After a protracted discussion of the topic of who is to blame for the demise of Macbeth, the blame has come to rest upon the Three Witches. Within the play Macbeth, the Witches have done numerous things to cause the demise of Macbeth; influenced him through prophecies and apparitions, spurred his killing spree and manipulated him. From the outset, the Witches show Macbeth prophecies which lead to his downfall. These prophecies are the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings, push Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to act upon their evil thoughts, and alter Macbeth from a loyal soldier to a traitor. First and foremost, the Witches were the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings.
The Importance of the Supernatural in Macbeth Macbeth is deeply influenced by the supernatural occurrences in this playwright. One of the first signs of the supernatural is the three witches that serve as foretellers for Macbeth’s future. Following the witches, there is the ghost of Banquo who completely took Macbeth away from reality and made other people think Macbeth was not well and that he was having hallucinations. The hallucinations or supernatural occurrences such as the ghost may have been caused by the guilt of killing his best friend. The following supernatural occurrence that plays an important role in Macbeth is the floating dagger that leads Macbeth into killing Duncan.
The witches were the driving force of Macbeth’s guilty ambition and were the prophecies that would play on his mind continually. “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter,” (Act One, Scene 3, Line 53). Following this, readers are introduced to Lady Macbeth, another character that encounters an ambitious discourse. The audience witnesses Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambitious discourse being ruined when they conclude that the only way to be on the throne is to commit the murder of the loyal King Duncan. The murderous actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lead to their guilty ambition influencing each other to commit deeds that would not only ruin their clean conscience, but also their cultural assumptions.
The role of females within Macbeth is of pivotal importance; the role of female characters – both witches and Lady Macbeth serve as a threat to the established social order as well as providing the play with some of its most darkly dramatic scenes and evocative language. The witches imbue the play with a sense of the supernatural which, for a Jacobean audience steeped in the traditions of dark magic, which would have created a great sense of terror. When Shakespeare combines their apparent powers with malevolent intention, the threat to the social order is augmented. The prophetic speech of the three witches carry with it some significance; revealing Macbeth’s latent lust for power and consequently, in his role as tragic hero, his harmartia: Macbeth’s belief in the witches ultimately leads to his committal of regicide and a gruesome string of murders thereafter, Macbeth’s actions confirm the witches’ final prophecy which appears to confirm their supernatural omniscience. Despite their underlying pressure throughout the play, the language that the witches use with each other is some of Shakespeare’s most dramatically engaging and disturbing.
Shakespeare further cultivates Macbeths quickly changing character through soliloquy and dramatic irony. His success in doing so is disclosed as the once ‘noble’ Macbeth goes against all odds to convey his idea of fulfilling the witches’ prophecies: to kill King Duncan. Macbeth also notifies us that to even anticipate slaughtering the sacred King is an act of treachery and betrayal nonetheless he delivers himself as quite motivated and determined to do so. The “horrid image”, “doth unfix” his hair and make his “seated heart knock”; his lust for ultimate power poisons his loyalty and decays at his integrity. As the play moves on, the audience observe the hasty crumbling of his devotion to God and the King.
Evil may have always been present within Macbeth and the witches prophecy or Lady Macbeth’s encourage may just merely be an excuse for his deeds. For example, in Act 1, Scene 4, Macbeth speaks in rhyming couples that insinuates this evil as he internalizes the language of the witches while chanting “ Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires”. On the other hand, Macbeth’s futile attempts to cover up his deeds through darkness and the entrance of Banquo’s ghost has quite an impact on him considering he is the only one who can see it. The sighting of this ghost who arrived to remind him and accuse him of the savage murders, demonstrates Macbeth’s inner feelings of guilt, hence proving he is really a coward than a “butcher”. Also, the sighting of a ghost would be quite striking to an Elizabethan audience, as they were greatly fascinated by anything that had a connection to the supernatural.
The witches are surrounded by an aura of mystery and magic from the opening in which the stage direction “Thunder and lightning” points to pathetic fallacy, typical of the gothic genre and reflects the danger of the witches. For a Shakespearian audience this danger would be well established from these simple indications because of a genuine fear for magic and witches. No doubt Shakespeare used the 'fear of the times' when designing the witches to make them the most scary creature he possibly could, which is arguably what is most effective as a technique and one still used today in the gothic genre. Another typical gothic element is nature humbling human characters or being manipulated by supernatural forces, in this opening scene with the witches we can draw links to this, the 'thunder and lightning' being a prime example again as we associate thunder and lightning with danger, a Shakespearian audience would also associate witches with danger and link the two together creating the thought that the witches were responsible for the danger in the skies. The thunder and lightning stage direction also acts as foreshadowing for Macbeths future, dangerous and out of the hands of nature as if a higher power had taken over.
The prophecies told to Macbeth by the Witches were one of the factors that contributed to the degeneration of his character. The prophecies made by the witches aroused Macbeth's curiosity of how he could become King of Scotland. As the play progresses, Macbeth slowly relies more and more on the witches prophecies. The influence of Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth also contributes to his degeneration of character. Lady Macbeth plays an important role in this play as she provides a scheme for Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan.
In the play "Macbeth" by Shakespeare, the author explores the many forms of evil and in particular whether evil is from within or is brought to the surface due to the environment in which people live in. For example, Macbeth says "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife." and this could mean that he was born with evil thoughts and an evil nature, or that someone (the "weird sisters" or witches) has planted them there. The seeds of evil, once planted, appear to be nurtured by Lady Macbeth and by Macbeth himself. It could be that he has damaged himself so that he is unable to feel empathy for others - or that the evil is innate.
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic play which tells the tale of Macbeth, a decorated and respected hero who spirals into darkness because of his greed and willingness to do anything to achieve ultimate power. Debates have raged over the ages about the role of supernatural elements in the downfall of Macbeth. During the course of the play, there are many interesting sections which could be concentrated on due to the suspense and the involvement of the supernatural. The use of the supernatural in the witches, the visions, the ghost, and the apparitions is a key element in making the concept of the play work and in making the play interesting. Throughout Macbeth there exists confusion as to what is real and what imaginary, and, for the most part, it is Macbeth himself who is confronted with these confusions.