The supernatural

Supernatural power and human responsibility

In Macbeth, the supernatural offers knowledge of the future but makes the present harder to understand. The witches predict Macbeth’s rise, visions disturb him, and later apparitions promise apparent safety. These encounters drive the tragedy while raising an important question: does Macbeth commit crimes because supernatural forces control him, or because he chooses to act on what they tell him?

Fate means that events are predetermined; free will means that people can choose their actions. Shakespeare places these ideas in tension. Predictions come true, yet Macbeth repeatedly makes decisions about how to respond. The supernatural therefore matters not just as frightening spectacle, but as a way of exploring temptation, responsibility and the danger of believing what we want to hear.

The opening: a world of misleading appearances

Before Macbeth appears, the three witches meet in thunder and lightning. In Act 1 Scene 1, they speak together: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair:”. This paradox reverses the meanings of good and bad, suggesting a world where attractive appearances conceal destructive realities. Its balanced reversal makes moral confusion sound like a rule the witches share.

Their rhyming verse gives the scene a chant-like quality. The closing rhyme of “fair” and “air” binds their words together, while the storm creates an atmosphere of disturbance. Opening with the witches gives them structural importance: the audience knows they intend to meet Macbeth before he knows anything about them.

When Macbeth enters in Act 1 Scene 3, he says, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” Literally, the day combines unpleasant weather with military victory. However, the echo of the witches’ words also links him to their confusing world. It may suggest their influence, or foreshadow a similarity between their values and the desires he will reveal.

The first predictions: temptation rather than an instruction

In Act 1 Scene 3, the witches greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and future king. They also predict that Banquo will father kings without becoming king himself. When Ross confirms Macbeth’s new title of Cawdor, the prediction acquires credibility.

Macbeth responds privately: “This supernatural soliciting / Cannot be ill; cannot be good.” “Soliciting” suggests an invitation or temptation. The opposing judgements show his uncertainty: the promise appears good because it brings advancement, but it also prompts horrifying thoughts of murder. The aside lets the audience hear this conflict while the other characters cannot.

Banquo offers a contrasting interpretation: “The instruments of darkness tell us truths” (Act 1 Scene 3). The metaphor makes the witches agents of evil. His warning explains their method: small truths can win trust before leading someone into much greater harm. Structurally, this anticipates the misleading assurances Macbeth receives later.

The witches do not instruct Macbeth to murder Duncan in this encounter. Macbeth himself imagines murder, but also considers waiting for chance to crown him without intervention. Banquo’s caution demonstrates that belief in supernatural knowledge need not produce the same response. These differences support a reading in which the witches exploit Macbeth’s ambition rather than remove his freedom.

Lady Macbeth invites darkness in

After reading Macbeth’s letter, Lady Macbeth calls, “Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,” in Act 1 Scene 5. Here “mortal” suggests deadly or murderous thoughts. She wants the spirits to remove qualities she associates with feminine tenderness and fill her with cruelty so that she can help secure the crown.

The repeated command “Come” gives her speech the force of an invocation: an appeal to supernatural powers. Her request to block remorse shows that she recognises conscience as an obstacle to the intended murder. She is actively seeking help to overcome it, rather than passively receiving a prophecy.

Her language associates her with witchcraft, but it can also be read as a dramatic expression of determination. Unlike the witches’ appearances, no responding spirits enter during the speech. The important effect is that she willingly imagines an alliance with darkness.

This presentation would have connected with contemporary fears of witchcraft. James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England in 1603, published Daemonologie in 1597, defending belief in witchcraft. The play’s association of spirits with murder and temptation could make such appeals particularly threatening to audiences familiar with those beliefs.

The dagger: supernatural guidance or a disturbed mind?

Alone before murdering Duncan, Macbeth asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me,” (Act 2 Scene 1). The opening question makes his perception uncertain. He sees the weapon but cannot grasp it, so sight and touch give conflicting evidence.

One reading treats the dagger as a supernatural temptation directing him towards Duncan. Macbeth addresses it as though it has agency and says it guides his movement. Another reading understands it as a hallucination created by his anticipation of murder: he calls it “A dagger of the mind, a false creation,” and connects it with his troubled brain.

The soliloquy allows the audience to follow him testing these explanations. Crucially, he says the dagger leads him along the route he was already taking. Even if it is supernatural, it reinforces an existing intention. The scene therefore intensifies the horror without simply transferring responsibility for the murder to an outside force.

Banquo’s ghost: the supernatural interrupts public authority

After Macbeth has arranged Banquo’s murder, Banquo’s ghost appears at the banquet in Act 3 Scene 4 and occupies Macbeth’s place. Macbeth cries, “Never shake / Thy gory locks at me.” The bloody hair connects the apparition directly with the violence Macbeth has ordered.

The stage action makes the ghost a threatening presence for the audience, but the guests do not see what Macbeth sees. Lady Macbeth insists that he is looking at a stool. This supports two readings: the dead Banquo returns to confront his murderer, or Macbeth’s mind turns his knowledge of the crime into a visible accusation.

For this theme, the key dramatic effect is the collision between a private vision and a public ceremony. Macbeth tries to perform the role of confident king, but his reactions disrupt the gathering. The ghost’s occupation of his seat also makes his position appear insecure. After the banquet collapses, Macbeth decides to seek the witches again: fear increases his dependence on supernatural knowledge.

The second encounter: reassurance becomes a trap

In Act 4 Scene 1, the witches chant, “Double, double, toil and trouble;”. Repetition, rhyme and the strongly stressed opening create a ritual rhythm. Much of their chant uses trochaic tetrameter, often shortened at the line ending. Its emphatic beat contrasts with the predominantly iambic blank verse of the human characters.

Macbeth now seeks the witches out and demands answers. This reverses the first encounter, when they approached him. Their Second Apparition, a bloody child, declares that “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.” Macbeth interprets this as protection from every possible opponent.

The apparitions also warn him about Macduff and predict that he will not be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. These statements combine alarm with apparent reassurance. Macbeth selects the comforting interpretation, yet still resolves to eliminate Macduff and subsequently orders the slaughter of his family. The supernatural encourages his confidence, but his response remains brutally active.

The ending: equivocation exposed

Equivocation is language that permits more than one meaning and thereby misleads. In Act 5 Scene 4, Malcolm orders his soldiers to carry branches to conceal their numbers. This makes Birnam Wood appear to move towards Dunsinane. The audience understands the explanation before Macbeth receives the alarming report in Act 5 Scene 5, creating dramatic irony.

In Act 5 Scene 8, Macduff reveals that he was cut from his mother’s womb rather than delivered through ordinary childbirth. It is the manner of his delivery, not simply its premature timing, that makes him the exception to “woman born” in the prophecy’s deceptive wording. Macbeth had assumed that the assurance covered every possible opponent. He recognises that the fiends “palter with us in a double sense”: their words preserved the promise’s surface meaning while destroying his hope of safety.

Equivocation also had a topical connection with the aftermath of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. The Porter’s joke about an equivocator in Act 2 Scene 3 may allude to the priest Henry Garnet, whose defence of equivocation became notorious. Within the play, deceptive wording links supernatural promises with treason and moral evasion.

The ending supports the view that the witches manipulate Macbeth towards destruction. Nevertheless, he chooses to fight even after recognising their deception. A persuasive overall judgement is that supernatural forces shape the opportunities and illusions surrounding him, while his ambition and choices turn those influences into crimes.

Turning interpretation into an essay paragraph

OCR’s Shakespeare section offers one essay from a choice of two, worth 40 marks: an extract-based question linking the passage with the wider play, or a discursive question. AO1, your supported interpretation, and AO2, analysis of language, form and structure, carry equal and greatest weight. Context should explain the play’s treatment of the question; 4 marks assess vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation.

For the practice discursive question ‘The witches are responsible for Macbeth’s downfall. How far do you agree?’, a paragraph can move from a judgement to a quotation, analyse its wording and connect it with Macbeth’s response:

Shakespeare presents the witches as dangerous tempters, but Macbeth’s response suggests that he retains responsibility. In Act 1 Scene 3, Banquo warns that “The instruments of darkness tell us truths”. The metaphor presents the witches as agents of evil whose truthful predictions serve a destructive purpose. Their confirmation of Macbeth’s title therefore makes the promise of kingship persuasive without making it morally trustworthy. However, the contrast between Banquo’s caution and Macbeth’s immediate thoughts of murder shows that supernatural knowledge does not determine a single response. Shakespeare makes the witches’ influence powerful, while showing how Macbeth’s ambition converts temptation into a chosen course of action.

Central argument

The supernatural tempts, frightens and misleads Macbeth. It influences his actions without necessarily removing his free will.

Beginning: temptation and choice

• Act 1 Scene 1: witches — “Fair is foul, and foul is fair:” → paradox, moral confusion, deceptive appearances.
• Act 1 Scene 3: Macbeth — “This supernatural soliciting / Cannot be ill; cannot be good.” → temptation and divided judgement.