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INTRODUCTION to the Playwright

(William Shakespeare)
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He was
born on 23rd April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is widely regarded as the greatest
writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called
England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. His extant works, including
collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a
few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every
major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

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He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works
continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British
theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period).
Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote.
Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.

Family Life:
Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful Glover (glove-
maker) originally from Snitterfield in Warwickshire, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an
affluent landowning family. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he was baptized
on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April,
Saint George’s Day. This date, which can be traced to William Oldys and George Steevens,
has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on the same date in 1616.
He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

Shakespeare was probably educated at the King’s New School in Stratford, a free school
chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile (400 m) from his home. At the age of 18,
Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of
Worcester issued a marriage license on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of
Hathaway’s neighbors posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the
marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste since the Worcester
chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times,
and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptized 26
May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and
were baptized 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was
buried 11 August 1596.

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 Life before stage:
After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as
part of the London theatre scene in 1592. Scholars refer to the years between 1585 and
1592 as Shakespeare’s “lost years”. Biographers attempting to account for this period have
reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare’s first biographer,
recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape
prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is
also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him.
Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the
horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a
country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have
been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic
landowner who named a certain “William Shakeshafte” in his will. Little evidence
substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte
was a common name in the Lancashire area.

His work and career:

Shakespeare was noted both for poetry and plays, with both mediums serving different
needs; the plays were related to the theatrical fashion that was on trend while his poetry
served to provide storytelling in erotic or romantic ways, culminating in a canon of work
that is as diverse in language as the issues of human nature that the works portray.

 Plays:-
William Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays that scholars know of, with most of them
labeled is comedies, histories, or tragedies. The earliest play that is directly attributed to
Shakespeare is the trilogy of “King Henry VI,” with Richard III also being written around
the same time, between 1589 and 1591. The last play was a collaboration, assumed to be
with John Fletcher, known as “The Two Noble Kinsmen.”

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 Poems and Sonnets:-
There are two volumes of poetry and over 150 sonnets that are attributed to Shakespeare.
It is thought that although Shakespeare was a poet throughout his lifetime, he turned to
poetry most notably during 1593 and 1594 when a plague forced theatres in London to
shut down.

In Shakespeare’s day, English grammar, spelling, and pronunciation were less

standardized than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English.
Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his A Dictionary of the
English Language, the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as “with bated
breath” (Merchant of Venice) and “a foregone conclusion” (Othello) have found their way
into everyday English speech.

Shakespeare’s influence extends far beyond his native England and the English language.
His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th century
Shakespeare was widely translated and popularized in Germany, and gradually became a
“classic of the German Weimar era;” Christoph Martin Wieland was the first to produce
complete translations of Shakespeare’s plays in any language. Actor and theatre director
Simon Callow writes, “this master, this titan, this genius, so profoundly British and so
effortlessly universal, each different culture – German, Italian, Russian – was obliged to
respond to the Shakespearean example; for the most part, they embraced it, and him, with
joyous abandon, as the possibilities of language and character in action that he celebrated
liberated writers across the continent. Some of the most deeply affecting productions of
Shakespeare have been non-English, and non-European. He is that unique writer: he has
something for everyone.”

Shakespeare’s work has made a significant and lasting impression on later theatre and
literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot,
language, and genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed
as a worthy topic for tragedy.

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 His legacy:
Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless
adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence
on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete
Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems.
William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the
English language.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI,
written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare’s plays are
difficult to date precisely, however, and studies of the texts suggest that Titus Andronicus,
The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona
may also belong to Shakespeare’s earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily
on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland,
dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a
justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty.

The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially
Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the
plays of Seneca. The Comedy of Errors was also based on classical models, but no source
for The Taming of the Shrew has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the
same name and may have derived from a folk story. Like The Two Gentlemen of Verona,
in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the Shrew’s story of the taming of a
woman’s independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics, directors, and
audiences. In Macbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies,
uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the
rightful king and usurp the throne until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this
play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major
tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, contain some of Shakespeare’s finest
poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot.

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In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three
more major plays: Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest, as well as the
collaboration, Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are
graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the
forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood
as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare’s part, but it may merely reflect
the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays,
Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, probably with John Fletcher.

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 MACBETH

About the play :

Macbeth (full title – The Tragedie of Macbeth) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is
thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatizes the damaging physical and
psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. Of all the plays that
Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I, Macbeth most clearly reflects his
relationship with King James, patron of Shakespeare’s acting company. It was first
published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is Shakespeare’s shortest
tragedy. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth has five acts and a total of 28 scenes.

Plot and adaptation:

A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that
one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action
by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He
is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to
protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The
bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the
realms of madness and death.

Shakespeare borrowed the story from several tales in Holinshed’s Chronicles, a popular
history of the British Isles well known to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In
Chronicles, a man named Donwald finds several of his family put to death by his king,
Duff, for dealing with witches. After being pressured by his wife, he and four of his
servants kill the king in his own house. In Chronicles, Macbeth is portrayed as struggling
to support the kingdom in the face of King Duncan’s ineptitude. He and Banquo meet
the three witches, who make exactly the same prophecies as in Shakespeare’s version.

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Macbeth and Banquo then together plot the murder of Duncan, at Lady Macbeth’s urging.
Macbeth has a long, ten-year reign before eventually being overthrown by Macduff and
Malcolm.

No medieval account of the reign of Macbeth mentions the Weird Sisters, Banquo, or
Lady Macbeth, and with the exception of the latter none actually existed. The characters
of Banquo, the Weird Sisters, and Lady Macbeth were first mentioned in 1527 by a
Scottish historian Hector Boece in his book Historia Gentis Scotorum (History of the
Scottish People) who wanted to denigrate Macbeth in order to strengthen the claim of the
House of Stewart to the Scottish throne. Boece portrayed Banquo as an ancestor of the
Stewart kings of Scotland, adding in a “prophecy” that the descendants of Banquo would
be the rightful kings of Scotland while the Weird Sisters served to give a picture of King
Macbeth as gaining the throne via dark supernatural forces. Macbeth did have a wife, but
it is not clear if she was as power-hungry and ambitious as Boece portrayed her, which
served his purpose of having even Macbeth realize he lacked a proper claim to the throne,
and only took it at the urging of his wife. Holinshed accepted Boece’s version of Macbeth’s
reign at face value and included it in his Chronicles. Shakespeare saw the dramatic
possibilities in the story as related by Holinshed, and used it as the basis for the play.

No other version of the story has Macbeth kill the king in Macbeth’s own castle. Scholars
have seen this change of Shakespeare’s as adding to the darkness of Macbeth’s crime as
the worst violation of hospitality. Versions of the story that were common at the time had
Duncan being killed in an ambush at Inverness, not in a castle. Shakespeare conflated the
story of Donwald and King Duff in what was a significant change to the story.
Shakespeare’s source for the story is the account of Macbeth, King of Scotland, Macduff,
and Duncan in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland, and Ireland
familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, although the events in the play differ
extensively from the history of the real Macbeth. The events of the tragedy are usually
associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of
1605. In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not
mention its title aloud, referring to it instead as “The Scottish Play”.

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 The play MACBETH:
Set in medieval Scotland and partly based on a true historical account, Macbeth charts the
bloody rise to power and tragic downfall of the warrior Macbeth. Already a successful
soldier in the army of King Duncan, Macbeth is informed by Three Witches that he is to
become king. As part of the same prophecy, the Witches predict that future Scottish kings
will be descended not from Macbeth but from his fellow army captain, Banquo. Although
initially prepared to wait for Fate to take its course, Macbeth is stung by ambition and
confusion when King Duncan nominates his son Malcolm as his heir.

Returning to his castle, Macbeth allows himself to be persuaded and directed by his
ambitious wife, who realizes that regicide — the murder of the king — is the quickest
way to achieve the destiny that her husband has been promised. A perfect opportunity
presents itself when King Duncan pays a royal visit to Macbeth’s castle. At first Macbeth
is loath to commit a crime that he knows will invite judgment, if not on earth then in
heaven. Once more, however, his wife prevails upon him. Following an evening of revelry,
Lady Macbeth drugs the guards of the king’s bedchamber; then, at a given signal,
Macbeth, although filled with misgivings, ascends to the king’s room and murders him
while he sleeps. Haunted by what he has done, Macbeth is once more reprimanded by his
wife, whose inner strength seems only to have been increased by the treacherous killing.
Suddenly, both are alarmed by a loud knocking at the castle door.

When the drunken porter of Macbeth’s castle finally responds to the noise, he opens the
door to Macduff, a loyal follower of the king, who has been asked to awake Duncan in
preparation for the return journey. Macbeth indicates the location of the king’s room, and
Macduff discovers the body. When the murder is revealed, Macbeth swiftly kills the prime
witnesses, the sleepy guards of the king’s bedchamber, and Lady Macbeth faints. The
assembled lords of Scotland, including Macbeth, swear to avenge the murder. With
suspicion heavy in the air, the king’s two sons flee the country: Donalbain to Ireland and
Malcolm to raise an army in England.

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Macbeth is duly proclaimed the new king of Scotland, but recalling the Witches’ second
prophecy, he arranges the murder of his fellow soldier Banquo and his son Fleance, both
of whom represent a threat to his kingship according to the Witches’ prophecy. The hired
murderers kill Banquo but mistakenly allow Fleance to escape. At a celebratory banquet
that night, Macbeth is thrown into a state of horror when the ghost of the murdered
Banquo appears at the dining table. Again, his wife tries to strengthen Macbeth, but the
strain is clearly beginning to show.

The following day, Macbeth returns to the same Witches who initially foretold his destiny.
This time, the Witches not only confirm that the sons of Banquo will rule in Scotland,
but they also add a new prophecy: Macbeth will be invincible in battle until the time when
the forest of Birnam moves towards his stronghold at Dunsinane and until he meets an
enemy “not born of woman.” Dismissing both of these predictions as nonsense, Macbeth
prepares for invasion.

When he is told that Macduff has deserted him, Macbeth begins the final stage of his
tragic descent. His first move is the destruction of Macduff’s wife and children. In
England, Macduff receives the news at the very moment that he swears his allegiance to
the young Malcolm. Malcolm persuades him that the murder of his family should act as
the spur to revenge.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Lady Macbeth has been taken ill: She walks in her sleep and
seems to recall, in fragmentary memories, the details of the murder. Now, in a series of
alternating scenes, the action of the play moves rapidly between the advancing army of
Malcolm and the defensive preparations of Macbeth. When Malcolm’s army disguise
themselves with sawn-off branches, Macbeth sees what appears to be a wood moving
towards his stronghold at Dunsinane. And when he finally meets Macduff in single
combat, his sworn enemy reveals that he came into the world by cesarean section; he was
not, precisely speaking, “born of woman.” On hearing this news, Macbeth rejects one
final time the Witches’ prophecy. With a loud cry, he launches himself at Macduff and is

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slain. In the final scene, Malcolm is crowned as the new king of Scotland, to the acclaim
of all.

Characters of the play :

 Duncan – king of Scotland
 Malcolm – Duncan’s elder son
 Donalbain – Duncan’s younger son
 Macbeth – a general in the army of King Duncan; originally Thane of Glamis,
then Thane of Cawdor, and later king of Scotland
 Lady Macbeth – Macbeth’s wife, and later queen of Scotland
 Banquo – Macbeth’s friend and a general in the army of King Duncan
 Fleance – Banquo’s son
 Macduff – Thane of Fife
 Lady Macduff – Macduff’s wife
 Macduff’s son
 Ross, Lennox, Angus, Menteith, Caithness – Scottish thanes
 Siward – general of the English forces
 Young Siward – Siward’s son
 Seyton – Macbeth’s armourer
 Hecate – queen of the witches
 Three Witches
 Captain – in the Scottish army
 Murderers – employed by Macbeth
 Third Murderer
 Porter – gatekeeper at Macbeth’s home
 Doctor – Lady Macbeth’s doctor
 Doctor – at the English court

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 Gentlewoman – Lady Macbeth’s caretaker
 Lord – opposed to Macbeth
 First Apparition – armed head
 Second Apparition – bloody child
 Third Apparition – crowned child
 Attendants, Messengers, Servants, Soldiers

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 What is Supernatural and Supernaturalism?

Definition and Origin:

The supernatural according to The Oxford Dictionary, “includes all those phenomena,
which cannot be explained by the accepted laws of natural science or by physical laws”.
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term
is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis, from Latin super- (above, beyond, or
outside of) + natura (nature) Though the corollary term “nature”, has had multiple
meanings since the ancient world, the term “supernatural” emerged in the Middle Ages
and did not exist in the ancient world.

The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts, but can also feature as an
explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the
paranormal. The term is attributed to non-physical entities, such as angels, demons, gods,
and spirits. It also includes claimed abilities embodied in or provided by such beings,
including magic, telekinesis, levitation, precognition, and extrasensory perception. The
philosophy of naturalism contends that nothing exists beyond the natural world, and as
such approaches supernatural claims with skepticism. The term supernatural is often used
interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural—the latter typically limited to an
adjective for describing abilities which appear to exceed what is possible within the
boundaries of the laws of physics. Epistemologically, the relationship between the
supernatural and the natural is indistinct in terms of natural phenomena that, ex
hypothesis, violate the laws of nature, in so far as such laws are realistically accountable.
A belief in the existence of the supernatural: ghosts, fairies, witches etc., has been universal
in all ages and times.

Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term
is derived from Medieval Latin supernaturalis, from Latin super- (above, beyond, or
outside of) + natura (nature) Though the corollary term “nature”, has had multiple
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meanings since the ancient world, the term “supernatural” emerged in the Middle Ages
and did not exist in the ancient world. The supernatural is featured in folklore and
religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in
the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal. The term is attributed to non-
physical entities, such as angels, demons, gods, and spirits. It also includes claimed abilities
embodied in or provided by such beings, including magic, telekinesis, levitation,
precognition, and extrasensory perception.

The philosophy of naturalism contends that nothing exists beyond the natural world, and
as such approaches supernatural claims with skepticism. The term supernatural is often
used interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural—the latter typically limited to an
adjective for describing abilities which appear to exceed what is possible within the
boundaries of the laws of physics. Epistemologically, the relationship between the
supernatural and the natural is indistinct in terms of natural phenomena that, ex
hypothesis, violate the laws of nature, in so far as such laws are realistically accountable.

Supernatural concepts:

1. Deity
A deity is a supernatural being considered divine or sacred. It is defined as “a god or
goddess”, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as “a being with
powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively
or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the
grounded preoccupations of ordinary life.” A male deity is a god, while a female deity is
a goddess.

Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God. A deity
need not be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent or eternal.
Historically, many ancient cultures – such as Ancient India, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient
Greek, Ancient Roman, Nordic and Asian culture – personified natural phenomena,
variously as either their conscious causes or simply their effects, respectively. Some
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Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions, deities have
been envisioned as manifesting within the temple of every living being’s body, as sensory
organs and mind. Deities have also been envisioned as a form of existence (Samsara) after
rebirth, for human beings who gain merit through an ethical life, where they become
guardian deities and live blissfully in heaven, but are also subject to death when their
merit runs out.

2. Angel
An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. In
Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, angels are often depicted as benevolent celestial
beings who act as intermediaries between God or Heaven and Earth. Other roles of angels
include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God’s tasks. Within
Abrahamic religions, angels are often organized into hierarchies, although such rankings
may vary between sects in each religion, and are given specific names or titles, such as
Gabriel or “Destroying angel”.

The term “angel” has also been expanded to various notions of spirits or figures found in
other religious traditions. The theological study of angels is known as “angelology”. In
fine art, angels are usually depicted as having the shape of human beings of extraordinary
beauty; they are often identified using the symbols of bird wings, halos, and light.

3. Prophecy
Prophecy involves a process in which messages are communicated by a god to a prophet.
Such messages typically involve inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of divine will
concerning the prophet’s social world and events to come (compare divine knowledge).
Prophecy is not limited to any one culture. It is a common property to all known ancient
societies around the world, some more than others. Many systems and rules about
prophecy have been proposed over several millennia.

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4. Heaven
Heaven, or the heavens, is a common religious, cosmological, or transcendent place where
beings such as gods, angels, spirits, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be
enthroned, or live. According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend
to Earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to heaven in the afterlife, or in
exceptional cases enter heaven alive.

Heaven is often described as a “higher place”, the holiest place, a Paradise, in contrast to
hell or the Underworld or the “low places”, and universally or conditionally accessible by
earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith, or other
virtues or right beliefs or simply the will of God. Some believe in the possibility of a
heaven on Earth in a world to come. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or
deities, outside the tangible world (Heaven, Hell, or other) is referred to as otherworld.

5. Spirit
A spirit is a supernatural being, often but not exclusively a non-physical entity; such as a
ghost, fairy, jinn, or angel. The concepts of a person’s spirit and soul, often also overlap,
as both are either contrasted with or given ontological priority over the body and both are
believed to survive bodily death in some religions, and “spirit” can also have the sense of
“ghost”, i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person. In English Bibles, “the
Spirit” (with a capital “S”), specifically denotes the Holy Spirit. Spirit is often used
metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality.

6. Demon
A demon is a supernatural and often malevolent being prevalent in religion, occultism,
literature, fiction, mythology and folklore. In Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in
the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon
is considered a harmful spiritual entity, below the heavenly planes which may cause
demonic possession, calling for an exorcism.

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7. Magic
Magic or sorcery is the use of rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, or language with the aim
of utilizing supernatural forces.  Belief in and practice of magic has been present since the
earliest human cultures and continues to have an important spiritual, religious, and
medicinal role in many cultures today. The term magic has a variety of meanings, and
there is no widely agreed upon definition of what it is.

The term magic comes from the Old Persian magu, a word that applied to a form of
religious functionary about which little is known. During the late sixth and early fifth
centuries BCE, this term was adopted into Ancient Greek, where it was used with negative
connotations, to apply to religious rites that were regarded as fraudulent, unconventional,
and dangerous. This meaning of the term was then adopted by Latin in the first century
BCE. The concept was then incorporated into Christian theology during the first century
CE, where magic was associated with demons and thus defined against religion. This
concept was pervasive throughout the Middle Ages, although in the early modern period
Italian humanists reinterpreted the term in a positive sense to establish the idea of natural
magic. Both negative and positive understandings of the term were retained in Western
culture over the following centuries, with the former largely influencing early academic
usages of the word.

8. Witchcraft
Witchcraft or witchery broadly means the practice of and belief in magical skills and
abilities exercised by solitary practitioners and groups. Witchcraft is a broad term that
varies culturally and societally, and thus can be difficult to define with precision, and
cross-cultural assumptions about the meaning or significance of the term should be
applied with caution. Witchcraft often occupies a religious divinatory or medicinal role,
and is often present within societies and groups whose cultural framework includes a
magical world view.

9. Witches

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Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others.
A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated,
accused witches were usually women who were believed to have used malevolent magic
against their own community, and often to have communed with evil beings. It was
thought witchcraft could be thwarted by protective magic or counter-magic, which could
be provided by cunning folk or folk healers. Suspected witches were also intimidated,
banished, attacked or killed. Often they would be formally prosecuted and punished, if
found guilty or simply believed to be guilty. European witch-hunts and witch trials in the
early modern period led to tens of thousands of executions. In some regions, many of
those accused of witchcraft were folk healers or midwives. European belief in witchcraft
gradually dwindled during and after the Age of Enlightenment.

10. Miracle
A miracle is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Such an event may be
attributed to a supernatural being (a deity), a miracle worker, a saint or a religious leader.

Informally, the word “miracle” is often used to characterize any beneficial event that is
statistically unlikely but not contrary to the laws of nature, such as surviving a natural
disaster, or simply a “wonderful” occurrence, regardless of likelihood, such as a birth.
Other such miracles might be: survival of an illness diagnosed as terminal, escaping a life-
threatening situation or ‘beating the odds’. Some coincidences may be seen as miracles.

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 Role of the supernatural elements present in the play
“MACBETH”

In Macbeth, the supernatural is an integral part of the structure of the plot. It

provides a catalyst for action, an insight into character and augments the impact of many
key scenes. The supernatural appears to the audience in many varied forms – not only
does a ghost appear but also a floating dagger, witches and prophetic apparitions make
appearance. Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed in the supernatural very strongly and
a majority of them were frightened of it, including the king of that time, KING JAMES I.

As a popular dramatist, Shakespeare had to furnish the public taste even if he may or may
not have believed in the world of spirit. He uses all kinds of supernatural categories: the
powers of the unseen, ghosts, fairies and witches to appear and reappear in one play after
another. However, his use of supernaturalism has added a deep moral and psychological
significance. It is brought into closest harmony with the character of the protagonists of
his dramas. Writing for the stage, he did not hesitate to use whatever tended to make his
dramas box-office hits.

The supernatural element is not a mere illusion of the hero. The appearance of the witches
has an objective existence as they are seen not only by Macbeth but by Banquo too. The
supernatural element contributes to the action as it gives a confirmation and distinct form
to the inner workings of the hero’s mind. Thus, the witches in Macbeth are symbolic of
the guilt within Macbeth’s soul. Yet, the influence of the supernatural element is not a
compulsive one; we never feel that it has removed the hero’s capacity or responsibility of
dealing with the situation in his own way. Yet, it is merely suggestive; the hero is free to
accept it or to reject it. However, the hero follows the suggestive one and in this way, the
supernatural element hastens the downfall of the hero.

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The following part of this analysis deals with how supernatural elements conditioning the
psyche of the characters in Macbeth. In order to probe the argument citations from the
original text are used. Macbeth contains, supernatural figures in the Witches and ghost it
introduces. These produce an atmosphere of fate and mystery. But the action of Macbeth
is not influenced by their presence. That action is the outcome of passion and emotion
struggling in the hearts of its character. It is the natural not the supernatural forces which
shape and determine the course of event leading to tragedy of the hero and the heroine
of ‘Macbeth’. It is often imagined that Macbeth is influenced by the treacherous murder
of Duncan and in his usurpation of the crown. Even if we accept this we cannot account
for the many other crimes and misdeeds in which the witches do not play even an apparent
part. The murder of Duncan can be imagined as being influenced by the prophecy of the
witches, but the massacre of the innocents like Macduff’s wife and children was certainly
not dictated or even hinted at by the witches. It was all done by Macbeth himself. This
point is vital to the conception of tragedy, which arises out of human, not superhuman
action. If man was shown influenced by outside forces, it would not be tragedy because
he could not be a free agent but would be one whose action were dictated by forces outside
his control.

The Different supernatural elements used in the play, MACBETH are:-

The Witches
The Phantom Dagger (Floating Dagger)
The Ghost of Banquo
The Prophecies
The Apparition

The Witches:-
The Three Witches also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in
William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise,
and they hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology. Their origin
lies in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland.
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Shakespeare’s witches are prophets who hail Macbeth early in the play, and predict his
ascent to kingship. Upon killing the king and gaining the throne of Scotland, Macbeth
hears them ambiguously predict his eventual downfall. The witches, and their “filthy”
trappings and supernatural activities, set an ominous tone for the play.

The Three Witches first appear in Act 1, Scene 1, where they agree to meet later with
Macbeth. In Act 1, Scene 3, they greet Macbeth with a prophecy that he shall be king,
and his companion, Banquo, with a prophecy that he shall generate a line of kings. The
prophecies have great impact upon Macbeth. As the audience later learns, he has
considered usurping the throne of Scotland.

The Three Witches represent evil, darkness, chaos, and conflict, while their role is as
agents and witnesses. They appear to have a warped sense of morality, deeming seemingly
terrible acts to be moral, kind or right, such as helping one another to ruin the journey
of a sailor. Their presence communicates treason and impending doom. During
Shakespeare’s day, witches were seen as worse than rebels, “the most notorious traitor
and rebel that can be”. They were not only political traitors, but spiritual traitors as well.
Much of the confusion that springs from them comes from their ability to straddle the
play’s borders between reality and the supernatural. They are so deeply entrenched in
both worlds that it is unclear whether they control fate, or whether they are merely its
agents. They defy logic, not being subject to the rules of the real world. Though the
witches do not directly tell Macbeth to kill King Duncan, they use a subtle form of
temptation when they inform Macbeth that he is destined to be king. By placing this
thought in his mind, they effectively guide him on the path to his own destruction. This
follows the pattern of temptation attributed to the Devil in the contemporary imagination:
the Devil was believed to be a thought in a person’s mind, which he or she might either
indulge or reject. Macbeth indulges the temptation, while Banquo rejects it

The Floating Dagger:-

The dagger itself is a symbol of conscience. It floats in the air representative of those
things which will take place. The King has not yet been murdered, but the dagger
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foreshadows his death. Macbeth hasn’t yet committed the unthinkable, but yet his
conscience is already riddled with guilt. The dagger symbolizes what will be and the
darkness that will follow.

When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with
blood and pointed toward the king’s chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on
which Macbeth is about to embark. The symbolism of the dagger in “Macbeth” is that it
represents Macbeth’s bloody destiny, and Macbeth’s vision of this dagger is one of the
many hallucinations and visions that creates a motif of deception throughout the play.
Macbeth soon realizes the dagger is not real and acquires the real one to kill Duncan.
That was also his first step towards hallucination and madness. Macbeth accepts that his
mind is chaotic and full of doubt as he understands that the vision is threating and
ominous. His ceaseless conflict has now started to develop and his ambition is causing
him to commit a crime that he is doubting himself.

This is not the last hallucination that Macbeth sees in the play. Later on, he catches a
glimpse of the ghost of Banquo reclining in a chair at a meal, serving as a quiet reminder
that Macbeth had slain his former friend. Lady Macbeth also succumbs to visions, as she
starts sleepwalking and has a belief that blood has stained her hands so deeply that it can
never be washed away, no matter how much water she uses.

The Ghost of Banquo:-

The appearance of Banquo’s ghost reminds us that Macbeth, despite his absolute power,
isn’t enjoying life as king of Scotland. A basically decent man brought low by overweening
ambition, Macbeth still has enough of a conscience to be tormented by his guilty actions.
Whether it’s getting rid of Duncan or having his old friend Banquo murdered, Macbeth
knows that he’s done wrong. Even so, he finds it impossible to live with the guilt. The
sudden appearance of Banquo’s ghost is a manifestation of this guilt, and the fact that
Macbeth is provoked by the spook’s presence into deranged outbursts is further proof that
he can’t live with himself over his shameful past.

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What this scene also illustrates is the extent to which Macbeth increasingly lives in the
world of the supernatural—a world of ghosts, spirits, and witches. As we’ve just seen, he’s
found it harder and harder to deal with the normal everyday world ever since he murdered
Duncan. So he’s retreated into the realm of the supernatural, where at least he feels
somehow protected from the dangers associated with being King of Scotland.

But even here there are limits, and the appearance of Banquo’s ghost is a reflection of
this. Macbeth may have convinced himself that he can somehow hide from the terrible
truth of his blood-stained dictatorship by retreating into the realm of the supernatural.
But as the unwelcome arrival of Banquo’s ghost demonstrates, that’s nothing more than
a delusion. Macbeth can run from his crimes, but he can’t hide from them.

The Prophecy:-
The play Macbeth seriously deals with the idea of fate and whether it is decided by our
actions or due to external forces. The three witches are a supernatural force in the play.
In their characteristic ambiguity, they utter prophecies in their very first confrontation
with Macbeth and Banquo. The three apparitions in the play Macbeth are:-

 1st Prophecy :
Their first prophecy is for Macbeth when they hail him as the Thane of Glamis, the Thane
of Cawdor and the one who shall be king hereafter. As we come to know further in the
play, this prophecy is in closest relation to Macbeth’s inner desire for absolute power
which is kingship.

This prophecy plays an important role in the progress of the play because it sets the
forthcoming actions which are by Macbeth when he tries to earn the power in a shortcut
way under the influence of Lady Macbeth.

The moment Duncan awards him with the title of the Thane of Cawdor, he firmly starts
believing in the prophecies. The fact that Duncan declares Malcolm as the heir to the

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throne alarms him and he wants nothing to cloud the prophecy and as an imminent
possibility, he observes what Lady Macbeth says and kills Duncan.

 2nd Prophecy :
His second prophecy of the three witches from the first meeting was for Banquo.
Confusing both of them further, they address Banquo as “lesser than Macbeth, and
greater,” “not so happy, yet much happier.” And they predict that Banquo shall have kings
in his coming generations but he will never be king by himself.

How Banquo reacts after listening to this tells us of his clear conscience. He disqualifies
them as dark evil forces which deceive even in its truth. At the same time, hearing this,
Macbeth perceives of Banquo as a threat and the second murder after Duncan is that of
Banquo. This is when we understand how Macbeth is trying to correct whatever sounds
dangerous to him in the prophecies which means he is trying to control his own fate.

Apparition :-
Once Macbeth has progressed as per the first confrontation with the three witches, they
reveal themselves to him again. This time, under the influence of Hecate, they equivocate
in a better way. They show him three apparitions.
 The first apparition is ahead with a helmet as armor on it. By this time, Macbeth
has already doubted Macduff. This apparition warns him of the danger from
Macduff and it confirms Macbeth’s next action which is to kill him and before
doing so, he kills his family.
 The second apparition is a bloody child. Shakespeare has used child imagery in the
play several times. Ironically, the child utters to be bloody bold and resolute. It
confirms Macbeth’s further rampage as a killing machine. As a prime equivocator,
this apparition lures him into the first false sense of security which is that he won’t
die because nobody born from a woman will ever harm him.
 The third apparition is a crowned child holding a tree who says that Macbeth is
safe until Great Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane hill. It sounds absolutely

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 impossible hence it makes Macbeth sure of his invincibility. These apparitions are
equivocations.

These apparitions and prophecies can be closely equated to the evil which already lies in
Macbeth. The fact that Banquo sees the witches and yet act differently makes us think of
Macbeth’s vulnerability to evil and his final tragic disintegration more.

Conclusion:-
Representation of a Supernatural event always transforms a work of art more expressive,
exciting and stimulating. It sustains the audiences’ wonder and their astonishment makes
the art a classical one. It has a major role in drama as well as all other genres of poetry.
This is an attempt to study Shakespeare’s brilliant inclusion of supernatural elements in
Macbeth and to probe how those supernatural events create a kind of psychological
conditioning in the behavior of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The psychological
conditioning is not something that happening suddenly. It takes a period of time. But
sometimes who has an interest for something will act little fast. We can see proper
examples for these two states from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Shakespeare has made use of
the human tendency of believing in supernatural things in his dramas.

What then it will be asked is the place of the supernatural in the scheme of tragic action.
The answer is that the presence of the supernatural is firstly concession to the popular
taste and superstition of the audience. Shakespeare contemporaries believed in this agent,
from an unknown world ghost, witch fairies and evils. He, therefore, used them for
satisfying the craving for the supernatural. But he does not leave them there. He borrows
the conventions theatrical world but uses them for his own purpose in his own way. And
this the originality of Shakespeare in the use of the supernatural. The ghost and the
witches are presented as objective symbols of the subjective state of mind. They are the
outward manifestation of the inward passions and ambition agitating the hearts of his
character. They are visible agents of invisible impulse driving the characters and deeds
which for, they themselves are responsible. There is dramatization of their own vices, evil

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impulses and instincts. This their dramatic significance. They do not put any evil ideas in
men but strength and encourage what is in the minds of the character.

Evidently then the Witches utter the unspoken thoughts of Macbeth. Evil is not
supernaturally induced in Macbeth. He has evil in himself and therefore is tempted by
them. The converse of this is shown in Banquo. He too is promised great things, but he
dismisses them as delusions at best and evil promptings at worst. And even when evil
thoughts too arise in Banquo’s mind he successfully resists them with his better self.
Therefore, it is character not outside agency which influence the thought and deals of
Shakespeare’s character. It should also be noted that the evil Witches did not provoke
Macbeth to do the wrong deed in acquiring the crown. They do not tell to murder Duncan
and thus become a king. They are moral, natural and committal. Neither does Macbeth’s
wife suggest the idea of murder. It is Macbeth’s suggestion first and last. Finally the
Witches are as much the tempters as the bringers of Nemesis. Their words are suggestive
of both the kinship as well as destruction of Macbeth. Their double edged prophecies are
meant as a parable of crime and its punishment. They are in this respect no more than
embodiment of the idea of evil and its-self destroying nature. They are therefore, no more
than the outward manifestation of the tragedy of Macbeth who is free agent in the choice
of the action he commits.

So Shakespeare uses the supernatural as a comment upon illustration of and a fulfilment

of the natural. This is the originality of his use of the supernatural.

~~~

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Links:-
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 https://www.bard.org/study-guides/macbeth-and-the-nature-of-
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 https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/macbeth/story/plot
 https://www.bartleby.com/essay/What-Are-The-Three-Apparitions-In-Macbeth-
FC3YQ4RSYDT
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural?wprov=sfla1
 https://www.academia.edu/4288361/The_Supernatural_in_Macbeth
 https://englishsummary.com/lesson/ghost-of-banquo
 https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Shakespeare/The_Tragedy_of_Macb
eth
 https://sites.google.com/view/jobykeelath/academics/academic-works/literature/the-
significance-of-supernatural-elements-in-the-psychological-conditioning

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