How does the supernatural play a role in Macbeth?

How does the supernatural play a role in Macbeth?

1. Act 1, Scene 3

   • "Thou shalt be king hereafter."
     • Shalt = will/definitely.
     • Hereafter = from now on.
     • "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is but what is not."
       • "Whose murder is but fantastical" = suggests Macbeth is contemplating the murder of King Duncan. This also shows a sudden ambition being ignited by the witches.
       • The witches mentioned nothing of murdering the king to become king, which suggests Macbeth is considering playing dirty.
       • So withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth, And yet are on ’t?—Live you? Or are you aught That man may question?
         • Whilst Macbeth is willing to accept the supernatural without question, Banquo is very suspicious of these witches and hesitates to trust them.
         • Banquo is struggling to comprehend whether the witches are humans or not, and question if they are ghosts.

2. Act 1, Scene 5

   • "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry "Hold, hold!"
     • Lady Macbeth asks the evil spirits to 'unsex her and fill her from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty, which means she is asking for the power of a man and to feel no guilt.
     • 'Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark' could suggest Lady Macbeth doesn't want God to be able to intervene in her evil deeds.

3. Act 1, Scene 1

   • "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
     • This quote immediately shows how evil the witches are, and that they will be mischievous throughout the play.
     • This quote also suggests that the witches are going to be very unfair.
   • "When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"
     • This quote shows the witches are planing a meeting, most likely to plan evil deeds concerning Macbeth.

4. "There's comfort yet; they are assailable. Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done A deed of dreadful note. "

   • Macbeth is channeling the witches in this quote, suggesting he is starting to become evil.
   • Macbeth is also starting to talk a lot like the witches in this quote.