Could someone give me a mark for this Macbeth essay please!

How does Shakespeare present the supernatural in Macbeth.

(I used Act 1 Scene 3 as my extract)

I got Ai to mark and it said grade 9 but didn’t tell me exactly how many marks out of 30 it would get. Could someone tell me pleaseee

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, the supernatural presented as an irresistible allure that tempts individuals by leveraging their desires. the writer warns that by succumbing to this malevolent force ultimately culminate to a mental and physical collapse as seen through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as they both die unloved and unmolded at the end of the play.

At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare deliberately crafts the opening to begin in media res as we witnessed the witches meeting where they discuss their vicious schemes. This is in order to establish the overbearing theme of the supernatural and fully immersed the audience in the wicked realm.

It appears that the witches are conjuring a potion or a spell as they use the “eye of newt…hell broth…cauldron bubble”. The diction creates a semantic field of hell signifying that they are agents of devil, vehicles to cause destruction in the natural world. The elements contained in their potions adhere to the archetypal portrayal of witches - outlined in James I ‘daemonology’. The playwright aims to tap into the audiences pre-existing apprehensions and anticipations of the supernatural in order to elect a sense of fear and highlight that the ordinary characters in the play are in danger of this mythical spell. More over the head which is called Hectate who expresses her unshakeable desire to cause harm to Macbeth. In Greek tragedy, Hectate is a river that flows through Hades (Hell), further reinforcing their hellish and devilish portrayal as they thrive in such barbaric conditions. As they always appear as a trio, they could be viewed as anti-Trinity as they actively oppose the deeply rooted Christian belief of the holy Trinity (father, son and Holy Spirit) as the holy Trinity provides spiritual guidance to heaven, whereas the witches provide superficial guidance to hell.

In the extract we see Macbeth and Banquo’s encounter with the witches. Prior to this, Macbeth emulates the witches paradoxical language of “so foul and fair a day I have not seen” as this is his first line in the play. It suggests that he has already become a vessel for their twisted misconduct right from the offset alternatively his echo of the oxymoronic and paradoxical phrase before encountering them highlights a predestined susceptibility to their manipulation and deceiving prophecies. Whilst his overreaching ambition causes his downfall, the witches omnipotent supernatural force exerted over him, catalyses his tragic fate. The witches greet Macbeth with three prophecies, “ all hail, Macbeth, that shall be King here after”. They exploit his hubris in order to employ their deceptive influence over him. The short sentence with commas either side of his name illustrates their targeted approach. Through prophecies aimed to stroke his ego and satisfy his ambitions, the witches effectively obscure his judgement, making him susceptible to their manipulation. This is further reinforced when bank quote describes them as “instruments of darkness”. The use of auditory imagery imposed by the noun instruments accentuates their song like portrayal. They speak in trochaic tetrameter and rhyming couplets, showcasing how their prophecies serve as almost a hypnotic trance for Macbeth as he appears “rapt withal”. Furthermore, the choice of instruments perhaps suggests their deliberate orchestrated composition that serves to enchant its victims, leading them onto a path of mental and physical destruction. Macbeth’s lack of dialogue in the extract suggests he is weak in the face of the supernatural perhaps because he knows it is an indestructible force that he cannot overcome like he does to villains on the battlefield. Not only does this exacerbate the power of the supernatural, as it reckons with the most stoic soldiers, but it also indicates that it is a false that pervades the weak minded. This is because in contrast, bank shows dominance in the face of evil as he issues imperative commands like “speak” and “tell”, showcasing his ability to refrain from overindulgence and restrict his own ambition. As Banquo was a descendant of King James, his noble betrayal could be demonstrated as a form of flattery and to appease the king- who was a patron to Shakespeare’s plays.

In act 4, Macbeth is visibly wrecked by the supernatural influence, however still attempts to seek their perceived wisdom as a source of solace. Mac Macbeth issues imperative commands to the witches, instructing them to “tell me” and “call em”. His hubris is explicit as he speaks with a demanding tone. Fuelled by an insatiable desire for greed and an unbridled hunger for power, this marks his intentional engagement with the witches. As he has actively gone to seek them out, this underscores his abandonment of any pretense of morality as he has become solely reliant on their ambiguous equivocations. Critic Jane Kingsley views Macbeth through a Christian perspective stating that “men seek what is derived of them by God, leaving them vulnerable to the devil’s agents” (in this case, the witches). Jane demonstrates Macbeth’s complete transgression from his morality and the foundations of jacobean society - religion. To Shakespeare’s contemporary audience this would appear shocking as Macbeth’s complete submission to the supernatural would’ve been vehemently condemned in an era of which trials and burning heretics. Ultimately, the witches deceptive influence has imbued Macbeth with a heightened sense of self importance as his illegitimate title of king, perceived to have been awarded to him by the supernatural, has inflated his sense of authority as he believes he can supersede the witches overt supernatural power and defy natural order.

In conclusion the supernatural is presented as an omnipotent force that’s overcomes even the most worthy and loyal soldiers by providing superficial and transient power that ultimately leads them to a path of eternal damnation. However, through Shakespeare’s establishment of the supernatural as such a dominant theme, he brings about the debate of whether Macbeth was in innately evil, or whether he was just a puppet that the witches used to cause chaos in the natural realm.

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