The Breakdown of Macbeth

Supernatural, attracts the audience's attention and heart. In the time period this play was written is there was a strong belief in the supernatural, and elements of witchcraft. In which means there is a strong element of the supernatural in most of William Shakespeare's plays. In "Macbeth" the supernatural is modeled into the plot structure. Not only are witches involved the idea of unrealistic actions and motives.

Shakespeare introduced the elements of the supernatural in Act I, Scene III. He describes the scene as deserted "heath" on a day with thunder. In other words a gloomy, dark, uneventful day; perfect for "paranormal activity". In these times thunder and lighting where presumed as evil. And when the play was presented in this time, cannonballs would be rolled to create the illusion of thunder. Three main characters are introduced; we knew immediately that they were involved in the supernatural because witch number two addresses the others and proceeds to talk about "killing swine", in other words curing a deadly disease known as Swine. The witches tried to hide themselves from humans in fear of being burned. Therefore they held their "meetings" with Macbeth in an empty heath. Another problem in this time was that witches were blamed for deaths of creatures, or animals. The reason for three witches was that "3" was a significant number, or magic number. These characters addressed themselves as the "weird sisters". Another significance because the phrase "weird sisters" was a meaning for the goddess of destiny, in which could see everyone's future.

Besides the witches good and evil are another main factor of this story. Evil is expressed in two ways throughout this play. Fights between virtue and immortality within all the characters; through struggles of conscience, but also portrayed as forces in the natural world. Religion is what brought this about, the ideas of Heaven, Hell, God, and the Devil. Evil is shown through foreign occurrences as well. The intended representation of these occurrences are either

literal or metaphorical, but very ambiguous. An example would be when Macbeth seen the dagger before killing King Duncan in Act II, Scene II. This could very well be a trick of the mind, illusion created by

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