Supernatural Powers in Macbeth Essay Example

Eye of New, Toe of Frog In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written in 1606, a story is told of a nobleman who decides to kill the king in order to rule all of Scotland himself. Thinking that the murder will be easily forgotten, Macbeth moves on with his kingship but soon finds out that he is constantly thinking about the brutal murder of his own king. Throughout the course of the play, there are many instances where the witches and other forms of the supernatural help to shape the plot of the story. During the 17th century in Great Britain the topic of witchcraft was a fairly controversial subject. There were many trials where people would be tried and falsely accused for witchcraft. Because of this, Shakespeare included three pivotal scenes that contain the witches. Although they were all brief, they were very important when you take it to account how they influenced Macbeth’s actions.
In the first scene of the play, the audience is presented with three witches sitting on a heath. This is significant because Shakespeare wanted to introduce the witches and supernatural forces to the audience before the most important characters were introduced. He did this because Shakespeare wanted to draw the spectators into the supernatural world of Macbeth without entering into the complex plot of the play. In the first line of the play, the first witch shows to the audience that there will be more involvement with the witches, when she asks, “When shall we meet again?” (Shakespeare 1/1/1) This tells the audience that if all they are interested in is the witches and supernatural forces, they should stick around for the rest of the play because they will appear again. The second witch answers the first witch’s question saying that they will meet again “When the battle’s lost and won.” (Shakespeare 1/1/4) Shakespeare uses the witches to convey to the audience that over the course of the play, there will be a large confrontation, and someone will win and someone will lose. Because of