The Role of the Supernatural in Macbeth

(My Prediction is this is 50% likely to be the Question every year!)

You can read the guide here. Just click.

This is a student essay which I have lightly edited to make sure it is Grade 9. It is the same student who wrote about kingship in yesterday’s post. She’s busy revising in the best way - writing essays.

I’ve had many new paid subscribers since my last video on Easter revision, so this is an extra thank you.

How to Revise So That You Can Reproduce This Essay In the Exam in Your Own Words

1. Take notes. Write your own version from the notes.

2. Check to see if you have missed any ideas, key vocabulary and quotes. Add these to your notes.

3. Put the essay and notes aside for 3 - 7 days.

4. Write the notes again from memory. Check to see what you have missed. Put these aside for another 3 - 7 days.

5. Write the essay again from memory (without looking at your notes). If you are not happy with it:

6. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 5.

The Essay

Whilst the supernatural can be deemed as largely influential in Macbeth's downfall, the "weird sisters'" ambiguity throughout the play, as well as their struggle for power in a patriarchal society, suggest Shakespeare may not have only implemented the supernatural in his play to appease King James I who was his patron. Shakespeare was more interested in the psychology of the characters; the supernatural were simply a symbol of temptation that Macbeth was consumed by. 

Shakespeare introduces the witches in the very first scene of the play which gives them large structural significance. They chant “Fair is foul and foul is fair”. This paradoxical chiasmus is a logical inconsistency that introduces the play's strong underlying theme of corruption and the supernatural. The witches speak in trochaic tetrameter which is distinguishes them from the other characters who typically speak in iambic pentameter. This would unsettle a Jacobean audience who were largely scared of the supernatural. King James was especially interested in it - shown by his book Daemonologie and the witch hunts he organised. The weird sisters continue to use equivocation, declaring “when the battle’s lost and won”, unsettling the audience with its ambiguity by flipping the conventional order of “won” first. This alludes to the idea of Macbeth’s downfall coming first. 

However, Shakespeare could be diminishing the influence of the witches in the events of the play as they speak in an almost childlike manner due to their short sentences, simple rhymes and choral speech, as if they were children playing a game. This undermines their credibility as it shows the audience their game does not have any real power; they only serve as a mirror for the recognition of each character's true self. 

Shakespeare demonstrates how temptation and the supernatural invokes an irreversible change in character, subverting the audience’s expectations as he implies that a person’s poor qualities are amplified by the crown and supernatural. Macbeth becomes paranoid, but the weird sisters simply reveal his true self, as a killer.

✅ Paid subscribers get a grade 9 answer with my comments every week except the summer holidays, and access to the over 100+ already published. 🎓

✅ Substack thinks this is so good, that you can sample them free for a week. 👏