important for all the evil and super natural to come to life. Also if said differently it does not have quite the same effect.
So you can see the importance of the supernatural is extremely important to the genre and story of the play, and without it, it would not be as good, and nothing would happen. The play would be pretty worthless and pointless. This is because all the main events are caused or influenced by the supernatural. Everything in the play only happens because of the supernatural, so you can see it is very important. Also at the time it was written the supernatural was a very serious matter, so it was critical for the play to include it, making it a success not only now but when it was written as well.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair’
By Ashley David
