How Now, Hecate?: The Supernatural in Shakespeare's Tragedies

I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind…
(Romeo and Juliet, I, iv, 96-100)

William Shakespeare wrote these lines, but his use of the mythological tradition of otherworldly appearances in his plays is anything but insubstantial. Sometimes he crafted them as a permeating presence, other times passing rather quickly, but even so still an important representation in the work. Whether the supernatural aspect in is the appearance of a ghost or the description of an ancient god, it often bears a connection to the larger scheme of the play.

Hamlet and Macbeth are both examples in which the supernatural element enters the play at the opening of the action. The way a theatrical production begins has a great effect on the audience’s perception of the play, and both of these plays emphasize the supernatural from the start. The witches are the first characters we see in Macbeth, already prophesying and spouting paradoxical sayings. The stormy stage and odd characters establish early that this story occurs within an eerie and unnatural place. Hamlet brings the Ghost of the dead king to the plot’s fore in the first few scenes, beginning with a silent, awe-inspiring appearance in the first scene. Although the Ghost does not speak and is only onstage briefly, attention is directed toward that strange vision as soon as we meet Horatio. The eager introduction of the otherworldly being does two important things. One, it makes the audience pay attention. Two, it creates a somewhat uncomfortable atmosphere as we recognize these plays as stories in which the world is not quite natural. As Hamlet puts it, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I, iv, 67). Or in Scotland, as the case may be.

Both of these presences carry through multiple scenes, and the sights are at one point confirmed by multiple witnesses, but later seen only by the play’s title character. Hamlet is actually the last to see the Ghost of all characters who report the sight. The first to see it are the guards Marcellus and Barnardo, who bring in Horatio, Hamlet’s school friend, to confirm the appearance. When it appears in Queen Gertrude’s room in Act III, it is visible only to Hamlet. As Macbeth opens, the audience sees the weyard sisters before any of the play’s characters. When Macbeth crosses paths with them, Banquo is there as a witness to their presence and their prophecy. When Macbeth approaches the lair of the witches he is alone, and they are the only others present when they show him the visions that describe his defeat. When Banquo’s ghost appears closely following his murder, Macbeth alone can see the apparition. This could very well be a factor in the portrayal of the madness of Hamlet and Macbeth, or it may attest to the unpredictability of the supernatural – or both.

Such visions incite the curiosity of any observers, who want to know whether the sights are real, and to understand their nature. In Hamlet and Macbeth, the origin of any of these supernatural elements is always questioned, and never determined. The weyard sisters never actually reveal what they are: we know they are strange, and are witches, but beyond that we are told nothing. They make no effort to answer “What are you?” (I, iii, 45), and when Macbeth demands that they explain what they have declared, they vanish. Hamlet believes that the Ghost is either truly the ghost of his father or a devil, and expresses that doubt even with his resolve.

Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou com’st in such a questionable shape
That I will speak with to thee (I, iv, 21-25).

However, although distrusting the supernatural visions themselves, the characters are put in a position to believe the words of ghosts and witches. Hamlet forestalls that belief until he has tricked Claudius into a show of remorse, but after the trick he will “take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound” (III, ii, 264). In his mother’s chamber, he addresses the Ghost as his father, but he still displays an air of reservation. Although he never determines the true nature of the spirit, he sees the truth of its words. Macbeth first speculates in wonder, “to be king/ stands not within the prospect of belief,/ no more than to be Cawdor” (I, iii, 71-73). When he learns that he has in fact been named Thane of Cawdor, he reasons that the rest of their foresighted speech must be true as well. That belief leads him to conspire with Lady Macbeth, to kill King Duncan, and later to kill Banquo. This seems a fundamental difference between Hamlet and Macbeth. As soon as a part of the witches’ address to him comes to pass, Macbeth takes all of it as truth, so early trusting in that which should still be shrouded in uncertainty. Hamlet takes much more time to believe the Ghost’s revealing words. More than anything else this indicates Hamlet’s tendency to doubt, and Macbeth’s ambition.

We see all of these parallels in the dramatic functions of supernatural beings in Hamlet and Macbeth, yet supernatural characters represent different thematic elements of each play. Hamlet’s Ghost is an embodiment of uncertainty, a very strong force in the dramatic action. As previously stated, the nature of the Ghost is continuously questioned. Hamlet speaks, “The spirit that I have seen/ may be the devil, and the devil hath power/ t’assume a pleasing shape,” i.e., the shape of his father (III, i, 575-577). Later, he described the Ghost as it leaves the scene, “My father, in his habit as he lived,” but it appears a more superficial description than a real trust in the form (III, iv, 126).

Uncertainty pervades Hamlet, questions infusing the text from the first line, “Who’s there?” (I, i, 1). It faces the characters at every turn. Hamlet comes under scrutiny for his actions as others try to determine the cause of his madness. Polonius speculates to Ophelia, “Mad for thy love?” (II, i, 86); Claudius states “What… hath put him/ so much from th’understanding of himself, I cannot deem of” (II, ii, 7-10); Gertrude believes that the cause is “his father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage” (II, ii, 57). In Claudius’s prayer scene, both he and Hamlet have important questions to ask: Claudius wonders how he can repent for his deed, while Hamlet hesitates in that moment to make the killing blow, asking, “Am I then revenged?” (III, iii, 84).

In many other ways uncertainty rears its head in this play. Claudius becomes so unsure of what to do about Hamlet, once he suspects that Hamlet knows what he has done, that he ships him off to England. Equal consideration could be given to accident and suicide as the cause of Ophelia’s death, since no one witnessed her drowning. Hamlet offers one of the most famous literary uncertainties known: “To be, or not to be” (III, i, 58). Here he is questioning the very purpose of existence, and what happens after death, the existential question that no philosopher has yet been able to answer with surety. Shakespeare brings all of this questioning into focus with the Ghost’s presence. The characters at first search for confirmation that the spirit is not a trick of the eyes, and then must wonder at its origins and its intentions. Uncertainty is so prevalent that we may begin to understand Hamlet’s troubled state: it would be difficult to reconcile one’s existence in a world in which everything must be questioned.