Supernatural In Macbeth

In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, as edited by Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason, we are presented with a convoluted universe revolving around the main character Macbeth, a man who seemed to be at first a man of honor, but slowly slipped into a chasm of cruelty. While he was pushed by outer forces, such as Lady Macbeth and the Weird Sisters, to attain power and sink further into darkness, it can be argued that everything actually stemmed from him. While he may have appeared to others in one way as an honorable noble who was worthy of leading the country, his inner thoughts hidden away from the rest of the world drove him down a dark path in a quest for power. With such dual and conflicting natures, this ultimately breaks Macbeth until the

His link to the Witches is further strengthened with his opening line of “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (Pg. 140; 1.3.38), uttered just before having his first interaction with the Witches who had been anticipating him since the first scene. One must wonder whether these witches are even real? They appear to be real because they are seen by both Macbeth and Banquo, and yet Banquo forms this exact question in the audience 's mind when he asks “Are ye fantastical, or that indeed which outwardly ye show?”(Pg. 141; 1.3.53). This is the argument of Stephen Greenblatt as quoted in “The witches and the witch: Verdi’s Macbeth” by Daniel Albright. He says that the witches “account for nothing... it is in fact extremely difficult to specify what, if anything, they do or even what, if anything, they are”. It could be argued that they are there to help prime the subliminal desires within characters allowing them to manifest themselves, and eventually bring them to action. This can be proven by looking at how each character reacts to this: Banquo says “Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root That takes the reason prisoner?”(Pg. 143; 1.3.85) proposing that they must have taken drugs, an “insane root,” for something so fantastical to have happened to them. Banquo may also be asking Macbeth whether this is something we are going to take seriously or are we going to allow our “reason to be taken prisoner” and actually listen to the Witches’