Fate and the supernatural

How Shakespeare explores omens, dreams, ghosts and fate, set against the choices the characters make across the text, and why it matters to the text's meaning.
Where it appears, the key quotations that show it, and different ways it can be interpreted.
Evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the text.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'Men at some time are masters of their fates', 'But men may construe things after their fashion, / Clean from the purpose of the things themselves', 'it is the part of men to fear and tremble, / When the most mighty gods by tokens send / Such dreadful heralds to astonish us', 'graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead', 'Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds', 'What can be avoided / Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?', 'Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, / They could not find a heart within the beast', 'Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil', 'ravens, crows and kites', 'O, that a man might know / The end of this day's business ere it come!'.
Omens that characters read in different ways, and Cassius's change from doubting omens to believing them before Philippi.
Context: the seer's warning and Calpurnia's dream as the Roman historians record them.

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