The Witches are portrayed as dark and evil, “How now you secret, black, and midnight hags.” By calling them “hags” it is confirming that they practise the black art and that they are also quite old. The Witches are also described as having beards by Banquo, “ your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so.” Women with beards is obviously unnatural, therefore is a suggestion of the supernatural. Prophecy has a strong connection with the Witches. They are the ones who foresee into the future and predict Macbeth to be king; “All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.” The use of prophecy gives the witches an eerie and dominant characteristic. The Witches are trying to manipulate and win over Macbeth; an example of this is when they call him a“great king.”
The witches’ dark appearance signifies their destructive nature and adds a sense of mystery. Another important theme that the witches portray is the equivocation of their language. The witches use language that deliberately misleads people for one reason or another, it is full of ambiguity and paradox, which is meant to bewilder Macbeth, who calls the witches “imperfect speakers”. The witches play a consequential and significant role in this tragedy because not only do they have the ability to predict the future, but they have the ability to affect it as well. An example of this is the fact that the witches predicted that Macbeth would be king of Scotland, and because of this prediction Macbeth planned to plot against King Duncan. Without the prediction of the witches, it is likely that Macbeth would have chosen not to act in that way. The Witches prophecies near the beginning of the play really start everything off; they act as a catalyst to the whole situation. These prophecies give Macbeth confidence, however he gets impatient about waiting to become king through natural order and decides to upset things so that the throne is certain to come his way.
The Witches however are not the only example of the supernatural in Macbeth. Something which has a strong connection with the Witches is pathetic fallacy. A good example of this is in the opening scene. The stage directions read “ Thunder and lightning. Enter three WITCHES.” The thunder and lighting is physically threatening and appears to be extremely powerful, it’s a very important aspect of the play. The witches are almost immediately associated to bad weather. Whenever they appear in the play the weather is negatively portrayed, and bad weather also occurs when unnatural things take place, for instance the night King Duncan was murdered.
There is a strong relationship between Lady Macbeth and the supernatural, particularly the Witches and this can be seen in many different ways. This is made very clear in Act 1 Scene 5 when she says, “Come you spirits…make thick my blood.” Lady Macbeth is inviting the evil spirits inside her, she wants to be rid of all human feelings of guilt and pity. This quote really proves this point “ Make thick by blood, stop up th’ access and passage to remorse”. By saying this she is asking for no messages of pity to reach her heart, therefore to be rid of all human qualities and emotions. The fact that Lady Macbeth can easily manipulate Macbeth is shown in the line "That I may pour my spirits in thine ear". Lady Macbeth manipulates at Macbeth's self-esteem by playing on his manliness and his bravery. This then convinces Macbeth to commit the murder of King Duncan. On the other hand, as the play progresses, and Duncan is killed, there is a reversal of natural order, and Macbeth becomes the dominating partner. This huge reversal of natural order adds yet another aspect of the supernatural to the play. Lady Macbeth becomes submissive and pathetic, only a shadow of herself as she was previously. The language that Lady Macbeth uses associates her with the Witches; the way she acts gives her a sense of power and control.
Another example of the supernatural in Macbeth is a source of animal imagery in Act 2 Scene 4, “Duncan’s horses- a thing most strange and certain…Turned wild in nature, broke their stall, flung out…’tis said they eat each other.” This quote is suggesting that something unnatural has happened, the perverting of nature, i.e. King Duncan’s murder. This image which is created of horses eating each other is somewhat disturbing and definitely out of the ordinary, a sense of reversed natural order and chaos can be sensed.
The main example of supernatural imagery in ‘Macbeth’ is in Act 2 Scene 1, where Macbeth experiences a hallucination of a dagger, “To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” This soliloquy is right before the murder of King Duncan and informs us of exactly what is going through Macbeth’s mind at the time. It appears that the dagger is pointing towards Duncan’s bedroom, “Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going.” The dagger seems to be leading Macbeth, he then decides that the vision of the bloody dagger was just a manifestation of his distress over killing Duncan and goes through with his plans.
The theme of the supernatural is used once more when the ghost of Banquo appears in the banquet scene. The ghost, which seems to be a representation of Macbeth’s manifested guilt, only appears twice throughout the play. Visions and hallucinations, such as this, are used to build up the dramatic tension and to keep the audience or reader interested in developing occurrences.
The language, characters actions and the overall plot is used in a way so that the reader and audience are both kept entertained and bewildered. Shakespeare applies the idea of horror, hallucination and the idea of the supernatural to engage the audience or reader. These tools are used to provide an insight into the characters motivations and thoughts. The darkness, hallucinations and the contributions from the Witches all manifest to form the plot of the play and create a hard-hitting and dramatic plot line.
All the aspects of the supernatural in “Macbeth” are extremely controversial and play a very powerful role. The contributions from the witches and apparitions seem to be the main focus point throughout. In my opinion I think that all the aspects of the supernatural, the witches, prophecy, pathetic fallacy, apparitions, imagery and hallucinations really manifest and create a Scottish play full of darkness and horror. The role of the supernatural seems to be necessary and without it the play may not have such a severe impact on the audience. “Macbeth” is a play, which really appealed to the Jacobean audience and catered for their beliefs in witches and witchcraft. The Jacobean audience would have heard echoes of their Christian faith in the language and also through religious imagery. There are many modern day interpretations of Macbeth, all aimed at various groups of people. One thing that I am certain of is that the impact of the supernatural, especially the witches, is always dramatic and extreme. However, all productions of ‘Macbeth’ are unique, and various aspects of the play are portrayed differently.