Preview

Shakespeares Use of Supernatural

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
331 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Shakespeares Use of Supernatural
Approximately 35% of Shakespeare’s plays use elements of supernatural entities. (Javeshay) Shakespeare used elements in the supernatural in order to connect with his audience as Elizabethan society audiences with this motif. Many unrealistic themes were portrayed in order to appease the queen herself. These elements represent a doorway into the minds of the entire Elizabethan society. Shakespeare uses fairies, witches, sorcery, spirits, and anything that takes control outside of a mortals power or doing and uses it, in any and many situation it chooses to use it in.
In Hamlet, there is a supernatural guiding force, behind hamlet. A ghost, in the form of his father, asks him to get revenge on the king’s death. So Hamlet goes out and kills, but in a series of events is killed himself. The ghost presents itself many times throughout the play. First appearing to the watchmen, the ghost does not talk, only scares them. The first time the ghost speaks is to hamlet.
In Macbeth, there are many more supernatural encounters. There are about four different encounters total. The first is at the very beginning, there is a scene with three witches. They’re around a cauldron doing a spell, the witches have many scenes, including when Macbeth goes back to them and asks of his future, and he drinks the broth they boiled in their cauldron. And he goes into a hallucinogenic quarrel. They also have a scene by themselves when hecates, the head witch shows up and yells at them for not inviting her.
King Macbeth hallucinates again when he and Lady Macbeth and many of there friends are at dinner and he goes to sit, but Banquo, his deceased friend that he killed, appears, and Macbeth freaks out and makes a huge scene in front of everyone. All of his friends think he’s lost his mind. A dagger appears, to Macbeth, another hallucination. It turns bloody and he gets scared. It symbolizes his guilt for killing so many and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Macbeth is arguably one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Written sometime between 1603 and 1606, the play is strongly written with King James the first’s of England’s interests in mind; the supernatural. Because of this we are introduced to the idea of the paranormal and witchcraft straight way in the play with the three. This would have scared a Jacobean audience as they feared the supernatural; it also foreshadows the likeliness of disturbed characters to be introduced later in the play.…

    • 3194 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth starts having visions/hallucinations of a bloody dagger floating in the air before him, and he praises witchcraft and murder; put simply, he goes crazy.…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ is a play that revolves around a villainous king and his evil wife. There is a significant supernatural influence in Macbeth. Supernatural as defined by dictionary.com as being above or beyond what is natural, explainable by natural law or phenomena. The supernatural influence in Macbeth is evident throughout the play. Firstly Macbeth would not have murdered Duncan if he had not heard the Weird sister’s prophecies. Second of all the ghost of Banquo was important to the play to portray the deterioration of Macbeth’s mental health. Finally witchcraft and the supernatural were relevant to society in the 1600’s as it provided a way for people to understand the happenings that science could not yet explain.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    While Macbeth is awaiting the signal that King Duncan is sleeping, which will summon him to commit the murder, Macbeth is struck by a vision of a dagger. This “dagger of the mind” symbolizes Macbeth’s last minute doubt and the choice of committing the murder that he is still facing (2.1.38). Even within his vision, Macbeth does not have hold of the transient knife; he has not reconciled himself to the inevitability of his treachery even at this late point. The illusionary dagger is in stark contrast to the physical dagger Macbeth pulls from his side.…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hallucinations involve putting one under the impression that things are completely real while awake, but instead have been created by the mind. Macbeth experiences multiple hallucinations, including a floating dagger, a ghost, and possibly witches. In the beginning of the story, Macbeth and his friend Banquo claim that they spoke to three “witches” who told them of their great futures. From there, an idea forms in Macbeth’s head: he was invincible. Although Banquo also viewed the three strange women, Macbeth and Banquo never discuss the invincibility Macbeth has now been aware of. Therefore, Macbeth could have hallucinated some of the strange women’s dialogue to his favor, believing it was completely valid. This leads one to the thought of emerging schizophrenia. Macbeth was in the correct age group for paranoid schizophrenia to take full control of a male’s body. Also, since he experiences multiple hallucinations and his once loyal personality turns violent, the diagnosis of schizophrenia becomes more and more prominent. Although many argue that Macbeth did not have schizophrenia and was just obsessed with power, the many hallucinations that he experienced help to counter that argument. Hallucinations are not extremely common (besides dreams) and often only occur with medical issues or drug use. When Macbeth is talked into killing Duncan, he hallucinates a floating dagger above…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Essay Planning

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle before my hand?”- On his way to murder King Duncan, Macbeth sees the vision of the bloody dagger leading the way.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even before Macbeth commits any crimes, he hallucinates due to the enormous amount of stress he is under. Macbeth’s guilt over his imminent murder manifests itself as a dagger in Act II Scene i lines 45-49, and Macbeth utters, “I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. There’s no such thing. / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.” The blood spattered on the blade and handle of the dagger imply that the dagger was viciously and maliciously used on someone, foreshadowing the violent and gory act that Macbeth soon carries out. Macbeth even recognizes that the dagger is not real; it is the “bloody business” of the murder that he is about to commit that is causing it to appear before him.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Macbeth awaits Lady Macbeth's signal, he sees a bloodied dagger before him. Alarmed, Macbeth exclaims "I have thee not, and yet I see thee," revealing to the audience that the dagger is merely an apparition (II. i. 35). It can be inferred that the dagger appears as a result of Macbeth's obsession with the impending murder. However, it remains unclear whether or not the dagger is a hallucination or a supernatural phantasm. Shakespeare leaves this up to the audience's interpretation to allow them to experience Macbeth's feelings of confusion and unease for…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ghost In Hamlet

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the audience of Shakespeare’s time period as well as today’s audience would have recognized the play as a revenge tragedy. But, this is not your typical revenge tragedy but one with a twist. As in most Elizabethan revenge tragedies the ghost appeared to further the action or reaction of the hero. However, the ghost in Hamlet not only appears as part of the plot but surpasses the traditional role of the ghost and becomes an actual character within the play (Mandell).…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Act One Macbeth

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Macbeth: “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still… And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood. Which was not so before.”-- Is this a dagger I see in front of me, with its handle pointing toward my hand? Come, let me hold you. I don’t have you but I can still see you. I see blood splotches on your blade and handle that weren’t there before. Macbeth is hallucinating about a bloody dagger in front of him. This quote shows the reoccurring event of hallucinations and blood throughout the play. The dagger represents the bloody trail which Macbeth is about to embark. The hallucination could be because Macbeth feels guilty about what he is about to do.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Research Paper

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The supernatural reflected the atmosphere and the beliefs of Scotland and much of Europe in the sixteenth century. Macbeth is a story that is completely engulfed with supernatural elements. It is more a supernatural story than it is drama. Madness, mayhem and horror are all words that best describe this play. Three hideous witches, a floating dagger and apparitions are all supernatural elements that the reader finds in Macbeth. Most importantly, these elements are major causes of Macbeths path of ambition, murder madness and his ultimate downfall. As the story progresses we see the supernatural events change location starting from the witches cavern to Macbeths castle. All this shows that Macbeth is highly dependent and seduced by the supernatural.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Macbeth Research Paper

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages

    For nearly all of humanity’s existence, people have believed in some form of the supernatural. Whether it be, ghosts, witches, demons, etc., the supernatural has always has a place in human culture and society. In the renaissance, the idea of witches specifically began to take a prominent place in Renaissance culture. As the ideas of witches and the supernatural spread in Renaissance culture, writes like William Shakespeare began to incorporate these ideas into their work. In one of Shakespeare’s signature works, Macbeth, he incorporates the ideas of witches and the supernatural into the plot and Macbeth’s rise and fall. Elizabethan beliefs are present in…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Shakespeare 's "Macbeth" supernatural forces create a suspenseful atmosphere. The use of the supernatural in the witches, the visions, the ghost and the apparitions provides the backbone of the climax and "excuses" for Macbeth 's change of character. Because conscience plays such a central role in Macbeth 's tragic struggle, many critics use spiritual and supernatural theories to illuminate the drama 's character development.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hand Macbeth

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    —On his way to murder King Duncan, Macbeth sees the vision of the bloody dagger leading the way.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Johnson, A.T. _Aspects of the Supernatural in Shakespearean Tragedy_. Memphis: Southwestern at Memphis, 1959. Print.…

    • 2756 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays