How Does Shakespeare Present The Supernatural In Macbeth

In the play, Macbeth Shakespeare represents the supernatural through the characters of the witches. He uses different dramatic techniques in order to interpret his ideas to the audience. The witches are present from the first scene and are not seen without each other throughout the play. The supernatural occurs four times throughout Macbeth: in all the appearances of the witches, in the emergence of Banquos’s ghost, in the witches apparitions with their prophecies, and in the air- drawn dagger that guides Macbeth towards King Duncan. The witches are the first thing that we see, they appear inseparable and are new to us. Although their opening scene is the shortest scene in Macbeth it could be argued that it is the most effective and captivating. Of the supernatural phenomenon evident in Macbeth the witches are
In this scene, we are invited into a mysterious world that we have not seen before and which we are unsure of whether these three women are good or bad. The scene starts with them at the end of a discussion that was taking place, “When shall we three meet again?” We know not of what they were talking about, we can only guess. They say mysterious words and speak in riddles, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” This makes the audience curious as to what and who these three women are and what their role is in the play. They speak in oxymoron’s which emphasise their true, evil nature, the suggestion of making everything foul is fair. This contrasts to the idea of the Woman in Black being an evil character who we adversely feel sympathy for as we know of her heart-breaking past with her child that she never got to the mother. The