4 Grade 9 Full Mark English Literature essays on Macbeth. supernatural, ambition, guilt & kingship. Likely themes to come up on upcoming Literature GCSE Paper1. These essays display the PEEL and theisis structure of 34/34 Macbeth Essays. Includes Grade 9 Analysis on Language and Structure, contextu...
Starting with this extract, explore how Shakespeare presents the idea of
Witchcraft and the Supernatural in Macbeth (30+4)
Shakespeare presents the supernatural and witches as a hegemonic and catalytic force – which are an
embodiment of nefariousness – to give verisimilitude to King James’ doctrines that witches are
malevolent beings that incite turmoil. He elucidates witchcraft and supernatural’s use of subterfuge that
narrows the protagonist down from a valiant hero to a tyrant and eventually a lunatic.
Their presence is also described with pathetic fallacy, “In thunder, lightning or rain”; creating a gloomy
atmosphere and how their presence incites tumult. A Jacobean audience would ultimately fear
supernatural; due to it being associated with ill omen as the witches are 3 and give 3 prophecies; this
has biblical allusion to evil that stirs rueful reflections in audience and heightens the veracity of their
malevolence. Shakespeare also describes them as three “weird sisters”; where the old English word
‘weird’ means fate and this ties in with origin of these witches and is emblematic of how they spin the
thread of a person's life. Shakespeare hence could be augmenting the Jacobean belief that fate itself
, could be determined through supernatural. The fact that they speak in trochaic tetrameter and rhyming
couplets while other characters speak mostly in blank verse further creates a dichotomy between them
and the other characters; perhaps signifying their hegemony over other characters. Shakespeare
highlights how the disorder that the witches cause to nature it will be matched with the disorder they
cause within mankind. Shakespeare could also be elucidating the bleakness of the scene is a dramatic
representation of both of the wild Scottish landscape in which play is set and the more universal
wilderness of a man’s existence; foreshadows the anarchy Scotland was going to endure.
In the opening scene, Shakespeare first elucidates the witches through their chanting of the paradoxical
chiasmus, “Fair is foul, foul is fair” - the fact that this is what begins the play is what heightens its
significance and is an enigmatic term which prognosticates the enigmatic events that will pervade the
life of Macbeth and it gives strident orchestration to a world of half-truths and split totality. Through
this, Shakespeare augments our sense of paradoxical complexity of Macbeth as he is seen “Fair is foul,
foul is air” and its rhyme scheme is emblematic of how there are a series of events in life in which
discerning truth from falsehood is difficult. It also lays the foundation for the equivocation to allow the
audience to reflect on whether anything is truly as it seems. The deception in this oxymoronic phrase
also serves to foreshadow that although the temptations of the witches' prophecies (“All hail Macbeth
that shalt be king hereafter”) are great yet there are deteriorating repercussions associated with
subterfuge and sin, which highlights for Macbeth will pay dearly for his crimes indicating his descent into
tyranny and guilt he suffers; having no direct influence in telling him to commit regicide yet they
performed the illocutionary act of causing him to kill and were pivotal in augmenting his megalomania.
This is true as Shakespeare also depicts the negative effects of the Witches’ subterfuge on Macbeth later
in the play. A valiant hero like Macbeth is utterly consumed by the manipulation of witches and is lured
into a false sense of security where witches state ‘none of women born shall harm Macbeth’; suggesting
that he is indomitable and the strong effect this has on him is vivid in the way he constantly reverts to
witches for a sense of security. This also interlinks with why ‘Fair is foul’ was repeated as Shakespeare is
perhaps suggesting that once you're seized by these irredeemably loathsome forces, it becomes a
recurring pattern where you are compelled to go back constantly to the witches to save your sanity. His
insane megalomania is then adumbrated in phrase in “Deny me of this and I will curse light on you”;
making it apparent to the audience how Macbeth believes he has literally inherited the witches' powers;
signifying his insanity. Hence King James also had a trepidation of witchcraft and believed several
attempts were made on his life and Shakespeare integrates this fact into Macbeth to steer his audience
away from regicide attempts against King James, warning them that they’d be overtaken by a fate
similar to Macbeth where they will be stuck in the incessant cycle of supernatural before they go insane.
Hence why It could be argued Shakespeare began his play with the supernatural in attempt to convey
his attitudes towards society at the time, his use of supernatural throughout the play acts as a catalyze
towards those downfalls, perhaps Shakespeare is trying to warn the audience.
Furthermore, the role of Supernatural in revealing Macbeth’s moral turpitude is also elucidated in the
encounter of Macbeth and Banquo with the witches. Shakespeare elucidates Macbeth’s eagerness
towards the witches' prophecies and arguably his gullibility or maybe even his deep-seated
nefariousness.Within a parallelism, Macbeth mentions the advantages and repercussions associated
with regicide, “Cannot be ill, cannot be good.” This quote ultimately reflects witches fair and foul
paradox that establishes the way they subvert morality. This relation by Macbeth regarding the
prophecies shows to the reader the inherit traits of supernatural, how those with deep-seated ambition
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