SUPERNATURAL intentions of Shakespeare

Question 1

portray characters in hierarchies?

Answer 1

even the most valiant can have their moral infrastructure shaken by the evil of the supernatural.

shakespeare wants to challenge the withces prophecies too

Question 2

kingship to James I?

Answer 2

king James I would’ve been in the contemporary audience - Shakespeare positing ideas about the effect of conversing with witchcraft how it can damage kingship and to give him a warning

also to deter future regicide against James I

Question 3

shakespeare’s own ideas?

Answer 3

shakespeare uses witchcraft in other plays (othello, the winters tale) which tells the audience he thinks its a fantasy (much like the hallucinations macbeth has) forcing audiences to question their beliefs and move toward less prejudiced opinions

Question 4

divine right of kings?

Answer 4

how conversing with the supernatural can lead to moral failure and how when the divine right of kings is broken, inevitable, fatal consequences are brought by fate

Question 5

dominant theme in macbeth’s character?

Answer 5

CHANGE

macbeth very different at start vs end of the play as a result of getting ‘rapt’ in the supernatural.

in many ways he is an example of our more modern preoccupation with our interior world (ahead of his time)

Question 6

macbeth as a character?

Answer 6

shakespeare employs the character of macbeth as a construct to demonstrate the supernatural as an omnipotent force which can tear down the moral infrastructure of the people at the top of the hierarchy and great chain of being, most valiant and noble

Question 7

humanity?

Answer 7

employed and explored the theme of the supernatural and used it to metaphorically draw audience to the fatal flaws of humanity - hubris, ignorance and duplicity

Question 8

witches as characters?

Answer 8

shakespeare deliberately employed and constructed the characters to represent both stereotypes of both ends of the demonologie debate - evil, vengeful witch and the beggar woman Scot