How Does Shakespeare Use the Supernatural in Macbeth?
How Does Shakespeare Use the Supernatural in Macbeth?
In 'Macbeth' the supernatural plays a major part and I think is the main base on which the play is created. The Supernatural as a topic is used in many ways, the most obvious being the witches. In the days that Shakespeare wrote this play many people believed in witchcraft, and it terrified people. So the impact of Shakespeare putting witches in 'Macbeth' must have been massive. Also watching the scenes on stage must have been very scary and disturbing for the audience.
The witches first appear at the start of the play when the three of them are out on the heath this first scene immediately tells us a lot about the witches. In the first line "When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning or in rain?" we get the impression that the witches have the power to change the weather to suit themselves. The witches go on to say they have a plan to meet Macbeth "Once the battles lost and won."
The next time we see the witches is after Macbeth has finished in battle in the scene where the witches first meet Macbeth. The scene starts with one of the witches telling a story of how a woman munching chestnuts refused to give the her one, so the witch used her power to stop the woman's husband from sleeping. This again shows us that the witches have the power to stop men from sleeping, as we see this happen to Macbeth later on in the play. The witches do in fact call themselves supernatural as they chant "The weird sisters hand in hand." When Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches they show the two men that they can see into the future as they tell Macbeth that he is firstly, Thane of Glamis, secondly, Thane of Cawdor and thirdly, that shalt be king here after. It seems as if the witches know that Macbeth has been thinking about being king and killing Duncan although he has not said. Macbeth 'pretends' not to believe or take notice of the witches, who again show powers to disappear. However Ross comes to tell Macbeth he has been titled Thane of Cawdor. The witches were right.
The witches appear several times in the play and each time in an eerie and spooky scene. The next time we see the witches, along with Hecate, is in act 4 scene 1 in which Macbeth visits them for a second time to find out more about his future. At the start of this scene the witches are chanting whilst making some sort of potion. What makes it scary is that the witches chant all the ingredients and they mostly come from some sort of dead animal. Some of the things put in this horrible mixture could only be said in Shakespeare's time, such as "Liver of a blaspheming Jew" and "Nose of Turk, and Tartars lips." Also a daunting chant repeats throughout the ingredient list, "Double, Double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble."
When Macbeth asks to hear what is to become of him the witches show it in three apparitions. The first is an armed head, which tells Macbeth to beware Macduff. The second is a bloody child. I think this apparition is very macabre because it may refer to the child Lady Macbeth spoke about losing. The third apparition is a child crowned with a tree in its hand. All the apparitions are disturbing but it is the opening line of each one which I think makes it totally supernatural. A chant of "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!"
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When Macbeth asks to hear what is to become of him the witches show it in three apparitions. The first is an armed head, which tells Macbeth to beware Macduff. The second is a bloody child. I think this apparition is very macabre because it may refer to the child Lady Macbeth spoke about losing. The third apparition is a child crowned with a tree in its hand. All the apparitions are disturbing but it is the opening line of each one which I think makes it totally supernatural. A chant of "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!"
Everything the witches do involves the supernatural and the whole play could not work without this, but there are many other things that happen in the pay which could be connected to the witches. For example the vision Macbeth has of the dagger pointing towards Duncan's chamber. This is one of the most frightening parts of the play. As Macbeth speaks "Is this a dagger I see before me?" I think the vision of the dagger could have been sent by the witches to convince or provoke Macbeth into killing Duncan. On the other hand Macbeth is very wound up at this point and it is night-time so the vision could just be a hallucination caused be stress or tiredness. I think, however, that the supernatural is again involved.
Also at one point of the play Macbeth cannot sleep for nightmares; "Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep." As we saw earlier on in the play the witches have the power to stop men sleeping, so the witches could have done this to Macbeth.
Once Duncan has been killed weird things start happening around Macbeth's castle, horses start eating each other and there is terrible weather. Again earlier on in the play we see that the witches can change the weather. So these odd weather habits could also be caused by the witches.
The witches could also send this ghost of Banquo, which only Macbeth sees at the banquet. The ghost seems to be triggered off whenever Macbeth mentions Banquos name, "Were the gracd person of our Banquos present." The ghost of Banquo then reappears when Macbeth says "And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss." This line could have a double meaning. Macbeth could be meaning to his guests that we miss Banquo from the banquet, but also Banquo is dead we miss him. The ghost of Banquo is seen only by Macbeth and is very supernatural. We know that the ghost is real because in the play it says 'Enter Banquos Ghost' but the witches could have sent the spirit.
The witches could also have an influence on what people say, as there is a lot of repetition and echo's of lines. Probably the biggest is the theme of "Fair is foul and foul is fair" which runs through the play. In the first scene the witches chant this and the first thing Macbeth says is "So foul an fair a day I have not seen." Also Lady Macbeth's words "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't." reflects to fair and foul; appearance and reality.
All this could be the witches putting words in people's mouths. The coincidence of these repetitions is purely supernatural.
Lady Macbeth plays a major part in the murder of Duncan, persuading Macbeth to do it in many ways. People claim many things about Lady Macbeth, that she is ambitious, mad or plain evil. Whatever goes on in her head she is never far away from the supernatural. Lady Macbeth first hears about the witches predictions in a letter from Macbeth and she is immediately intrigued. She first brings up spirits on what she says, "Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear." Once the messenger has gone Lady Macbeth goes on to deliver one of the most disturbing and supernatural speeches in the play. She wants to kill Duncan but doesn't have the heart to. So she asks the spirits to come and possess her, to wipe all traces of good and conscience from her. "Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here." It seems as if she is asking the spirits to make her a man. She then goes on to say totally weird thing that suggest she wants to be mentally stronger, "Make thick my blood" she is asking the evil spirits to "Come to my woman's breasts and take milk for gall." The things she is saying involve the supernatural and she obviously has been sparked off by the witches' predictions as she makes decisions very quickly.
As soon as Macbeth appears Lady Macbeth tells him her plans to kill Duncan when he comes to stay at the castle that night, "O never shall sun that morrow see!" In this scene something seems to have immediately possessed Lady Macbeth to make her attitude turn sour so dramatically.
In the next scene Lady Macbeth uses her apparent power over her husband to persuade him to kill Duncan. When Macbeth seems to be backing out Lady Macbeth says a horrible and evil thing. She tells Macbeth how she knows what it feels like to give suck to a baby, but as it was smiling in her face she would "Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums and dash'd the brains out" if she had promised to do so. In this Lady Macbeth refers once again to this child, but speaks of doing pure evil things to it. It seems as if these spirits have come to possess her in order for her to say such a horrid thing. After Duncan has been murdered, Macbeth brings the daggers back with him, but after saying she would not commit the murder, because Duncan looked too much like her father, Lady Macbeth still has the mental stability to take the daggers back to the scene of the crime. It may have been the spirits who gave Lady Macbeth this power and if so the supernatural has again come into play.
After this Lady Macbeth seems to no longer have power over her husband and she is almost ignored by Macbeth. She is not told about Banquo's murder and this is the start of what seems like a nervous breakdown. By this time in the play Macbeth has pushed his wife right back and doesn't seem to care for her anymore. It seems that the mental state of Lady Macbeth is quickly deteriorating. In Act 5 Scene 1 we see the state of Lady Macbeth at its peak.
In my opinion this scene is the most disturbing and alarming in the whole play and shows us exactly what is going on in Lady Macbeth's head.
The gentlewoman has asked for the Doctor to come round in concern with Lady Macbeth's health. It is night time and Lady Macbeth rises from her bed and proceeds to sleep walk, candle in hand, right in front of the Doctor and Gentlewoman. What makes it even scarier is the fact that although she is asleep Lady Macbeth 'walks' with her eyes open. I think that on stage in Shakespeare's day this would have been alarming and even petrifying to the audience, more than any other scene. In the 'Polanski' version of Macbeth the scene is acted out with Lady Macbeth naked. I think this is better because it makes Lady Macbeth look more vulnerable.
Lady Macbeth gives away a lot through talking in her sleep and it is the line "Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him" which is particularly shocking and sinister. She also says "The Thane of Fith, had a wife, where is she now?" This line has a haunting melody to it, which is very bone chilling yet tragic. In this scene we see Lady Macbeth's hallucinations show as she desperately tries to rub what she sees as blood off her hands. "Here's the smell of blood still" it seems as if the line "A little water clears us of this deed." has come to haunt her. This scene shows the intensity of what is going on inside Lady Macbeth's head and even if it isn't supernatural, it comes across as that. Everything Lady Macbeth says in her sleep seems to have a haunting ring to it "To bed, to bed, to bed."
This is actually the last scene we see Lady Macbeth in before Seyton tells Macbeth "The queen my lord, is dead." It is still a mystery how Lady Macbeth died; Malcolm tells us that she killed herself. At this point of the play Lady Macbeth was suffering from many emotions, so it could have been a nervous breakdown that forced her to kill herself. She could have been driven to insanity or maybe it was something more sinister. Whatever killed her Lady Macbeth is one of the strangest and most debatable characters in the play. Whether it was the loss of her child which drove her mad, the chance to be queen that made her over ambitious or just the supernatural, the witches or the spirits she asked for which made her evil.
Although 'Macbeth' is a tragedy, because of Macbeth being a great man with a fatal flaw in his character which leads to his downfall, it is mainly based on the theme of the supernatural and almost every scene and character in the play is influenced by this in some way.
Even small parts such as Sayton, it is debatable, if pronounced 'Satan', whether Shakespeare put this person in to represent the devil as he is always by Macbeth's side. I think however, the play would have had more effects on audiences in Shakespeare's day rather than today's audience. This is because of a few reasons; the play is on the theme of treason and the things Macbeth did seemed even worse in Shakespeare's time because of the divinity of kings. People believed God chose the kings, and so to kill a king was seen as defying God. Also the supernatural was more significant in Shakespeare's day, many people believed in witchcraft and the strange going things featured in 'Macbeth'. So to go and see 'Macbeth' at the theatre would have made an impact on people.
Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' is one of the most famous plays in history and it's the weird happenings and supernatural vibes that run through the play which appeals to people and makes 'Macbeth' so successful.
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