‘Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.’
Macbeth wants the witches to stay because they are saying exactly what he wants to hear.
However it can also be said that the witches do not control Macbeth or anyone else in the play. The person has to choose there own destiny and Macbeth chooses to commit murders in order to get what he wants.
‘And which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son.’
This quote said be Hecate suggests that Macbeth planned his own destiny and the witches did not make him do anything. The witches do not tell Macbeth to kill Duncan or commit any other murders he does this by himself with the help of Lady Macbeth who tempts him so she can become queen.
‘To alter favour ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.’
One murder leads to another and Macbeth feels that everyone is out to get him. This motivates him to meet the witches again who tell Macbeth 3 prophecies: that he should fear Macduff, he cannot be harmed by one born of a woman and that he is secure until Birnan Wood comes to Dunsinane.
Throughout the play the witches appear and warn, predict and tempt Macbeth but in the end it was Macbeth who chose to commit all the murders.
Apart from the witches, Shakespeare uses the dagger in Act 2 Scene 1 to make use of the supernatural.
Banquo has a premonition that something is going to go wrong after his and Macbeth’s meeting with the witches. He talks to Macbeth about the witches who have given him reason to believe in them.
‘I dream’d last night of the three weird sisters;
To you they have show’d some truth.’
When Macbeth is left alone he starts to hallucinate and imagines he sees a dagger in front of him which is guiding him to King Duncan.
‘Is this a dagger which I see before me.’
‘Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going.’
The a bell rings which determines him to proceed with the killing of Duncan.
‘The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.’
When the murder has been committed, Macbeth is shattered and hysterical. He is in such a state that he brings the two bloody daggers he used to kill Duncan and the guards with him.
‘This is a sorry sight.’
Macbeth is probably looking at his hands, which are holding the daggers and claims that it is a miserable sight. However Lady Macbeth tries to pull her husband together and orders him to wash his hands and to go back and place the daggers beside the guards.
‘Go get some water
And wash this filthy witness from your hand,
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there.’
Banquo’s ghost is used to make dramatic use of the supernatural.
At the banquet Macbeth welcomes his quests. The first murderer appeared after being told by Macbeth that he should kill Banquo. He learns that Banquo is dead but Fleance managed to escape. This scene shows dramatic tension especially when the first murderer comes in, his face covered with blood.
‘There’s blood upon thy face.’
Macbeth has taken a big risk especially if the quests saw the murderer with blood on his face. They could have suspected what Macbeth was up to.
Macbeth wants to know that Fleance and Banquo are dead ‘For mine own good.’
When Macbeth returns to the banquet he makes a speech and suddenly he sees Banquo’s ghost sitting in his chair.
‘Were the grac’d person of our Banquo present.’
When he sees the ghost Macbeth is in shock and starts shouting ‘Which of you have done this?’ This shows that Macbeth still has guilt and has betrayed himself. However Lady Macbeth uses her quick thinking and saves the situation
‘My lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth.’
She tries to smooth things over and questions him
‘Are you a man?’
Macbeth then goes back to the banquet and makes a speech. When he says
‘And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.’
Banquo enters and Macbeth is once again startled. He says
‘Approach thou like the rugged Russina bear,
The arm’d rhinoceros, or th’Hyrcan tiger.’
He wants Banquo to come as anything else but a ghost. He is prepared to fight anything but a ghost.
The supernatural also occurs in the apparitions with their prophecies. The apparitions appear in Act 4 Scene 1. Their three prophecies are similar to the ones at the beginning of the play. The first apparition:
‘Beware Macduff,
Beware the Thane of Fife.’
The first apparition is an armed head which represents Macbeth. The second is a bloody child and represents Macduff.
‘Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.’
The third apparition is a child crowned with a tree in his hand represents Malcolm.
‘Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birname Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.’
All three prophecies convince Macbeth his fate and make him more confident which leads him to his death. It is a contrast to the first three prophecies which came true when he was alive.
The Old Man is significant with the theme of supernatural because he and Ross discuss the unnatural events that occurred on the night of Duncan’s murder. They learn from Macduff that Macbeth has been chosen to be the next king.
The Old Man states that this is the worst night of his life and he cannot remember seeing anything worse than this.
‘..but this sore night
Hath trifled former knowings.’
To add effect to the scene darkness has taken place of light.
‘And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.’
The Old Man is a representative of the people and has a memory that goes back a long way and as far as he can recall he has never experienced anything like this.
The supernatural events in Macbeth have definitely been effective and has created a more suspicious tragedy.
