Macbeth - Supernatural Forces Cause the Fall of Man in Macbe

In Shakespeare s Macbeth supernatural forces create a suspenseful atmosphere. The use of the supernatural in the witches, the visions, the ghost and the apparitions provides the backbone of the climax and excuses for Macbeth s change of character. Because conscience plays such a central role in Macbeth s tragic struggle, many critics use spiritual and supernatural theories to illuminate the drama s character development. The play opens with the use of the supernatural when three witches encounter Macbeth on his way home from a battle and proceed to predict his fate. This gives the audience a glimpse of the path the play will follow. The witches plan to meet again, When the battles (battle is) lost and wonÂ… (I. I. 1-4). This†¦show more content†¦Banquo s ghost is yet another paranormal experience Macbeth encounters, and also the one that sent Macbeth over the edge. Author Ludwig Jekels felt that the poet dramatizes, with wonderful clarity, the fear of the son (Banquo) now the father, upon confronting, in his own son (Macbeth), the same hostility that he (Macbeth) had harbored on his own father (Duncan). (Jekels 227) Banquo s ghost returned to torture Macbeth indefinitely. Eventually, the ghost drives Macbeth to his own, unintended, self-destruction. In act 3, scene 4, lines 112-115 Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth, Can such things be and overcome us like a summers cloud, without our special w onder? You make me strange even to the disposition that owe (my own nature). (3.4.112-115) After all Macbeth has been through at this point, the witches and apparitions, he still can t grasp his connection to the supernatural. This proves that Macbeth fell under the influence of the supernatural without knowing. Accredited author J. L. F. Flathe quotes, But we are constrained to ask, what devil gives the devil such power over this poor devil Macbeth that he is so immediately led astray, while we see, in the case of Banquo, that any man who chooses can easily withstand the devil? (Flathe 200) Any given person s human nature tempts them to take an easier path if shown the way. Some people exhibit more hardworking and honest traits than others. Macbeth was deceitful and dishonest, therefore following