Macbeth

5 Pages 1290 Words

In MacBeth, William Shakespeare sets the mood of the entire play with extraordinary occurrences in the natural world. They signify the dark, cold and demented manner of MacBeth’s killing spree. From the thunder and lightning that accompany the three witches’ appearances to the terrible storms that follow the murders of King Duncan and Banquo. The supernatural occurrences reflect a break in the Chain of Being, the corruption in the moral and political orders that are considered unimaginable. Therefore, the supernatural occurrences in the natural world order are most severe and unsettling when that Chain of Being is broken. The three witches are an unnatural phenomenon and are directly related to the supernatural occurrences, this reflects their link to an unsettled and chaotic natural world. The sense of violence and foreboding that is evoked by the unnatural imagines create an aura of darkness, deception, and horror seen throughout MacBeth. The darkness creates the image of horror with the deaths’ of King Duncan and Banquo at night or in darkness, and the second meeting with the three witches in a dark place shows the horror yet to come. The unnatural scenes in MacBeth are central to the foreshadowing of what is to come of MacBeth’s actions.
The first three scenes establish a dark, gloomy mood that permeates the entire play. The play begins with a storm, and the supernatural forces immediately appear in the form of the three witches. The three witches are wicked and sinister, and whenever they appear the play links them to unease and lurking chaos in the natural world by insisting on thunder or thunder and lightning. The first witch says, “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” This gives the impression that whenever there is thunder, lightning, or rain that the witches are lurking in the “fog and filthy air” (I.i.13). In his description of MacBeth and Banquo’s heroics th...