Supernatural Elements and Witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth

Introduction: The Supernatural in Shakespeare's Works

The supernatural is a theme that runs throughout Shakespeare's plays. The ability of supernatural forces to drive the action of Shakespeare's dramas is almost unparalleled — supernatural elements often take on a power and efficacy that the forces of the natural world could never replicate, and supernatural events frequently have as great an impact on worldly affairs as everyday human activity. The examples in Shakespeare's works are numerous: Prospero's powers and his spirit Ariel in The Tempest, the Ghost of Hamlet's father in Hamlet, Margaret's curse in Richard III, and the power of prophecy in Julius Caesar.

Of all these instances of the occult and the supernatural and their peculiar effects on the living, perhaps no example is more famous than Macbeth and its witches. The play depicts Macbeth and Banquo's encounter with the witches very early in the action, and the strange prophecy they deliver seems to drive much of the drama that follows. Indeed, the witches' cauldron spell — with its bouncing trochaic meter — is, alongside Macbeth's "Out, out, brief candle" soliloquy, one of the most quotable moments in the play. The supernatural aura surrounding the work has grown so notorious that actors refuse to say the name "Macbeth" while rehearsing it, referring to it only as "The Scottish Play."

It is important to remember, however, that in Shakespeare's time witches were not merely the stuff of fairy stories and Halloween costumes. Belief in the supernatural was real and pervasive, and the idea that both men and women could appeal to occult methods and black arts to fulfill their worldly desires was widely held. Many documents from Shakespeare's era illuminate common belief in witchcraft, explain its elements, and offer procedures for bringing witches to trial. This belief reflects the overwhelming power the witches seem to exercise in Macbeth, and demonstrates that their influence is not in the least theoretical but a real and forceful spur as Macbeth grapples with his own desire to advance his worldly station through the murder of Duncan.

Historical Belief in Witchcraft: Pope Innocent VIII and the Bull Summis Desiderantes

Pope Innocent VIII, in his Bull Summis desiderantes of December 5, 1484, describes the practices of witchcraft he had encountered:

"many persons of both sexes… give themselves over to devils… And by their incantations, charms, and conjurings… cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish… these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds, and animals, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving…" (Innocent VIII)

This document makes clear that the practice of witchcraft was considered far from uncommon. It is not difficult to imagine how certain pre-industrial people living in poverty and lacking formal education might turn to magical sources for relief in a world that seemed indifferent to their needs. What may be harder for the modern reader to accept is that others genuinely believed such occult remedies were effective. The document above shows that highly educated and powerful figures — such as Pope Innocent VIII — not only acknowledged the practice of witchcraft but were also willing to attribute a wide range of powers to its practitioners. According to the papal bull, witches were capable of destroying the natural order: ruining harvests, preventing animals from reproducing, inflicting unbearable pain on people, and even destroying human fertility.

Witchcraft, Theodicy, and the Problem of Evil

It is possible that the concept of the witch was in part constructed by the intelligentsia as a comprehensible explanation for theodicy — that is, for the problem of why a just God would allow terrible and evil things to occur on earth. By attributing famine and infant mortality to the work of evil witches operating within the community, thinkers could effectively remove God from any culpability for suffering, since such misfortunes would then be understood as products of human, rather than divine, agency. The link between witchcraft and evil, and the efficacy of witchcraft in promoting evil, hangs over the entirety of Macbeth. In that play, Macbeth is moved to contemplate Duncan's murder by the witches' prophecy, and it is their intervention that first plants his evil scheme.

The Three Witches and Their Prophecy in Macbeth

In Macbeth's first encounter with the "three weird sisters," both he and Banquo receive prophecies about their futures. Macbeth is told he shall be king; Banquo, that he shall be the father of kings. Their early intervention and strange pronouncements set in motion the terrible events that follow throughout the play. The witches hail Macbeth with titles he has not yet attained:

Witch 1: All haile Macbeth, haile to thee Thane of Glamis.
Witch 2: All haile Macbeth, haile to thee Thane of Cawdor.
Witch 3: All haile Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.
(Macbeth, I.iii.148–150)

Macbeth is unsurprised when they call him Thane of Glamis, for that is indeed his title and therefore a logical form of address. When they then address him as both Thane of Cawdor and future King, however, he is taken aback, since both the king and the current Thane of Cawdor are alive. When it subsequently emerges that the Thane of Cawdor has been executed as a traitor and Duncan bestows that title on Macbeth, Macbeth concludes that the witches' prophecy is accurate. It is at this point that he begins to consider murdering Duncan in order to claim the crown — a thought that would never have entered his mind had the sisters not prophesied that he would be king.

Here we see that the witches' action serves as the direct inspiration for the malevolent events that follow. It is ultimately Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who bear responsibility for the crime, but the witches function as a crucial catalyst. In this way, Shakespeare demonstrates, much like Innocent VIII, that his portrayal of witches is not merely theoretical or designed for macabre effect, but meant to be frightening and terribly real. In this instance, the supernatural takes on a character that goes well beyond the simply "scary": it is effective and carries a considerable impact on events within the world of the play.

Conclusion: The Supernatural as a Real and Concrete Force

The supernatural plays an enormous role throughout the body of Shakespeare's works, appearing in plays such as The Tempest, Richard III, and Macbeth. Given the skepticism of twenty-first-century society — which encourages its citizens to turn a rigorous, scientific eye to earthly phenomena — we may be tempted to dismiss such supernatural characters as fabrications of a macabre whimsy, included merely to delight and terrify as ghosts and goblins do in children's fairy tales. Making such an assumption would lead to egregiously incorrect conclusions, however.

On the contrary, people in Shakespeare's day placed a great deal of stock in claims of the occult and the black arts. Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, is himself alleged to have written more than 100,000 pages on occult practices and alchemy. Even religious leaders such as Innocent VIII believed in the practice of witchcraft and were more than willing to ascribe witches an impressive array of powers far beyond normal human means. The supernatural in Shakespeare's work must therefore be reckoned as a very real and concrete force — a fact borne out by the profound, serious, and dramatic effects that supernatural figures have on events within his plays. While a purely metaphorical reading of such works might be more comfortable for the modern skeptical sensibility, it would do a gross injustice to Shakespeare's intent.

One productive way to view the appearance of the "weird sisters" in Macbeth is not as simple superstition, but as a more philosophical and reasoned response to the problem of evil. By including the witches in the play, Shakespeare assigns a supernatural dimension to Macbeth's crime that elevates it beyond the mere realm of human evil, situating it within the larger moral and theological questions that preoccupied his age.

Bibliography

Innocent VIII. "Bull Summis desiderantes, Dec. 5th, 1484." Medieval Sourcebook: Witchcraft Documents [15th Century]. Apr. 11, 2003. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/witches1.html

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth, 1623 First Folio Edition. Apr. 11, 2003.

"Witches." The Background of Ideas. Shakespeare's Life and Times. Apr. 11, 2003.