The use of supernatural first occurs at the beginning of the play, with three witches predicting the fate of Macbeth. The witches predict that they will meet with Macbeth, "When the battles lost and won", which suggests that Macbeth's fate is that he will win the battle, but lose the battle of his soul. The prophecies that are revealed by the witches involvement bring a temptation to Macbeth that he had previously dreamt of becoming king, "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical". This shows that Macbeth's ambition was present before the prophecies. He might never have thought seriously about killing Duncan without the witches involvement. The temptation to become king makes him commit terrible crimes to gain power of the throne, through his interpretations of the witches prophecies, he thinks that the only way to gain power is to murder Duncan, Banquo and Macduff's family and trying to kill Banquo's son.
The presence of the witches also has a huge impact in making the play more interesting to the audience. These witches have very strange features; old people in a group of three with dirty and broken cloths, bearded, and cracked skin on their hands with blood coming through the wounds on their hands. These features keep the audience hooked to the play and the suspense increases with every scary sound that produced by witches.
The supernatural element also taking place in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy of calling upon evil spirits to give her power to plot the murder of Duncan without any feelings of guilt. "Come, you spirits. Unsex me here and fill me. Of direst cruelty. Come to my woman's breasts for gall", her soliloquy shows that she relied on the supernatural by asking for the spirit to get rid of her natural feelings of compassion by making her cruel. The interference with the supernatural might cause her to be possessed by ghosts when she goes mad and starts seeing blood on her hands or it could all be her mind playing tricks on her.
On the night Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plan to kill Duncan, the nature acting very strangely, "the moon is down. their candles are all out". It says that there is no moon and no stars in the sky. "The obscure bird clamoured the livelong night", this shows that the owl keeps on crying out the whole night. This nature of darkness together with the crying owl evokes evilness on the night when Duncan is killed. The strange behaviour in nature shows the existence of supernatural and it creates a perfect scene for the accursed murder. The darkness and the sound of the owl make the play becomes more real and interesting for the audience. Even MacBeth’s best friend is on edge in the castle, why would Banquo be scared if he did not suspect anything. This is shown by how Banquo reacts when he hears movement in the castle, he says, ‘Give me my sword, who’s there’. Why would Banquo need his sword in his friends castle if he did not fear, this shows that Banquo does not have the trust he once had for MacBeth. In actual fact Banquo was originally like Macbeth, but Shakespeare changed this so that Banquo whos was a stuart, the same as the king, was the good guy. This shows that Shakespeare was trying to please his king whilst writng Macbeth.
As Macbeth awaits for the signal to make his way up to the stairs, he sees a floating dagger and says "Thou marshal’s me the way that I was going; and such an instrument I was to use. there’s no such thing. It is the bloody business which informs". Here, Macbeth begins to question whether his mind playing tricks on him or is there a presence of evil that puts the dagger in his mind. This shows that there is interference of supernatural that leads Macbeth towards the Duncan's chamber to do the murder. The dagger symbolizes the point of no return for Macbeth.
After Macbeth commits the murder, he becomes a king. Although he has already achieved his goal to be a king, he begins to be concentrated on not letting Banquo's prophecy of being father of kings come true because he thinks he has put a great effort into reaching the throne. Because of his fears due to Banquo's prophecy, Macbeth proceeds to plot the murder of his friend, which causes him to fall into a deeper, darker hole. Once the murderer notified Macbeth that the deed was done, he observed Banquo's ghost in the place reserved for him at the table of the feast. "What man dare Approach thou like rugged Russian bear. take any shape but that, and my firm nerves shall never tremble." Macbeth feels frightened at the sight of the bloody ghost haunting him and proclaims that he could take any wild animals, but not Banquo's ghost. This shows the interference of spirit in Macbeth's mind and this caused Macbeth to act in a wild manner, making people suspicious of his actions.
As the witches are preparing a magic potion in a cauldron, Macbeth enters and demands them to answer his questions. Therefore, the witches show him the three apparitions. The first apparition is a head wearing a helmet. It says "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! Beware Thane of Fife." This apparition warns Macbeth to beware of Macduff before disappearing. This drives Macbeth to hate Macduff and on learning that Macduff has escaped before he can have him murdered, Macbeth immediately decides to murder his whole family. This shows Macbeth as an evil king, he decides to murder Macduff because he can.
The second apparition is a child covered with blood who tells him that "for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth." This apparition assures Macbeth to will not be harmed by man who born by woman. This convinced Macbeth of the power he has by thinking how could Macduff, a man of woman born, hurt him. "Then live, Macduff: What need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate." It says that although Macbeth has learned that Macduff will not hurt him, Macbeth thinks that Macduff is woman born, he is still not completely assured that he will not be harmed by anyone.
The third apparition is a child crowned with a tree in his hand and tells Macbeth "Macbeth shall never be vanquished until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." It says that Macbeth will never be defeated until 'Great Birnam Wood' moves against the castle at Dunsinane. "That will never be, who can impress the forest. sweet bodements, good!" It shows that Macbeth feels completely certain that no man can kill him and he will not be defeated until a forest uproots itself and moves which he thinks is impossible.
From the play, the use of the supernatural and spirits provide suspense in the play Macbeth. The first prophecies have led Macbeth to murder Duncan and Banquo in order to gain the power of the throne and become the King, which he once thought was an impossible thing. Lady Macbeth also relied on supernatural by her soliloquy to change her into a creature without human compassion, which at the end shows that she might be possessed by spirits or completely mad. The hallucination of the dagger also shows the interference of spirits that leads to Macbeth's murder of the king. After his encounter with the ghost of Banquo, Macbeth proceeds to visit the witches one last time to insure his security. After this last visit, Macbeth becomes over confident which cause his tragic death. Without the witches, Lady Macbeth, strange nature, vision of the dagger, the ghost of Banquo, and the apparitions, the play "Macbeth" would have been a dull play and would not have been a great success.
