Examples Of Superstition In Macbeth

There are many superstitions surrounding Shakespeare’s Macbeth, from the presence of the witches in the play to even speaking the play’s title. This paper examines these superstitions and explains them in a modern context.
To start, we must understand the time in which the play was written. Before the invention and spread of the internet, people did not understand things as well as we do now, so something unexplained often was confused with magic. Therefore, superstitions were made up over the years due to the fact that people could not understand things well. When Shakespeare was introduced to the culture he added to the superstition because it worked off of existing superstitions and made them more advanced.
At the time of Macbeth’s release, witchcraft was a very tense subject and many people were killed due to accusations of witchcraft such as the salem witch trials in which 20 people were executed for just being ‘witches’. This is an obvious connection to Shakespeare's plays because in Macbeth there are three devious witches who drive the main antagonal force. Shakespeare intentionally made the witch's evil instead of being normal people because of …show more content…
After the Duncan’s death, the weather is described as stormy and grey (Act 2, scene 4) because Macbeth is lesser than the king and has stepped out of his social status. Due to this, Scotland is “bleed,”(Act 4, scene 3, page 2) meaning many people are dying and it is overall a terrible place to be. Malcolm is a very honorable and good character, meaning he is worthy of being the king, and the natural order is set to rights again once Malcolm becomes king. According to Breakpoint.org, animals act very strangely after MacBeth kills Duncan because the world is upset that he stepped out of his bounds and killed his