РефератыИностранный языкThThe Supernatural Essay Research Paper Throughout William

The Supernatural Essay Research Paper Throughout William

The Supernatural Essay, Research Paper


Throughout William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, many characters evolve and


many disappear into the background. The main character, Macbeth (MB for


short), travels through utter chaos when he proclaims himself monarch.


When he first meets the witches of the supernatural, they tell him of


the future. One of the themes amplified throughout the play is the


circle of life, from the beginning to the end. The visions provided by


the three witches begin Macbeth’s quest for dominance. The three main


effects of this theme are: the death of Macbeth’s friends and family.


Second, the deaths of his mortal enemies. The last point is the death of


himself. The supernatural amplifies the theme of death.


From the first brief encounter of the witches, to the last nightmarish


visions that Macbeth has, many close friends and relatives have died


because of his visions with the supernatural. The death of his wife in


Act V, Scene IV is the death that sends him over the abyss and into


mental instability. Lady Macbeth is like a joined appendage to Macbeth.


They work as one, communicate as one, and when that appendage is lost,


so is MB’s grip with reality. Lady Macbeth was the only person he could


truly confide in. The supernatural also had another key factor to her


death. In the first act of the play, she calls on the powers of the


supernatural to make her strong. The following quote, “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 the


access and passage to remorse? Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my


milk for gall?”, is possibly the most important passage that leads to


Lady Macbeth’s death. She calls on the evil spirits to “unsex” her, and


to replace her “milk” with “gall”. It seems that she wants to be the


most cruelest being in the world. The theme of the life cycle is


amplified in this situation because of her request to the spirits. This


event is the beginning of the end for Lady Macbeth’s life. She is the


one who insists Macbeth should kill the king and reign as the king of


Scotland. It is her ideas and plans that lead herself and Macbeth into


the pits of hell. She is not solely to blame for this catastrophe


though. It is Macbeth that decides to go forward with the plans.


Throughout all the chaos in the remaining scenes of the play, she is


eventually killed by one of Malcolm’s associates. Therefore, it is her


own foul play with the supernatural that leads to her death.


This play shows how one man can turn himself into a barbarian just by


one simple vision. Throughout this play, many of Macbeth’s enemies, and


traitors (Banquo) are killed by Macbeth or his hired assassins. In the


first vision provided by the witches, Macbeth seems himself as king of


Scotland, and Banquo’s children future heirs to the throne. When Macbeth


finally kills King Duncan, the turning point has vanished. There is no


going back to the past and changing what has happened. This event


signals the gates of hell to unlatch the door that holds the chaos that


will torment Macbeth to his own death. This regicide happens all because


to path to what Macbeth thinks of freedom is open. After the Th

ane of


Cawdor is executed, MB believes that he can then crush his remaining


enemies with one swift stroke. This is not so, as Macbeth finds. After


he commits regicide, he realizes that he must kill all the enemies that


oppose him, mainly Malcolm, the king’s heir to the throne. When Banquo


sees through MB’s falsehood, he then turns traitor. When Macbeth


realizes that one of his closest friends has become his mortal enemy, he


sees to it that Banquo is murdered. Once again, these significant deaths


on the timeline all happen because of the supernatural. The visions from


the three witches, and the summonings of evil from Lady Macbeth are the


two events that mainly lead to this path of destruction. The first


paradox from the witches serves to confuse the reader into thinking what


will happen to Banquo. Macbeth knows that he must become king of


Scotland before Banquo or he will not fulfill his prophecy.


All these events lead up to end, the murder of Macbeth himself. From the


very beginning of the play, Macbeth sees himself as a visionary, who can


see into near future. Only after his wife is killed does he suddenly


loose grip with reality. With this event, Macbeth can now be compared to


as Adolf Hitler. Both loose their sanity after they loose something very


dear to them. For Macbeth, it is his wife. For Hitler, it is world


domination. After both of these figures loose these “possessions”, they


suddenly go haywire. Although Hitler did not reign on the powers of the


supernatural, he did go completely off the edge after the Allied forces


started to invade Germany. Both these figures made one horrible mistake.


Macbeth listened to the prophecies and vowed to kill the king. When he


committed regicide, that was his horrible mistake. That was when


everything turned against him, and when he could never turn back. When


Hitler invaded the U.S.S.R. in 1944-5, the Allies had a chance to


conquer Germany. That single tactical error was what made him go over


the edge. After both of these leaders go mad, they are killed in battle


or commit suicide. Macbeth has a chance to flee at the end, but chooses


not to and is slain in battle. Hitler also has a chance to “run away”


but he and his wife commit suicide by having his officers douse him with


gasoline and set both of them on fire. Macbeth’s mistake, originally


started by that one supernatural encounter with the three witches


eventually leads to his demise.


In conclusion, the use of the supernatural amplifies the cycle of life


or the beginning of the end. Throughout each encounter that Macbeth has


with a supernatural prophecy, he proceeds one more step towards


insanity, and eventually his own death. The death of his closest


companion, Lady Macbeth, also brings him one more step towards his own


death. In Macbeth, a pattern resides, where one death after another


caused by the supernatural brings him closer to insanity and to his own


death. In some spots, it looks like Macbeth needs to be told to put one


foot in front of another. This tragic tale of one man’s cycle of life


lead by the supernatural, also paints a vision of the beginning of his


plunge into insanity. Macbeth’s first encounter with the three witches


is truly the beginning of the end.

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