| Act One-Witches | "Fair is foul and foul is fair."
The Theme of the Supernatural Element in Act 1 Scene 1 of the Play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Act 1, Scene 1 starts with a stereotypical image of the witches, which would have shocked and drawn in the 17th Century Elizabethan audience in interest due to the rarity and obscurity surrounding the supernatural. |
| Act one- lady macbeth | In her soliloquy in Act 1, she speaks to the supernatural with a clear domineering and dominating tone, such as in “Come here you spirits…and fill me.” The ease with which Lady Macbeth addresses the supernatural, which was unbeknownst to even Macbeth and Banquo upon their first encounter. |
| Act 2-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"
The Supernatural: Seeing the dagger could just be Macbeth's imagination “A dagger of the mind” as he says, or it could be the work of the supernatural as it seems to urge him towards Duncan's bedroom. The Overturning of the Natural Order: By killing the King Macbeth is upsetting the natural order of things |
| Act three- Macbeth | The witches could have influenced Macbeth's thoughts. "Never shake thy gory locks at me!" - Macbeth sees the ghost, so it is something supernatural.Banquo's ghost serves to show the path that Macbeth could have chosen as well as serving as a reminder of Macbeth's deeds. It is in this way that Banquo haunts Macbeth in two ways. Banquo's ghost serves as a reminder of the horrors Macbeth committed to gain the crown and the innocent blood he spilled. |
| Act 4- macbeth and witches | In response they summon for him three apparitions: an armed head, a bloody child, and finally a child crowned, with a tree in his hand. These apparitions instruct Macbeth to beware Macduff but reassure him that no man born of woman can harm him and that he will not be overthrown until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane.
The witches give him these messages that foreshadows the end of his downfall.
It is argued that they started his downfall in the first place. |
| Act 5- lady macbeth | Lady Macbeth's mental health has degraded so much that she is sleepwalking and talking to herself. With the guilt of all of those slaughters and the figurative and literal blood on her hands she sleepwalks remembering the things she's done and saying this out loud.
"Out dammed spot I say"
Gentlewoman Why, it stood by her:
she has light by her
continually; 'tis her
command.
Doctor You see, her eyes are open.
She does not want to face her inner darkness which in those times were considered supernatural. |
