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Renaissance Literature
08 May 2018

The use(s) of the supernatural in As You Like It and Macbeth

Theoretically, the supernatural is a power or force beyond the human’s visible universe,
what is unexplainable by science. Most of the times it goes against the rules of nature usually it is
attributed to God or a deity. The depictions of supernatural often involve the characteristics of
angels, ghosts, and spirits or almost anything that is not human alike and beyond nature. The
Renaissance was a time when magic and supernaturalism was a real actuality in the sophisticated
world and the culture. English people around this time believed in the existence and variety of
evil spirits, who distract the order of nature, could bring forth a storm and forecast hunger and
even death. People blamed supernatural beings for bad corps, storms, sickness and sometimes for
death also. Since the main theme of Shakespeare’s works is the interaction between a human and
the society, he tried to be up to date in all his plays. These supernatural elements added a level of
complexity to all of his works. According to H. M. Doak1, invoking the fantastic and supernatural
world was just a dramatic method for Shakespeare. In this way of using supernatural elements in
literature he stands alone, dramas like "Hamlet" and "Macbeth", have a great connection with the
magical world, but comedies like “A Midsummer Night's Dream” or “As You Like It” also
contain magical aspects. Although he was influenced by the common believes of the era, he had
not let other writers and Elizabethan demands to affect his plays. In most cases, renaissance
writers’ supernatural character’s purpose was to scare the audience. However, Shakespeare had
plenty of these supernatural personae who were evil and terrifying, but they were always
dramatic and impressive. The recurring metaphysical forces in his two plays Macbeth and As You
Like It guide the progression of the plot and the development of the characters.

The supernatural in Macbeth appears to the audience in diversified forms. The first
metaphysical creatures are the three witches. The old hags and the conditions (desert place, after
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H. M. Doak, “Supernatural Soliciting" in Shakespeare, 321.
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the thunder and lightning) of the first scene set the mood and the atmosphere of the drama. The
text does not provide much information on the personalities of the witches. Banquo, upon their
first meeting, even doubts if they are female: “You should be women, and yet your beards forbid
me to interpret / That you are so.” Macbeth (1.3.145 – 47) Probably this indicates that they are
old, untidy and uncared-for. They also have choppy fingers and skinny lips. Another
representation of the supernatural forces is the air-drawn floating dagger, which is one of
Macbeth’s hallucinations. The dagger turned up right before the murder of the current king,
Duncan. “Is this a dagger which I see before me,  / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee. “Macbeth (2.1. 611 – 12) This weapon points to the King’s room and appears to be
covered with blood, which symbolizes the final step that Macbeth became the victim of his
delusions. “Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, / Or else worth all the rest; I see thee
still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. There's no such
thing:” Macbeth (2.1. 623 – 26) This dagger pushes or encourages the protagonist to commit the
murder. The dagger is not the only vision Macbeth has through the drama, in the fourth scene of
Macbeth, when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are entertaining their guests at dinner, after Macbeth
sent two murderer to kill Banquo, his ghost appears at the table. Macbeth clearly speaks to him,
“Thou canst not say I did it: never shake / Thy gory locks at me.”Macbeth(3.4. 1336 – 37). The
King is frightened, scared and cannot believe to his own eyes. The last, but not least elements of
supernatural in Shakespeare’s drama are the three apparitions evoked by the weird sisters. These
illusions are symbolical representations of what shall happen to Macbeth. The first apparition is
an armed head, which can be Macbeth’s own head and in this case it confirms his fear of Macduff
since it says “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff; / Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss
me. Enough.” Macbeth (4.1. 1630 – 31). The second illusion is a bloody child, who says that
Macbeth cannot be harmed by anyone born from a woman “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh
to scorn  / The power of man, for none of woman born  / Shall harm Macbeth.” Macbeth (4.1.
1641 – 42). The third delusion is a crowned child, with a tree in his hand, who represents
Duncan’s son, Malcolm.

Each of these elements contributes to the play, and the plot is driven by the supernatural,
each event has an influence of metaphysical powers. The three witches are essential to the
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development of the plot. Without them this drama would have a completely different storyline;
they move the plot forward. The role of the sisters is to encourage Macbeth to act, although nor
Shakespeare or the witches say this out loud. The weird sisters are able to predict the future and
with their persuasive abilities, they are capable of influencing Macbeth’s decisions. With the
three predictions, the hags awake Macbeth’s ambitions. After Macbeth hears that the witches saw
he will be the King of Scotland, he starts to think about the way he can fulfill this prediction. This
is the point where black magic and the evil affect him, however, finally, he is the one who kills
King Duncan. Another supernatural element that affects Macbeth in the drama is the illusion of
the dagger, which can be interpreted as a warning sign to Macbeth to not to kill the King, it can
be his guilty conscience’s personification. Moreover, it even can be an encouragement, or it is
just the way he wanted to see it. This hallucination made a great impact on Macbeth, and it surely
foreshadowed the death of Duncan. One of the most dominant metaphysical factors in Macbeth is
the ghost of Banquo. Banquo’s involvement in the King’s plans and Banquo’s knowledge about
the predictions caused his death. The ghost of Banquo is a symbol of what Macbeth just
committed and suggests that he should have chosen a more peaceful solution to this problem. The
ghost’s aim is to remind the King that Banquo wants Macbeth to never forget about the innocent
blood that sticks to his hand. The appearance of the ghost is a turning point in the plot because he
demonstrates that he can cause difficulties to Macbeth through his son, Fleance. The protagonist
will have a tremendous problem with Banquo, which will help to drive him mad. Other key
elements that contribute to Macbeth’s madness are the apparitions, which mark the climax of the
play in considerations of the supernaturalism. The armed head’ vision and the previously stated
meaning of it caused the death of Macduff’s entire family. The second and the third illusion’s
consequence is Macbeth’s fearlessness, which contributes to the death of Macbeth.

Not just the plot is guided by the supernatural forces, but the characters of the drama are
influenced by the prophecies and the power of the old hags; they also play a great role in the
downfall of the main characters. The most important purpose of the witches in the play is to make
a contrast between Macbeth’s observant world and his subconscious, evil mind. In the first scene,
Macbeth’s character seems to be a noble and valiant hero, warrior, who gained fame at the
battlefield. “For brave Macbeth / Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, / Which smoked
with bloody execution,  / Like valour's minion carved out his passage / Till he faced the slave; /
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, / Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the
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chaps, / And fix'd his head upon our battlements. “ Macbeth (1.2. 35 – 42) Due to his
achievements he is announced as ‘Thane of Cawdor. After his accomplishments he met with the
mad sisters and the prophecies made Macbeth to let his evil unconscious side conquer his mind.
The witches' prophesies also affect Lady Macbeth and her characterization as Joanna Levin
suggests, “The suppression of the witches in Macbeth occurs largely through their consolidation
in the figure of Lady Macbeth, however, and the hystericized woman emerges as the exemplar of
disorderly femininity most in need of proper patriarchal governance.”2. Moreover, the appearance
of Banquo adds a sense of guilt to Macbeth’s character, and he was also obsessed by fear. Due to
this vision, he murdered Banquo’s whole family, ridden by fear. The three illusions evoked by
the mad sisters contributed to the characterization is multiple ways, their first aim is to show and
enhance the madness of Macbeth. This is how Shakespeare wanted to show the audience what is
in the protagonist’s mind. It can be interpreted as the embodiment of Macbeth’s guilt, sorrow,
and fear.

Another great work of Shakespeare with is connected to supernaturalism is As You Like It.
The setting, the Forest of Arden is a key element to this play because it serves as a pastoral
setting. The characters escape here from the world of corruption. ” The Forest of Arden is a
magician and utopian place, where the time seems to stop, “You should ask me what time o' day:
there's no clock / in the forest.” As You Like It (3.2. 1396) The play makes the reader think of the
biblical ‘garden of Eden’ with the descriptions of the forest and Orlando’s servant named Adam.
The Forest depicted as the Garden of Eden before the fall of man. As René E. Fortin mentioned
in his work, “the Duke's description transforms the Forest to something like the Paradisal Garden
of Eden:” “Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, / The seasons' difference, as the icy fang / And
churlish chiding of the winter's wind…”3
There are a few signs suggesting a hidden connection with the Bible. Through the comedy
Amiens sing about “Under the greenwood tree” As You Like It (2.5. 820) and there are a few trees
in the play, like the oak trees that Orlando scares upon. The first reference is “Under an oak,
whose antique root peeps out…”As You Like It (2.1. 33 – 34) and he second one is “Under an old
oak, whose boughs were mossed with / age And high top bald with dry antiquity” As You Like It

2
Joanna Levin, Lady MacBeth and the Daemonologie of Hysteria, 45.
3
René E. Fortin, "Tongues in Trees": Symbolic Patterns in As You Like It, 570.
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(4.3. 109 – 111) On the first hand, it can refer to tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge just like in
the Garden of Eden. On the second hand, according to René E. Fortin “In the second stage the
sacred tree is planted in holy ground. It is rep- representative of the deity. It is the dwelling place
of the deity. It is a recurring motif it occurs in The tempest too "... I will rend an / And peg thee in
his knotty entrails till/ Thou hast howled away twelve winters”. The Tempest (1.2. 432 – 34)
The most commonly stated supernatural phenomenon in As You Like It is Hymen, the god
of marriage, who appears at the end of the comedy and as Marilyn L. Williamson refers to
Hymen has a huge role in framing the plot and the whole story of the play, “Hymen's opening
lines, which expand the scene from Arden to heaven and earth:” “Then is there mirth in heaven,
When earthly things made even / Atone together. / Good duke, receive thy daughter / Hymen
from heaven brought her, / Yea, brought her hither, / That thou mightst join her hand with his /
Whose heart within his bosom is.” 4 His musical appearance is the turning point of the play since
he bounds the four couples. The female protagonist of the play is Rosalind has a connection with
the appearance the god. She is one of the most mysterious characters in As You Like It. Her
decisions move the play forward just like the three witches in Shakespeare’s most emblematic
drama, Macbeth. Rosalind even talks about being capable of using magic. “…Believe then, / if
you please, that I can do strange things: I have, / since I was three year old, conversed with a /
magician, most profound in his art and yet not damnable.” As You Like It (5.2.2999– 3001) At the
end of the play, she seemed to evoke the God of Marriage, Hymen.

All things considered, Macbeth and As You Like it has a few characteristic features in
common. Both of the two play’s plot are moved forward by a mysterious, powerful and – in some
sort of – magical persona. In the drama the crazy sisters are the puppeteers and in the pastoral
comedy Rosalind in the one who controls the events. However, there is a big difference between
these characters the old hags are typical embodiments of supernatural but Rosalind is a human
endowed with magical power. Moreover, in As You Like It at the end of the comedy, Hymen is
the one, who takes over the control of the plot in comparison in Macbeth the weird sisters are
guiding the plot through the entire play. Furthermore, there is a difference in the language of the
plays too, as Prof. Dr. Verena Lobsien suggests, Rosalind’s “…father’s, Orlando’s and Phebe’s
confusion is emphasised by the repeated verse “If there be truth in sight, you are” (l117f.),

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Marilyn L. Williamson, The Masque of Hymen in "As You Like It", 255.
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finding a climax in Phebe’s “If sight and shape be true” (l.119). Rosalind’s answer in four-stress
iambic verse (l.121-123) contrasts with the other characters’ blank verse and Hymen’s three- and
four stress verses.”5 While, in Macbeth, the general communication of the witches is pitched into
rhymed verse, the trochaic tetrameter is preponderant in the most part of their conversations. Just
like in the following line “When shall we three meet again…” Macbeth (1.1. 2) The comedy and
the drama differ in the role of time also, in Macbeth time is the protagonist’s main enemy,
-Macbeth’s ambition and pride can also be considered as a determining factor in his downfall-
while in As You Like It time has no purpose, it is a negligible element. Another difference that
should be considered, is the disguisement, which is the main determining component of the
comedy, it is present in the whole story. Although in Macbeth there is not any concrete main
element that can be connected with disguisement. Despite the differences mentioned above, these
works of Shakespeare have a great influence of supernatural elements. The metaphysical factors
are playing an immense role in the plays’ plots’ progression and in the characters, especially in
the protagonist’s development. Just like Kristin Noone mentioned in her essay, “The magical
interruption is often dangerous, but is always necessary for the story to be told, and for the
protagonists who will be transformed by the experiences”6.

5
Dr. Verena Lobsien, Language and Rhetoric in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, 17.
6
Kristin Noone, Shakespeare in Discworld: Witches, Fantasy, and Desire, 27.