A Supernatural in the Play Macbeth by William Shakespeare

A supernatural occurrence is described as an event or thing that is assumed to come from beyond or to originate from otherworldly forces and cannot be explained by reason or science. The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare is a tragedy that highlights the danger of too much ambition without moral consciousness through the development of Macbeth’s character. The plot of the drama explores topics including tyranny, gender stereotypes, and belief as a source of motivation. Also incorporated throughout the play are various supernatural and mythical occurrences, which are portrayed as witches, ghosts, prophecies, and delusions.

These supernatural events are included in Macbeth because of their contribution to the overall theme, and because of their relevance to each character depending on how much they believe in them. Shakespeare uses supernatural events to highlight existing qualities in Macbeth and to show how these qualities are intensified when Macbeth is exposed to them.

The qualities that are affected are ambition, greed, and malevolence, which all become exacerbated throughout the play and help show the development of Macbeth’s character. The first mention of mythical events is at the very start of the play. It opens on page 17 to the witches huddled in a circle conversing with each other, until Macbeth and Banquo enter the scene. Each witch shouts a line at the two men this information becomes the newly formed prophecy which predicts that Macbeth will become, the Thane of Glamis, Cawdor, and future king. This is the very beginning of Macbeth’s strong desire for success. Here, Macbeth’s character is naive and passive. The supernatural predictions begin to come true by naming him Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, he asks “Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/…My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man / That function is smothered in surmise, / And nothing is but what is not” / (1.3.146-155).

Macbeth asks himself why he is feeling bad if something good is happening. He talks about the thought of these goals as just a fantasy. It shows his true naivety when he speaks about committing murder, he explains how the mere thought “Shakes so my single state of man” (1.3.153). It seems here as if Macbeth would never commit such a horrible act because just the thought of it gravely scares him, this portrays Macbeth’s character now before the development begins. He doesn’t know yet the extent that his future self will go to, to achieve his goals. After the prophecy is introduced Macbeth is urged to take drastic measure and murder Duncan for his benefit. When he eventually does decide to do this there are some strange events in nature that help portray the concept of limited access and how nature has correlation to the plot through foreshadowing. When Macbeth commits the murder of Duncan there are parallels that can be drawn between him and the animal’s behavior. The morning after his death an old man speaks about the unusual nature during the night “A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, / was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed” (2.4.15-16).

The owl resembles Macbeth’s character as a murderer with no intentional cause. This is symbolism of Macbeth’s character transformation because it was unnatural for him to murder someone and this predator-prey situation is a mirror to the events going on in Macbeth’s life. After this, Macbeth becomes even more confident and convinces a couple assassins to kill Banquo. He tells them “Fleance, his son, that keeps him company, / Whose absence is no less material to me / Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate / Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart. / I’ll come to you anon” (3.2.154-158). Macbeth is now plotting to murder more people in comparison to him before, being shaken up by the mere thought of it. Not only has he murdered one person, but he is also now conspiring another homicide and slowly becoming insane. This change came very suddenly, so it suggests that this was a quality that was already in Macbeth, but circumstances around him like the validity of the prophecy, enhanced characteristics such as malice within Macbeth and made it become a prominent trait in his personality. He becomes determined to make it come true no matter what it takes.

Jumping ahead in the play to when the witches reappear, there is already a huge shift in his personality. He has now not only killed Duncan to fulfill prophecy, but has also murdered Banquo and Macduff’s family in a bloody rage. His personality has grown power hungry, desperate, could even be described as mentally ill. His descent into madness is displayed in his second encounter with the witches, he orders them to “answer [him]. / Though you untie the winds and let them fight. / Against the churches, though the yeasty waves. / Confound and swallow navigation up…Even till destruction sicken, answer [him]./ To what [he] ask[s] [them]” (4.1.52-64). Macbeth commands them to tell him everything they know and has no regard to what the consequences are including unleashing violent winds, tearing down churches, etc. This is a huge character shift from the previous Macbeth who was scared of the thought of murder. This change is primarily due to the original prophecy and its effects, it made him yearn for power so much so that he would do anything to get it. This greed and selfishness shaped his character to become a vile human being. He had so much fixation on these events that the obsession is bringing out his inner evil and morphing his mental-state. After Macbeth’s outburst with the witches he finds out that he will never be harmed by “none of woman born” (4.1.91) and he will never be defeated until “Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him” (4.1.106-107).

Macbeth now puts a lot of faith into the prophecy and inflates his ego to the point where he thinks nobody will ever defeat him. In his mind it makes sense, a forest will never uproot and move and no human is not born of a woman. This ego inflation results in another personality transformation, and he becomes the most arrogant, irrational man who believes he is invincible and will never die. He announces “Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane / I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? / Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know / All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: / ‘Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman’” (5.3.3-6). Macbeth’s newfound smugness compels him to talk to others like so as if he has nothing to fear. Macbeth’s tone is representative of how the prophecy leads the quality of conceitedness to be drawn out of him because of the circumstances. His reliance on the prophecy makes him to continue to believe that he fears nothing until “Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane” or he meets “a man not born of woman” (5.3.3-6). The supernatural occurances in Macbeth allow readers to better understand charecter traits of Macbeth by creating circumstances that involve qualities already within Macbeth to be drawn out and intensified.

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