Supernatural In Macbeth

In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth the author uses supernatural characters to catalyze the story and add more suspense to throw the readers. This is shown in the fact that he uses witches and apparitions or ghosts, to influence and impact other characters lives. Theses characters act as one of the most important role in the entire play even though they are not major characters. They attribute to Macbeth's bravery, ambition, and self-doubt. It also affects Macbeth in other ways such as doing things no man should ever do. Throughout Shakespeare's time, or the Renaissance period, the supernatural was highly believed in and unsupported. Any supernatural being, especially witches, or highly frowned upon and headed for their unsavory practices

As of now days, they would now be referred to or called witches because of their ability to see visions and predict prophecies. They tell Macbeth his future and influence his actions when they say “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, Thane of Glamis!”, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, Thane of Cawdor!”, and “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, You’ll be king one day!”(Shakespeare, 1985, pp. 30). Once he sees the idea of being king a possibility, he starts to take fate into his own hands; this way he knows the prophecies will come true (Moss & Wilson, 1997). Another example of this, is when the witches show Macbeth the three apparitions and provide him with a false sense of security (Shakespeare, 1985, pp. 138 & 140). Macbeth in reaction to this believed nothing could harm him and became careless with his rule ad king. He puts his defenses down and in the end it leads to his inevitable death, when Macduff beheads

He sees multiple ghosts, they all have their own meeting in evoke different emotions from him. The first Ghost he sees is his best friend Banquo whom he had murdered out of precaution of losing his throne. “Prithee see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you?” Macbeth said to Banquo's ghost (Shakespeare, 1985, pp. 116). Seeing the ghost causes him to go mad and act irrational in front of important noble man while at dinner. It brings him to realize his guilt and start to doubt himself. When Macbeth interacts with the witches and hears the three apparitions he reacts in a way that leads to his downfall. The first one does not do much for him because it only tells him what he already knows, to watch out for Macduff. Next, the second apparition tells him he can not be harmed from a man birthed by a woman. This leads him to become cocky thinking no man could harm him because everyone is born by their mother. Finally, he doesn't take the third apparition seriously after it tells him a forest will approach and attack. He leaves the witches feeling confident and invincible thinking no one could hurt