Macbeth And Supernatural Essays (1064 words) - Characters In Macbeth

Macbeth And Supernatural 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 Thane 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