Preview

Role Of Supernatural In Macbeth

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
179 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Role Of Supernatural In Macbeth
Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece, defined tragedy as a combination of supernatural power(s), nobility, limitation of knowledge, character flaws, the understanding of why the character fell, acceptance of punishment, and the restoration of order. Because these elements are found in Macbeth, the play is defined as a tragedy.

The supernatural powers are the three witches, who appear before Macbeth and proclaim that he shall become king. "All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!"(I,iii, 51). While it is unknown if the witches predict fate or create the events themselves, what is known is that what is foretold by the witches transforms into reality. Not only does Macbeth become king as a result of murdering

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare was the creative mind behind some of the world's greatest plays and tragedies. Two of his most famous tragedies were Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. One definition of a tragedy is that it depicts serious incidents in which characters undergo a change from happiness to suffering, often involving the death of others, as well as the main characters. This definition proves true in both Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 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
  • Good Essays

    OTHELLO ONE PAGER

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A tragedy is a play that revolves around a character who is brought to their demise by their own actions and failure. The plot usually provoke feelings of pity and fear from the audiemce. References to fate and destiny can be found throughout the play. The end usually includes the deaths of many characters.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pity In Antigone

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Greek Philosopher Aristotle defined tragedy as a form of drama that evokes fear and pity in the audience. The tragic play Antigone conflicts that definition because although pity is evoked throughout the play, modern audiences have difficulty experiencing fear because they fail to acknowledge the role fate plays in their everyday lives.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle was not only a scientific genius, but someone who carved the path for the way we depict plays and furthermore, how we write them. Aristotle made it a mission to read the plays of his era, while doing so he discovered many similarities among them, creating a tragedy. A tragedy is a form of drama that is composed of three basic parts: values, characters, and a conclusion. A value is what will determine the fate of the tragic character in the play, usually the value is represented by a supernatural power. While the character has to display certain characteristics like nobility either by birth or action, it is most noted for the characters downfall. The downfall occurs either by limitation of knowledge or by a tragic flaw within…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    forces essay macbeth

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    However another key force that brings upon Macbeth down fall in this play is being deceived by supernatural forces, in act 1 of the play Macbeth is brought to the presents of 3 evil witches, these witches give the first evidence of Macbeths weak mind by telling him that he could be king, these super natural forces predict the future which has some truth to it…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Macbeth A Tragic Hero

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A great play has to include many important features in order for it to be classified as a tragedy. For any great tragedy, there must be a tragic hero in the story. Fear and pity are created by and through the conflict. Every tragedy must also end in hope. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a great tragedy deserving of much more praise.…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    They had power at the beginning of the play. In the beginning Macbeth met The Weird Sisters and they would state “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be King hereafter.”(1.3) They would persuade him that he would become all of these magnificent things. At first Macbeth was hesitant but with the witches disappearing like they did and leaving no trace behind, Macbeth would trust their fortune telling and kill King Duncan. Without the witches telling Macbeth all this information there wouldn’t have been a storyline to continue with but by telling Macbeth a simple fortune telling he would turn from this innocent human being to as bad as the devil himself. Slaughtering the king and killing his friend Banquo all for the sake of power. Corruption has started to seize control of Macbeth. Even when Macbeth was the king he still didn’t have all the power to himself. Macbeth needed the witches to tell his future. In order for Macbeth to become the absolute king he needed to know what his shortcomings were. Later in the play, Macbeth would meet up with the witches again and get his fortune told again. That was when the witches would use their magical powers and brought up three apparitions. The first one would state that “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff; beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.”(4.1) The second apparition would state, “ Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.”(4.1) The third apparition would state “ Be lion-mettl’d, proud, and take no care WHo chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him.”(4.1) Macbeth was told to be careful of Macduff and that he will never die of someone who is born from a…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth is a play where every munder occurs due to another munder that occurred in the past. There is a beginning point for all the mishaps that have fallen into this play and it all begins with Lady Macbeth.she who initiated all of the actions in the play, however she did not pay the ultimate price. Lady Macbeth initiated the chain of events in this play by starting off manipulating her husband Macbeth. " Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round. "…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The supernatural beliefs that were well-known during the medieval time were another element of morality tradition in the play. For example, during the medieval period people used to believe in the existence of evil forces such as witches. In Macbeth we see at the beginning three witches which their predictions tempted him into murdering Duncan. Also, Lady Macbeth is another supernatural figure which used witchcraft to unsex…

    • 68 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare's use of supernatural events is prominent in Macbeth, because of all the supernatural events, such as the witches, ambition to become king increases, but the supernatural events were not evil forces. Throughout the story, there are many cases in which there are supernatural events. The main supernatural events in the story are when Macbeth meets with the witches. The witches show Macbeth the future, this is what causes Macbeth actions to unfold in a way that gets him killed. Because Macbeth has to rely on supernatural forces so often, he becomes oblivious to what is happening in the real world. He is not able to differentiate between the real world and the supernatural world. At first he gets a small prediction of the future from…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Antigone and Aristotle

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "An imitation of action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude... concerning the fall of a man whose character is good...whose misfortune is brought about not by voice or depravity but by some error or frailty... with incidents arousing pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions."…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth wastes no time in concocting a sinister plot to hasten her husbands rise to power. Benevolent, magnanimous King Duncan who has just elevated her husbands title thereby securing his stature in territory and power, will have to die. And in the course of her conniving she concludes she is in need of supernatural assistance. In “Witch in History” Lady Macbeth is described as another of Shakespeare’s viragos “symbolically allied with witchcraft. Witchcraft is the resort of women because it symbolizes the only way they can work politically: by stealth, in secret, rather than on the public field of battle or debate” (Purkiss,…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The supernatural occurs four times during the course of Macbeth. It occurs in all the appearances of the witches, in the appearance of Banquo¹s ghost, in the apparitions with their prophesies, and in the ³air-drawn² dagger that guides Macbeth towards his victim. Of the supernatural phenomenon evident in Macbeth the witches are perhaps the most important. The witches represent Macbeth¹s evil ambitions.…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays