Resources:
Resource Sheet 25: The Supernatural
Resource Sheet 26: Dark forces
Resource Sheet 27: Dark language / Outcomes:
- To understand why audiences would have been attracted to this aspect of the play
- To trace references to the supernatural across the play
- To make some judgement about its impact on the events and characters
►Initial work
▲Activity One: Read Resource Sheet 25: The supernaturaland then consider what impact the play might have had on Jacobean audiences. This may partly explain why Shakespeare included the witches and other supernatural references, but it is not the full story – there are many Jacobean plays, after all, that do not feature witches. The point is that the supernatural is a fundamental part of the narrative, and isn’t just included to add spice.
►Focused work
▲Activity Two: Where does the supernatural appear in Macbeth? Distribute Resource Sheet 26: Dark forcesand ask students to work in pairs to complete the details on the sheet. This list does not include all the passing reference to these forces, either directly or implied, but deals with the most obvious manifestations.
▲Activity Three: Now ask students to look at Resource Sheet 27: Dark language.In each case, they should match the speaker to the quotation. The task will help embed knowledge of the play and some key quotations in students’ minds, and also emphasise the fact that references to these forces are spread across all characters, good and bad, and create an all-pervading, ominous sense of evil.
In follow-up discussions, emphasise the point that whilst it is understandable to link the supernatural with evil within the play, one could argue that the witches do not, in themselves, do anything wrong (other than create unpleasant spells in cauldrons!). They could be viewed as figures who represent, or are created out of the imaginations of the two characters whose futures are tied up with the death of Duncan, namely Macbeth and Banquo.
▲Activity Four: To develop this further, run a class debate on the topic: ‘Are the witches to blame for Macbeth’s crimes?’. One half of the class can prepare evidence which suggests they are to blame; the other half can prepare the counter-argument.
Ask students to consider the extent to which Macbeth listens to, or acts on, the advice of the witches; whether the witches ‘conjure up’ Macbeth, or whether he meets them by accident or design on his own part; and to what extent they tell him directly to commit crimes or lead him in that direction – it might reasonably be argued that they warn him about Macduff, and therefore invite him to act.
Aim High
When writing about the supernatural for a coursework assignment, more able students should be able to link historical views about demonology and witchcraft to their representations in the play, showing how Shakespeare played on fears of the time. They could also include some reference to the way Shakespeare took Holinshed’s original story of ‘Macbeth’, with its rather different references to witchcraft, and sharpened it up. They will need to research the Holinshed sources first.
Students might also like to make reference to some other Shakespeare’s plays that feature apparitions or unearthly creatures – for example, the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or the ghost of Hamlet’s father in Hamlet.
Moving On
This unit has not specifically dealt with the ‘spell’ scenes as these are well known and very accessible; however, it would be worth asking students to follow up by looking again at the start of Act 4 Scene 1 and the incantation the witches speak, especially that spoken by the Third Witch. Students can research the references to ‘Turk’ and ‘Jew’ (why are they mentioned?) and also the meanings of the less well-known vocabulary. What should be clear is that this is a pretty unpleasant spell, and is a long way from childish prancing around a pot.
Check the web
There is an excellent article on the witches in Macbeth on the Shakespeare Trust website at
King James I wrote a book about witchcraft and the supernatural, called Daemonologie; the book was publishedin 1597, though it wasn’t made widely available until 1603. His own interest – and perhaps fear – of witches came out of an alleged experience he had had during his return to Scotland in 1590 with his wife Anne of Denmark. During this voyage he encountered storms at sea, which were blamed on a group of Scottish witches. James himself directed a part of their interrogation at the North Berwick Witch Trial; he was convinced they had been trying to kill him by raising storms. There was also talk of them creating wax images and manufacturing poison. In the wake of this, hundreds of women were executed as witches. Later, when he became king, he made Elizabeth’s earlier Witchcraft Act even sterner, making it easier for people to be condemned as witches.
Witch-hunts were common for all sorts of reasons during these times. ‘Witches’ were blamed for such misfortunes as poor weather and crop failures, and for sickness and disease in people or livestock.
Ideas of what witches looked like came from several sources. Reginald Scot’s The discoverie of Witchcraft was published in 1584 and reprinted several times. The book includes details on how to identify a witch:
One sort of such said to bee witches, are women which be commonly old, lame … poor, sullen, superstitious … They are leane and deformed, shewing melancholie in their faces, to the horror of all that see them.
A more simple explanation might be that poor or older people – those least able to defend themselves – were often blamed for misfortune, and it is hardly surprising that these were the most shabby in appearance.
Fear of witches did not mean, however, that people abandoned their interest in charms, spells, special potions, and so on. It was quite normal to believe in traditional Christianity, yet turn to people with special powers for help in times of need. Even Shakespeare creates a range of ‘charmers’. Oberon, who uses potions to put spells on the lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the king of the fairy world, not a witch. More strikingly, it is a friar in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ who provides Juliet with a potion that will make her appear dead when she is, in fact, asleep.
The supernatural plays a key role in Macbeth. Complete the statements in bold in the grid below which track its manifestations across the play.
Supernatural elements / When they appearWitches / The witches appear four times in the play. First in Act 1 Scene 1 when they announce the arrival of Macbeth. Their second appearance is
Other visions & ghosts / In Act 2 Scene 1, Macbeth describes a dagger in the air. It seems to be showing him the way to the king’s bedchamber. In Act 3 Scene 4, at the banquet, Macbeth sees the ghost of
In Act 4 Scene 1, the witches show Macbeth several ‘apparitions’, who tell him
In the same scene, there is a procession which shows Macbeth
Supernatural effects / At several moments in the play characters seem to be connected to evil spirits or forces. In Act 1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth calls on ‘murdr’ing ministers’ and asks them to ‘unsex’ her. Then, in Act 2 Scene 2, Macbeth describes what happened when he tried to say ‘Amen’ after the murder. He says that
In Act 2 Scene 4 Duncan’s horses, which are normally tame, are described as if they were suddenly possessed and had ‘turned wild in nature’. In Act 4 Scene 1 Macbeth speaks to the witches as if he is creating his own spell: ‘I conjure you by that which you profess…’ Finally, Lady Macbeth seems almost possessed, in Act 5 Scene 1, when she
Link the quotations from the play to their speakers.
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