Supernatural Elements in Shakespeare

 

Supernatural Elements in Shakespeare

The supernatural elements are the point of attraction even today. It includes all those phenomena which can not be explained by the accepted laws of natural science. In the days of Shakespeare, there was almost universal belief in the presence and power of the unseen. All classes of people, including the king, shared this belief. Most of the forms of the marvellous in which people believed were awe-inspiring. They had faith in demons, ghosts, witches and wizards. There was another category too, namely the fairies, which was conceived in a lighter vein. He freely used both the categories of the unseen and ghosts, fairies and witches appear and re-appear in one play after another. But his supernatural is not so crude and rough as that of the other contemporary dramatists. It is always invested with a deep moral and psychological significance.

Shakespeare invests his supernatural with all the circumstances and characteristic features of popular superstitions. So that it was readily accepted by his audience. In Hamlet, the ghost has far great powers but it fails to achieve its purpose. The witches in Macbeth have even greater potentialities for evil and wreck the human soul. The Hamlet ghost appears in weird circumstances, on a cold and dark night. It does not speak till it is spoken to. It inspires terror in the hearts of those who see it and it vanishes as soon as it is daylight. Similarly in Macbeth, the witches in their characteristics conform substantially to these of popular imagination and conception. They are poor and ragged, skinny and They are dressed like women bat grow beards which one like, Banquo, doubt their sex. They appear in foul weather when there is thunder, lightning and storms. They have gifts of prophecy can cast spells and raise apparitions.

The supernatural is ever brought by the dramatist in the closest relation with character and action. The witches of Macbeth integral to the plot. They shape the course of events and they are the motive power of the drama. They also serve in intensify the atmosphere of horror and dread in the plays. Similarly, the ghost in Hamlet, is not a meaningless apparition. The supernatual can only suggest a particular course of action, it can never compel a character to act in a particular manner. The ultimate responsibility lies with the human actors of a play and not with the superhuman.