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Supernatural In Macbeth Essay

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The Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines supernatural as “something unable to be explained by science or the laws of nature: of, relating to, or seeming to come from magic, a god, etc.” In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the supernatural is represented by Hecate and the Weïrd Sisters, Macbeth’s hallucinations, and the apparitions. Through the influence of these supernatural occurrences, Macbeth’s final self is created.
Macbeth’s journey through the supernatural began in Act 1 Scene 3 when Macbeth and Banquo stumbled upon the Weïrd Sisters during their ride home from battle. When asked of what they were, the Sisters responded, one by one, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! / All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! / All hail, …show more content…

Once Banquo leaves, a floating dagger appears before Macbeth: “Is this a dagger which I see before me… A dagger of the mind, a false creation / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? / I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which now I draw. / Thou Marshal’st me that way I was going, / And such an instrument I was to use… It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one-half world / Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse / The curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates / Pale Hecate’s off’rings, and withered murder, / Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, / Whose howl’s his watch, this with his stealthy pace, / With Tarquin’s ravishing towards his / design” (2.144-68). Supernaturally, this vision presents itself to Macbeth, bearing the weapon that Macbeth would soon use to murder Duncan. This is part of the Sisters’ offerings to Hecate. They provided him a vision which he would give into, leading him to kill Duncan and into a spiral of …show more content…

The original encounter with the Weird Sisters sparked his ambitions. The floating dagger led Macbeth to the turning point in his behavior. And the apparitions gave him a confidence boost, leading him to believe that he couldn’t be killed. Although Macbeth contained all of these ambitions within himself, supernatural forces brought them out and to life. Without their interference, Macbeth would have stayed a loyal kinsman to Duncan and the equilibrium of life would have stayed

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An example is when Macbeth seeks out the witches again and says: “How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! / What is't you do?... / I conjure you, by that which you profess, / Howe'er you come to know it, answer me: / Though you untie the winds and let them fight / Against the churches; though the yesty waves / Confound and swallow navigation up; / Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down; / Though castles topple on their warders' heads; / Though palaces and pyramids do slope / Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure Of nature's germens tumble all together, / Even till destruction sicken, answer me /

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