THE DRAMATIC fUNCTION Of THE

SUPERNATURAL IN SHAKESPEARE
THE D~TIC FUNCTIUN O~~ T~ oUPhittNATURAL

IN S1IA1\ESPEARE

By_

Jacqueline A. RandellJ B.A.

A Thesis
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
in Partial fulfilment of the Requirements
for the Degree
Master of Arts

McMaster University
September, 1.976.

i
Master of Arts. (1976) MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
(English) Hamilton, Ontario.

TITLE: The Dramatic Function of the Supernatural in Shakespeare.

AUTHOR: J.Randell.B.A.(Durham).
SUPERVISOR: Dr. B.Jackson.
NUMBER Of PAGES: 88
SCOPE AN~ CONWENTS: A discussion of the supernatural in The Tempest,
Hamlet and Macbeth in so far as it contributes to the dramatic

quality of the plays. My concern comes to rest particularly on

characterisation of Prospero, Hamlet and Macbeth and the extent
to which this is dep!3odel;lton 'bHevarious supell.'natural,agencies.
Ir~Is6~eQnsider the main themes in each playas they are defined
by the supernatural.

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

I would like to thank Dr. Jackson for his help and advice

throughout the writing and organising of this thesis. I would

also like to express my appreciation to Dr.D.K.C.Todd ~whose

encouragement and stimulating influence in my final year at

Durnam University inspired me to undertake graduate work.

iii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

page.
INTRODUCT I ON ••••• 1

CHAPTER ONE; THE2TfMPES1.......... 6

CHAPTER TWO: HAMLET •••••••••••••• ~~~

CHAPTER THREE: MACBETH ••••••••••• 6g

iv.
 INTRODUCTION

I propose to undertake a close reading of the three

Shakespearean plays that use a supernatural framework as their

dramatic structure. These are: The Tempest. Hamlet and M~cbeth.

The pLays lend themselves to this grouping as in each, the

supernatural, in the form of fairies, ghosts, witches or

visionary phenomena, plays a crucial role in defining the themes,

the characters and the general philosophy presented in them, I

refer in passing to A Midsummer Night's Dream, the other obvious

choice for study. However, the play lacked that depth of

intensity and seriousness that characterised the others, and a

discussion of the role of the supernatural would add little

to my thesis, which is mainly concerned with the philosophioal

repJcussions afforded by Shakespeare's treatment of the material.

~

I will now define the terms of my title, and indicate

the limits of my thesis. "Dramatic", I interpret in the full

sense of the word, as the basic pulse that makes the play operate

logically and emotionally in an effective manner. It describes

the process that makes the play credible and convincing, The term

restricts my focus to the stage itself and does not afford

a study of outside background material on Elizabethan superstition,

spiritual beliefs or pneumatology. In short, "dramatic" implies

the effectiveness with which the written play is made drama on

stage. I will consider how integral the supernatural is in

achieving this result, with regard to plot, thematic material,

1
 2

characterisation and general philosophical suggestions In each

study, my aim is to throw new light on the plays in an interpretive

manner which uses the material of the supernatural as a "spring

board ll for my somewhat unorthodox readings. Throughout, I rely

for my SUppoFt on what I consider to be the fairly typical

response of an audience, Elizabethan and modern alike, and in this

way, feel justified in offering an assessment of the IIdramatic"

effect of the supernatural in these plays.

'vJi thin the chosen plays, the term II supernatural" ~describes

t'
any occUf~nces that cannot be rationally explained by the

characters. I use it as a blanket term to cover all phenomena,

directly presented or only suggested, that transcend,; the concrete

comprehended world. As these supernatural situations or events

dominate the victim(s), they would seem to imply_a certain spiritual

presence or existence that man cannot control or comprehend.

The ambiguity surrounding this independent level of spiritual life is

ee~~otiql to my interpretation of each play, and in fact, constitutes

. -~-

the main common feature. To anticipate my thesis: Shakespeare

seems to USB the supernatural for its very indefinable and

perplexing nature. In each play, as I will show, it is used as

a dramatic tool to portray uncertainty, ambiguity and doubt, as

well as the md~e~obvious functions such as transformation and

prophecy, which pertain to the plot. The fact that these plays

lend themselves to a variety of interpretations can be explained

by the confusing nature of the supernatural agencies. I feel

 3

Shakespeare intended thissmbiguity in all cases as it is closely

related to the characterisation of the hero and the problems we

encounter here4 The sinister air of dubiousness that surrounds

the realm of fairies in lli_~est, the ghost in Haml£!.!. and the

witches in Macbeth Bre measures, in each case, of our correspotlding

sympathies for, and reservations ab6ut the hero. In so far

as they voluntarily play with. or are exposed to the supernatural

the heros are to be viewed with suspicion. In this way, the

supernatural seems to be fundamental to the moral subject matter

in the plays, in the extent to which it dict~tes certain moral

values, usually by negative implication.

There is little critical material on this connection

between the Bupernatural an~ characterisation and the other

dramatic features I mentioned. Critics who have worked on the
topic of the supernatural in Shakespeare seem to fall into two
main groups. In the first are those such as Rev. T.F.ThisBlton

J££1.b~.J;:.)J.£.£Lj:l..\..21:ta k e @.f-L§ a r t3J and I., W• Rod 9 e r B (§ flO s t 8 i n ~~ @JL8}' ~ J•

wfm study the kinds of supernatural beliefs and superstitions

Shakespeare was dealing with, and the documented Elizabethan

background of thought. There are numerous books Bnd articles that

deal with the definition of the witches, the ghost and the fairies

in these three plays, which include much speculation on how far

Shakespeare and his audience believed in the supernatural. The

sscond group 'Of .erlbtics attempt to"co';"ordina:te

Shakespeare's attitude towards the Bupernatural with his biography.

 4

Critics such as C.Clark (Shakespeare and the Supernatural) ~Kd

L.C.Sears (5hakespear~ts~Philosophy~~f~E~il)generally follow

the moods suggested by the four supernatural plays as indicative

of Shakespeare's mental and spiritual development. The following

paragraph suggests the kind of focus these critics applied, which

is historical rather than interpretive:

Studying Shakespeare's history from the supernatural

plays alone, we surmise that he embarked upon life
with all the easy optimism of youth'bA Midsummer Night's
Dreamljthat he soon came face to face with obstacles,
temptations, and difficulties which sobered his light
hea±tedness;rHamle~that, as he battled with all the dis?-
illusionment and d1sapointment which seemed to be the
inevitable concomitants of human life he found himself
the prey of cynicism and despair; ~acbet~and finally
that he passed through the valley, and came once more
to the peace and calm of fi new faith and a new confidence
in a benign Providence. [The Tempes{k

J.Paul S.R.Gibson in ~hakespearets Use of the Supernatural

~

conducts a useful survey of all the supernatural material

encountered in the canon. His aim is to list the material

and to discuss its significance as far as it relates to, Shakespeare's

background, . ~ his contempories' treatment of the supernatural

in literature, and, to a limited extent, its,'dramatic qualities.

His readings of the plays in this light are cursory and orthodox.

Again, he seems to aim at definition rather than interpretation.

Although my reading of each play has been influenced to

varying extents by different critics there seemed to be no one

who proceeded from a dramatic view point with regard to the

supernatural. Whe books I refer to in each chapter are useful

I. C.Clark, Shakespeare and the Supernatura17 p.105.

 5

in the fresh light they throw on the plays, but in all cases, the
critic:' concerned directed his study from another point of view.
A.D.Nuttal in Two Concepts of Allegory, my main secondary source
in chapter I, is concerned mainly with allegory and its metaphysical
and philosophical overtones. Miss f.M.Prosser" in Hamlet and
Revenge is interested in Hamlet's ghost from~a basically Christian
viewpoint.
I will attempt then, to suggest a comparatively new
way of approaching the supernatural in Shakespeare which is from
a dramatically interpretive angle. My study will be specific
rather then comparativ.e, although it will become evident that
Shakespeare usedthB superna'bu-ralcons,isterntlyas a: d;Fam1iltiG~

tool ,to portray similar ideas and" themes in allthr!3B plC3Ys, - namely,-
ambiguity, confusion, ambivalence and domination.
 6

THE TEMPE5T

My intention in this chapter is to discuss various

moral and metaphysical elements of the supernatural that are

not encompassed by the general term of "Romance", in The Tempest.

My thesis is that 5hakespeare used supernatural material to

undermine the usual philosophical standpoint articulated in

the traditional Romances, and to suggest new areas of

metaphysical speculation. While not disputing his use of the

"Romantic" framework, I will argue that he invested it with

a quality of philosophical suggestion that ultimately denies

it this general title. The term "Romance" implies a final

situation of harmony following conflict, reconciliation and

total contentment on the part of the characters involved.

To interpret the conclusion of The Tempest in this way is,

to my mind, to ignore certain dubious elements which, as I

will show, are incorporated in the medium and realm of the

supernaturalo My study concentrates largely on the ambiguous

nature of the play, on both the physical and metaphysical levels.

The discussion will cover three main areas. These are a

study of the major dramatic themes, an analysis of the character

o~ Prospero as illuminated by his magical powers, and finally

a general discussion on the value structure offered in the

play which is defined by the supernatural. Each area will

necessarily involve the others because of the particular focus

I am adopting.
 1

I find I must agree with A.D.Nuttall's conclusion

that The Tempest can only be interpreted metaphysically

and not allegorfually.I There are too many qualifications

in the play that render the latter approach inadequate and

insufficient. As Nuttall says: "It will not keep still long

enough for one to affix an allegorical label."2 This should

become clear by the number of half truths that I discover

in the course of this chapter. I will attempt to show that

Shakespeare used magic as a dramatic means to question and

redefine the traditional norms associated with magic and

with Romances structured by the supernatural.

There appears to be two major themes in the play.

bewilderment leading to a questioning and

distrusting of external appearances, which is demonstrated

by most of the chjracters exposed to Propsero's magic, and

second; tyranny or domination following usurpation, shown

in the plot and in Prospera's relationship with Caliban and

Ariel. Incidentally, these themes correspond to the states of

3
mind experienced by the victims of Prospeots white magic. These

states are: confusion and uncertainty, which relates to the

theme of the ambiguity of appearances, and surrender to the

~agical influence, which leads to the theme of domination.

This connection indicates, at this point, the integral role

the supernatural plays as it contains the sources for both themes

in the very nature of its influence. The themes broaden

out.
- as,r.
wilLdiscu.-ss.·.tb
. - - f'nr
~ -;,_ .. e r~]
. __ m nF:!n roo-----roo----
nhilnQnnhil"'J:ll -r-----
QnF:!I"'1l1",,+innR nn
w __ .. _ _ ..
 8

the very nature of reality and freedom. Both thematic areas

are closely linked by the general premise that "things are not

what they seem." This ref~rs to the deceptive ambitions of

men (corresponding to the tyranny theme) as well as to the phy-

sical level of transforming reality which the magic promotes

(corresponding to the theme of confusion and ambiguity). I will

deal withthe latter theme first. through a study of the super-

~
natural occurpnces, and will attempt to show the accumulating

aura of ambiguity that surrounds appearances, with a view to

this metaphysical insight that I believe Sh~kespeare is

insinuating.

Ariel's song to Ferdinand serves as an appropriate

introduction to the strange indefinable nature of, the enchanted

island:

These are pearls that were his eyes:

N6thing ,om him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:(I.ii.40l)A
The song suggests a death that does not decay but rejuvenates.

It is suggested to Ferdinand that his father has been transformed

into something "rich and strange" yet this is not picked up again

or amplified. It remains as it stands, for the curiously

evocative mood it casts and for no further dramatic purpose.

These words "rich and strange" describe many of the supernatural

occurences, as I will show, which like this one, are not

directly related to Prospero's course of revenge and hence,

unexplained. These events exude an air of uncertainty

 9

that is never resolved, and which therefore involves the audience

along with the characters in the sense of confusion, which is

more than mere entertainment.

The play opens with the apparently violent "tempest"

and its scale is measured by the terror and panic expressed

by the passengers on board o The earthy insults of the boatswain

firmly lodge, the scene in reality and there is no questioning

the physicality of the storm until the second scene. We, the

audience, have been deluded in the same way as the characters

have been, and we must now rapidly adjust our perspectives to

the comic verve that Ariel brings to the scene when describing

it;

Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,

I flam'd amazement: sometime I'd divide,
And burn in many places •• O (1.ii.196)
The mood has suddenly changed from fear of imminent disaster

to the controlled suavity that Prospera exudes o This dramatic

te~nique is the opposite to that seen in A Midsummer Night's

Dream, where the audience is always logically well in control

of the dramatic.,~ituationo Even when the characters are

suddenly transformed, we are always kept informed by some

technical source of information that tells us, for example,

that Oberon has just administered the love philtre. The

spectator sees through the dramatist's eyes and watches him

construct the events p In The Temp~, while sometimes

watching Prospera set up the situations, we are also influenced

 10

and affected by them. Miranda, who is perhaps representative

of the audience~s initial reaction to the disaster, says: DOh

I have suffered/With those I saw suffer," and she too must be

informed of their safety. This dramatic switch characterises

the form of tragi-comedy that defines the play. It is signifr~

cant that these two realms of tragedy and comedy, by definition,

sit uneasily together, and this lack of harmony is integral to

my argument. It is unnatural to laugh away an apparent disaster.

This serious element inhibits the freedom with which we laugh

throughout the play. The two dramatic norms are held in an

uncertain balance and contribute directly to that ambiguity that

I am pursuing.

Another type of reversal is seen in Prospero's

description of the trip to the island. He remembers that

Miranda's childish smiles were interfused with his sighs. In

hindsight, he remarks that the sea winds: "Whose pity sighing

back again / Did us but loving wrong." The presumed result is

disproved in the event. Again we are faced with a situation

that fared contrary to our expectations. The position has been

established then, in this scene, that the storm was suprisingly

harmless and illusory and that Prospero is about to work some

programme of revenge. However, Miranda and the audience'are ~

not told the details; instead she is lulled to sleep and the

audience remain as ignorant as she. Not only do we feel a

certain frustration in still half believing in the reality of

 II

the storm, but now are forced to speculate on Prospero's plans.

This is confusing as he above the others, emerges as our

focal coordinator of Bvents o Meanwhile, we are offered

no alternative "norm" character

. )
and our attention comes to

focus more closely on Prospera than on the magic he is

about to work.
t
The next magical occ~ence he manipulates is the

"exchanged eyes" of ferdin§nd and Miranda •• While they are

intent only on gazing at one another, Prospera addresses

the former in an unexpectedly harsh manner, considering that

he has manipulated the encounter. He threatens to "hate"

Miranda" if she pleads for ferdinand, and denounces him as a

spy and a traitor. After he has charmed him, he sneers at

Miranda's intercessions;"What I say / My foot my tutor?" It

is only later that this harshness is explained and even then

it is not justified o Although I will deal with the charact-

erisation of Prospera later, his attitude is significant here

as he behaves contrary to what one would expect of him in his

reception of an innocent unsuspecting prince. He then tells

Miranda: It • • • foolish wenchl / To th'most of men this is a

Caliban,/ And they to him are angels." By deliberately

"
misleading her here, despite his good intentions, he is

trying to invert the significances of appearances for her.

At the end of Act One, we are in a general state of confusion,

not only about Prospera's intentions and his character, but

 12

also about the purpose of the magic that lulls Miranda to sleep

and which plagues and enchants Ferdinand with music. Its

whimsical quality has been established o

The courtly group in Act Two prop~gate a different

kind of reversal of expectations through their dialogue.

Gonzalo,the kindly counsellor with his sincere views on

government, is mocked by the witty but crooked pair, Antonio

and Sebastiano As Bonamy Dobree po~nts out~ Gonzalo is in

fact portrayed as a garrulousfold man, and the jibes against

him are accurate and humo~o~. The natiliral social situation,

where age is revered, has been reversed)and Gonzalo's true

values are being effectively scorned. As Dobree indicates,

it would have been easy enough for Shakespeare to show

Antonio~and Sebastian eventually beaten down by the old man,

but he chose not to, perhaps to reflect the social truth that

often true virtue is capped by mere empty rhetoric.

The situation is soon transformed by Ariel's magic,

and again sleep is forced upon the characters. The strangeness

of this langour is emphasised by the men: "wondrous heavy"'

~

"What a strange drowsiness possesses them~" Antonio takes

this'opportunity to sound out Sebastian's inclinations in

joining him to murder Alonso. Sufficiently confused by

the sudden drowsinwss that has· overcome the others, Antonio

answers with the image of sleep walking: "This is a strange

repose to be asleep/ With eyes wide open, standing, speaking

 ,: 13

movingl And yet so fast asleep." Although this image

merely articulates Antonio's suprise at Sebastian's suggestion,
it picks up the idea of the island's "strangeness" in its
suggestion of unnatural behaviour. Anxiety is then evident
in their rapid questioning: "\lIhat, art thou' :waking? I Do you
not hear me speak?1 ••• \vhat is it thou didst say?" It would
seem that the supernatural influence has affected their language
as they now re~ort to riddles to discover "meanings", and speak
at one remove;
Antonio~Thou let'st thy fortune sleep - die, rather; wink'st
while thou art waking.
5ebastian- ' Thou dost snore distin~tly;
There's meaning in thy snores.
Antonio . . -•• 'what a sleep were this
For your advancement! Do you understand me? (11.i.210)
Meaning then, has been relegated to a level of ambiguous inter-
course, reflecting in language a general distrust af outward
appearances. The exchange indicates thebway in which experience
on the island is becoming harder to tangibly contain and
define. The sleep image they use to discuss the murderJfits
in well with their subsequent deceptive behaviour as they
pretend loyalty to Alonso. It is significant that when their
plot is ruined by Ariel's intervention, their "excuse" relies

on the strangeness of the isle: "We heard a hollow burst of

bellowingl Like bull~:or rather lions.I ••• It struck mine ear
most terribly." The ease with which the others accept his ;,
excuse, indicates the kind of suspicions they feel about the

place.
 14

They set off again, shaken and distraught. "Lead off

this ground~" Alonso orders. We, as the audience, have been

one step ah8~ of the action in this case, but are still

uncertain why the men were ever given a chance to kill the

king. This is never resolved as the couple never repent outwardly

and the conspiracy is kept secret. The event should perhaps

be seen in the light of Shakespeare questioning the

validity and importance of ambition through this dramatic

medium of magic, as it distorts ~ the face of reality and

manipulat~ events outside of chance. Magic renders their

maliciousness futile and impotent, and the suggestion is that

ambition is also mocked by the dramatist in this way.

The theme of ambiguous appearances lends itself well

to the realm of farce and is developed on a lower comic, but

equally suggestive, level in the next scene with Stephana and

Trinculoo Although the accidents and mistaken identities will

provoke laughter, the main focus seems to be concerned with

the strangeness of perception that is generally being explored

by Shakespeare. Stephano's song is not in a tune that he knows

or recognises: "'1 shall no more to sea, here shall I die ashore.'

»
This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral. He

does not repond to ihe peculiarity with the same esriousness and

fear the courtiers did. Upon meeting_Calibari, he assimilates

his su~rise in an earthy logical manner: II I have not scap'd

drowning to be afeard now of your four legs." When Trinculo

 15

emerges, Stephano is in a state of mind wher~ he c.an believe

anything: "How cam'st thou tb be the seige of this moon calf?

Can he v~nt Trinculos?" His blas~ acceptance of the logiaally
impossible, constitutes an amusing:contrast to the courtier's

responses to the magical events. Although no specific m~gic

is being worked in this scene, the expectation of it influences

their thoughts and expressions: (Caliban)"Hast thou nat dropp'd
from heaven?/ (Stephano) Out of the moon, I assure thee: I was the

man/ i'th'moon·when time was." Deceptio~ and confusion is

still being explored but in a comic vein,and-in this way, a

more insidious, less obvio~s icontrbl over the audience's

reactions is being exerted. In the above quotation, the sit-

uation has been comically reversed where Stephano, the prosaic
Neapolitan, is de~uding Caliban, the creature well attuned to
magic, as well as being half supernatural himself. The creaure's

worshipp~ng of the bottle as "celestial liquor" shows a

pathetic, misplaced idealism, which develops the theme of

confused loyalties and principles. On a comic level, this

infatuation perhaps parallels Prospero's. His final renunciation
. '-
of magic suggests implicitly that his worsnip of it was also

misguided and unwise, as I shall discuss later

The next scene with these three takes on a new note

of seriousness, not only because of the further complicated

plot. The supernatural interventions become more of a challenge

and create confusions that cannet be easily assimilated. The

farcical situation of Ariel speaking for Trinculo succeeds on

 16

the comic level when the latter gets repeatedly cudgelled by

Stephanoo It also develops the theme of ambiguous meaning,

in the argument over lying. Caliban's righteous wards to

Trincula: "I do not lie." elevate him above the level of

counterfeix and pretence because of his simplicity. He £Sll

only express his bare feelings, which in the context of the

play's plot of duplicity and fa~ade, is a virtue. However,

this is mocked in the face of human pseudo sophistication

and "knowledge" when Trinculo sneers: "That a monster should

be such a naturall" Shakespeare hardly offersCaliban as the

recommended "norm", but his straight~forward honesty and i:

narrowness of perception are preferred above the scheming

pretensions of the courtiers. However, this is only a half

truth as both sides are at different times condemned,and

Shakespeare's attitude to the natural savage is never totall~

clear. Caliban's language is often more sweetly lyrical than

Ariel's, which raises the problem of their relative values.

His gentle ~eassurance to Stephano near the end~of the third

act is winning in its expression of trusting vulnerability:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twanging instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me;that, when I wak'd,
I cried to sleep again.(III.ii.I33)

Our attitude then, is divided over Caliban and never resolved

 17

as he deserves neither punishment nor praise finally for

following his natural instincts. His speech also emphasises

the supernatural nature of the island ~hich defies definition.

Back to the dramatic situation, the tunes of Ariel

perplex the two fools despite their denials: " Art thou afeard? /

No monster, not I." Stephano in his confusion asso~iates the

experience with a remembered fairy tale:"I remember the story."

and it is obvious that he is now in a state of semi-reverie,

blindly following Ariel's cues. As Nuttall points out, much

of The Tempest is a study of the configurations different

people put on the events, rather than an entertainment based

on the sensational events themselves. This is illustrated in

~

the next scene in the different characters' ~eactions to the

proffered banquet. Sebastian thinks of his stomach; Alonso

is too mystified and frightened to eat; and Gonzalo is happily

contented'l admiring the gestures of the spirits, perhaps

because he has no moral cause for alarm. The sudden

disappearance of the banquet withA±isl's rebuke develops the

theme of expectation mocked on the dramatic level of the moral

plot. Gonzalo realises the significance a f their horrified

attitudes: "All three of them are desperate: their great guilt/

(Like poison given to work a great time after)/ Now 'gins to

bite the spirits o " Here is an example o~ the supernatural

operating from moralistic grounds and the audience's response

is directed and fixed.

However, the next scene immediately perplexes again,

 18

and the value of Prospero's magical powers is questioned. The

masque of the reapers is conjured for Ferdinand and Miranda

in celebration of their betrothal. There are suggestions

contained within it though, which set it outside its

traditional role of an elaborate visual celebration of love.

R.Egan describes Iris' words as:"~vertly artificial and

calculatedly unconvincing."6 Her description of nature is in

contradiction to the expected catalogue of pastoral abundance

and fertility:

·~To make coid nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass lorn; thy pole clipt vineyard;
And thy sea marge, sterile and rocky hard, (IV.i.66)

Although the rest of the masque is conventional in its

dialogue, its general lack of vivacity, particularly in the

early imagery, promotes a flat "sterile" mood. This accords

well with Prospero's insistence on the preservation of Miranda's

virginity, and perhaps indicates a certain "sterility" in his

aesthetic withdrawal from the world, as I will later consider.

It seems appropriate then, that the masque,which seems to have

been conducted on a slightly discordant note, should suddenly

"heavily vanish •••• to a strange hoilllow and confused noise."

The seriousness, of which I spoke earlier, has suddefflly

imposed. itself upon the light hearted scene, although in

this case, there is a certain nervous tension and awe in the

atmosphere anyway, due to Prospero's command'

 ••• silence1
Juno and Ceres whisper seriously;
There is something else to do: hush, and be mute,
Or else our spell is marr!d(IV.i.I24)

His serious, rather than delighted aspect here, is perplexing

as it suggests a certain tone of menace which should not
normally attend the trivia+,merry demonstration of the
aerial creatures. Prospera's deep depression also seems out
of place in the midst of a marriage celebration; the sudden
recollection of Caliban's ~lot is not sufficient explanation
for it. His thoughts instead, deal directly with our topic:
appearanCBS mocking the nature of true reality. He tells
ferdinand that the spirits were actors, which is confusing
enough in itself, and that they have vanished into "thin air~

However, his thoughts leave the stage and extend over the audience
into life itself in his existential conclusion;
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.(Iv.i.I56)

The dream image is very apt in the play's context as it takes

the questioning of physical reality one step further than the
immediate situation,to contain all of life. Again the
audience's standpoint has been undermined. From the stance of
watching the masque with Prospero, we are now included in his
general vision of life and the dramatic framework has been
temporarily abandoned. Reference to A Midsummer Night's Dream
is useful again here to illustrate, ihrough'eontrast, the type
of security that the audience is not given in The Tempest. Puck's
last words firmly implant the audience in reality and urge
the interpretation of a fictional dream upon them:
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.(V.ii.54)8

There is little significance suggested other than the sheer

entertainment value of the play. The audience, in this
rationalising approach, can confidently suspend its disbelief.
Puck's speech is reassuring, undisturbing and delightful, and
in no way unseats the common sense through a questioning
of reality. In rhe Tempest, suspension of disbelief is not
always possible or adequate, as in this instance, when it is set
aside by Prospera's meditations on the insubstantiality of life.
His ideas are not contained within the supernatural framework
or related to the situation in hand. They extend outside, ,
without explanation and hence attribute a greater seriousness
to the magical scene that has been played out. The speculation
can be set beside other metaphysical utterances by Shakespearean
characters, notably the tragic ones: "When we are born we cry
that we arel Come to this great stage of fools" (King Lear. IV.iv.I83
n,d~~a tale told by an idiotl Full of sound and fury. Signifying
no~hing." (Macbeth.V.v.27) Unlike A Midsummer Night's Dream,
the normal fictional scope of dramatic terms has suffered a
metaphysical revision,for reasons that we are unsure of. Hence,

we, as the audience, suffer that same kind of disorientation I

noted earlier where the dramatic boundaries of credibility
or logical progression have been ignored. Nuttal describes
this feeling as a sense of being "cheated" of our rights as
an audience. The accumulative sense of disorientation and
uncertainty has been built up through unexplained capricious
feats of magic such as the eerie quality of voices and song
in the air, such as the boatswain's report of " •• s trange and
several noises / Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling
chains/ And mo diversity of sounds, all horrible." The peeceful
music of which Caliban spoke earlier is evidently no~

consistent. Other examples are-the unexplained drowsiness, the

sudden lapse of attention in Stephana's song, and the strange
tune they find themselves singing."flout 'em and cout 'em
(Caliban) That's not the tune." These confusions, rather
than promoting the general benevolence of magic, such as
that seem in their "new dyed" clothes, tend to simply evoke
a mood of wonderment and curiosity which is in keeping with
the metaphysical theme I have discussed.
Ey undermining the traditional stance of the audience
in this way, Shakespeare demands a reassessment of values which
will~not accord with the "Romantic" principles that envisage
a life lived "happily ever after". The uncertain conclusion
to the play bears this out. Having forsaken his magic in
preparatation for his return, Prospero seems unnaturally
weak and begs for help, in the epilogu8 0 Apart from the

conventional request for applause, these words convey a

seriousness that leaves one wondering how far The Tempest can
be termed a Romance of a comedy:
Now I want
Spirits to enforce, Art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be reliev!d by prayer,
Which pierces so,that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free'E.'l
\ pJ. ogue o .:r3)
·

The religious terms in the middle section of this speech

-
would appear very misp1tcid in a conventional epilogue which
cieals , on a very superficial level, with the desired
reaction from the audience. Also, this epilogue seems to
take sn a didactic, almost confessionalft-'orm, judging
from Prospera's choice of words: 'crimes', 'faults', 'despair'.
This profllissecl::weakness is too striking to warrant a
metaphoric interpretation for the sake of a conventional
ending. These words are more easily understood as a cry for
help from a man who has learnt certain truths about himself
and human nature, who has put his faith in something which
has proved empty, and who is now bereft of any philosophical form
of comfort. His words to the courtiers emphasise this: "And
thence retire me to my Mi~am, where / Every third thought shall
be my grave." This attitude of resignation has already been
witnessed in the masque scene. Following his long speech which
I quoted earlier, Pro spero speaks of his disillusionment from

the point of view of an old,tired man: "Sir, I am vexed;/ Bear

with my weakness; myoId brain is troubled:/ Be not disturbed
with my infirmity;~ From the point of view of the main
character, a "happy" ending would seem to be very far away
at the conclusion of this play.
Satisfaction in the revenge ~-piliota is also frustrated
at the end o~ the play. The characters are more frightened in~o

submission than moved by repentence. Stephano and Trinculo

are duly sobered by being literally caught in the act by Arie.1.
Antonio and Sebastian are equally dumbfounded by the discovery
of their schemes, but ~o not ~how signs of repentence. Sebastian
has nothing to say to Prospera, thus emphasising his uncbanged,
sullen rebelliousness. The audience is not offered a scene of
reconciliation, but a situation portraying truthful, likely
reactions of real men. Shakespeare, at this point, seems to
have moved beyond the premise of the sonnets that love is
man's salvation. His final philosophy, like the conclusion of
the play,seems to be one of a compromise of discordant elements.
This accumulation of evidence around the supernatural medium
seems to indicate a dissatisfaction with the traditional
benevolence of a love story, and a de~ire to prove that life is,
at best, ethereal and transitory, and at worst, deceptive,
many faceted and not to be idealised in any way.
This leads us into the second related theme of tyranny
and usurpation, 'as this is closely associated with the duplicity
of external reality. There are ,two obvious areas of reference
here, both of which "are defined by the supernatural framework
of the play. These are: Prospero's domination of the elemental
spirits and the witch-born Caliban, and the attempted plots
against himself and ~lonso which are curtailed by Ariel. The
theme is introduced by Miranda's question: "What foul play had
we that we came from thence?" Prospero's bitter account of the
usurpation of the dukedom by his brother sets a general tone
which will be associated with other examples of tyranny when
we meet themQ "foul play"has been suggested early on, and
its seriousness emphasised. Prospero's disillusionment is
evident in his harsh words:
I pray thee mark me that a brother should
Be so perfidious •••
--·he was
The ivy which had hmd my princely trunk
And suck'd my verdure out on't(I.ii.66}

He is obviously still bitterly resentful and is constantly

brooding on the crime o When he accosts Ferdinand and accuses
him of "Usurping" his island, one can believe that for Prospero
it was a crime of the greatest magnitude, perhaps because it
involved a breach of trust. However, by usurping some of the
courtierJ freedom through magic, he sets about to take his
revenge, and to punish the two confederates in the crime.
Herein lies one of the anomalies of the play, that
Prospero should attempt to dictate to others, having suffered
in this way himself. This do~inating behaviour particularly
grates in connection with the innocent creatures, Caliban and
Ariel. In the first act, we hear them both bewailing the loss
of their liberty. "Is there more toil?" asks Ariel, "Since thou
~ost give me pains/ Let me remember thee what thou hast promised/
••• my liberty." Prospera's assumption of control over Ariel seems
to stem from nothing more than an obligation, owed to him by c'

the creature, following his release from the "cloven pine". He

reminds the spirit of this in violent terms to elicit an
apology and a renewal of his vows. Later, he uses freedom as
an incentive, whereby his obedience will be strengthened: "Thou
shalt be free/ As mountain winds; but then exactly do/ All
points of my command." The resentment Ariel feels here is
reflected apparently by the feelings of all the nameless
spirits under Prospera's hand. Caliban declares: "They ail do
hate him as rootedly as I."
His charge over Caliban is somewhat more justified
because of the' attempted .. rape of Miranda, but the imprisoning
within a rock seems unwarranted punishment. Prospero speaks
of Caliban as a slave who oarries out certain menial functions
and for that purpose is of service to them. His words smack of
that easy colonial attitude of expectancy of service from
inferiors: wHe does make our fires;/fetch in our wood and serves
II
in offices/ That profit us. He calls him away from his dinner
merelYrit seems, to curse him. Caliban accuses him of usurp-
ation following his early loyalty, exactly the same history
that Prospera has experienced.
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first,
Thou strokist me, and made much of me; wculd'st give me

','
 Water with berries'ift't; •••
and then I lov'd thee,
And show'dt thee all the qualities of the isle •• o
F.or I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own King.
His simple, gentle attitude of trust, followadby, a,~reas6ned

sense of; 'ciut;cage.seems, at this point to lay the onus of

responsibility and blame on Prospero. Caliban, as I have
already suggested, is endowed with .~. endearing child - like
qualities. When he thinks he has escaped Prospera, albeit
to another bondage, his delight is pathetic and touching:
'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban
Has a new master:- get a new man.
Freedom, highday: highday~ freedom: freedom,
highday, freedom%(II.ii.IB4)

His devotion to his new master is equally warming, in its total

trusting commitment: "Itl~ show thee the best springs. I'll pluck
thee berries,/ I'll fish for thee and get thee wood enough.'
His fate is finally left unresolved other than his vow to
"seek for grace hereafter", which presumabl~ymeans, to show no
opposition to Prospero's will. If this portrayal represents
I

Shakespeare's answer to Montai~~es essay on the noble savage,

then it shows both a sympathy with the latter's views on indiv-
idual freedom, as well as traces of the colonial attitude.
Prospera's control over these creatures is never
considered unjust or wicked by himself, and his reversion at
the end is concerned more with his own aesthetic .ism ~ as I will

discuss. The play is left open ended, with the note of menace
that attends the seriousness of his acts of bondage. The fact
that there is little repent :nce from the courtiers as a result
of the magic tricks, suggests that despite tyranny and domination,
man alone cannot change human nature or the face of reality.
This is realis~ in_Prospero's bitter reflections on his failure
to nnurture~ Caliban: U on whom my pains/ Humanely taken, all,

all lost, quite lost." The reiteration of "all" here, shows

his great sense of failure and disillusionment. His high ideals
have suffered a serious setback, ideals not only fof personal
grandeur Bnd influence, but of faith in the noble qualities of
man. This ean be linked with his utter abhorence of his
brother, in his words of "forgiveness". The influence that
Prospero found in magic, he used to try to effect moral change.
His failmre to do so is shown by his downcast mood at the end.
The impulse to dominate is exhibited by most of
the human characyers, from the boatswain's orders at the
beginning~ to Stephana's at the end; "Monster, lay to your
fingers: or I'll turn you out of my kingdom. Go to, carry
this," This must surily have been intended, by Shakespeare, to
be a comic paralleling of Prospero's domination of Caliban.
Stephano's attitude is as' domineering as was his previous
master's, as Caliban finds out. Antonio and Seb~stian are
impelled by ambitious thoughts which are not dispensed with
finally. Gonzalo's commonwealth perhaps offers a norm of
individual freedom against which the pretensions of the others
may be assessed:
Letters should not be known; riches, povert~,
And use of service, none: contract,succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;'TT : TA~\
\.A.4 • ..L.~"UI
 28

Here, he dispenses with all form of.jocial,hierachy and

servitude, although, as Sebastian points out "he would be King

on't". Shakespeare is hardly recommending a communist way of

life, in the play, as he seeMS to support the hierachical system

elsewhere, SUCM as at the end, when Prospero acc~pts his

dukedom. However, the problem of individual liberty and

men's pretensions over one another is raised and considered

from all aspects. The words "Flout 'em and scout 'em ••• 1 Thought

is free." which Stephano finds himself singing after he has

accepted Caliban as a subject, mock his own pretensions to

power. The words express the fundamental truth that despite

external ~iolence, thoughts and opinions cannot be;.controlled

-as has been shown by Caliban's example.

However, Prospero can conirol physical eve~ts and can

produce a situation which will challenge the character in some

way. In this manner, he engineers the meeting between Miranda

and Ferdinand and encourages her to respond. Hence, it can be

said that he even atte~pts to direct feeling and thought:

II The fringed curtains of thy eye advance I And say what thou

seest yond." His constant, watchful hovering on the borders

of each scene indicates his general role of stage manager of

each situation. The game of chess at the end is a felicitious

symbol of Prospero's attitude towards his victims, as he moves

them around the island like chessmen. This statement would seem

to suggest that Prospero was ignorant of the type of domination

he effected.: "Here have I few attendants / And *8bjicts none
abroad." In contrast to his references to his fate, his
"auspicious star" and "bountiful fortune", Prospera shows through
his example that man can wilfully dominate another's fate.
Shakespeare does not seem to move to any moral position mn this
issue, but seems intent rather, to question and explore the act
of usurpation. He exhibits tyranny from the point of view of
master and victim. He indicates the impossibility of thwarting
ambition in others. This is suggested by Sebastian's lasting
resentment and sulleness and by Caliban's plot against Prospero,
despite the latter's earlier effart~ to "nurture" him. Shakespeare
also suggests, by Prospera's example, the difficulty of ~~'I 1

repressing ambition in oneself. Prospera never seems actually

to reallde how far he has been guilty of a cert~in kind of
tyranny, although he comes to a new wisdom when he realises the
limits of his power, as I will shaw. He has,in fact,
behaved in a domineering way which is similar to his
enemies' former treatment of him.,l '2i 1though he exerted this ::
influence over Alonso and the courtiers for more virtuous reasons
than those which had motivated the latter) retribution rather
than greed: The agencies Pro spero chose did not share ,his
motivation and, hence, were not morally obliged to assist him.
Instead,they were forcibly obliged to partmcipate by Prospera.
This takes me into a discussion of the character of
Prospero, which will develop into a study of the value

J
 30

structure of The Tempest. There are too many variable

elements, some of which I have discussed already, to allow the
play a "Christian" label. (I use the term in an ethical, c.

rather than orthodox sense.) There is some form of benign

charity exhibited at the end by Prospero, but this is heavily
undercut by his tone and attitude which indicate: the behaviour
of an individual rather than a god-like bountiful figure. As
8
Bonamy Dobrae remarks, his forgiveness has a Senecan quality
in its bitterness; "For you most wicked Sir, whom to call
brother/ Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive/ Thy rankest
fault. It An obvious observation is that if he cannot laccept or
assimilate his brother's crime as he suggests, then he cannot
have properly forgiven him. He hardly sympathises with Caliban
for his "faults";!As you look to have my pardon, trim it
handsomely~: and Ariel is released for services rendered with
no response of gratitude. ProspsDo, the name is Italian for
'Faustus') is still too engrossed in himself to be able to
cast a truly tolerant eye over the proceedings. His newly
learnt pess~mism shadows the ending. His cynical reply to
Miranda's delighted exclamation "0 brave new world that has
such people in't I !rospero: Tis new to thee.: undercuts the
expected atmosphere of harmony in reconciliation, and his plea
in the epilogue to "Set me free" enhances this qualific~tion.

These words, in the B' piloguB can be interpreted as Prospero

directly asking the audience for reassurance that he has done
the right thing in taking up the dukedom and abandoning his
magical powers. He is still in grave dmubt about his new
philosophical position of accepting human folly, following
his former retreat from men.
The nihilistic mood following the masque seems to
mark the scene of his "epiphany"~ in the sudden realisation of
his true status and position. The futi~ity of life that he ; r
speaks of here, in his muttered reply to Ferdinand after the
masq,e has vanished,is hardly Christian in its bitter rejection
of all faith in human nature and divinity. I~ is the lament
of; the artist, who having pommitted himself to his
aesthetic ideals throug~ magical powers, suddenly becomes
aware of the hopelessness of his aspirations and the extent of
his egoistical self indulgence.
The essential artificiality of these ideals is
" II
perhaps demonstrated by his general dmpatience and techiness ..
with the other characters. Being se involved with his own
thoughts and schemes, he responds unsympathetically to others.
His behaviour is distinctly anti-social. This can be
demonstrated by his anger with Ferdinand on two occasions, his
treatment of Caliban and his state of irritability in the
opening conversation he has with Miranda: "Dost thou hear?
I pray thee, mark me:,." It also perhaps explains his
inordinate relishing of his revenge: " At this hour lies at

my mercy all mine enemies." His ferociously stern attitude

towards Caliben seems to suggest an almost sadistic pleasure
in exerting pain, He tells Ariel:
Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints
With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews
With aged crampsl and more pinch-spotted make them
Than pard or cat 0' mountain.(IV.i.25B)

I do not wish to sUggest that Prospero is wantonly malicious

but that this extreme behaviour springs inmtially from
unrealised and unfulfilled ideals on how he feels life should
be. His cruelty or harshness is his expression for the intense
suffering he fekls when he cannot organise his life as he
would. He is attempting to construct a world around himself
where he caniii';indulge his interest in white magic> without
regard to others. Having been <betrayed by his brother and
having turned in disillusionment to his1.scholastic studies, he
has now emer~e~ firstly with an "academic" set of absolute
moral values r and secondly with a distmrted sense of his own
power and ability to be able to establish those ideals in his
life style. Failings in others;then, will not be tolerated
in his new aesthetic world view. In the course of the play,
he learns the limits and dangers of his egoistical excesses,
shown by the masque soliloquy, and eventually learns a new
tolerance out of his ensuing self disillusionment.
The study and practise of magic is in itself morally
neutral as it can be used for virtuous or mischievous purposes.
We see Prospero using it to mock the ambitious pretensions
of others seriously, as in the banquet confrontation, and

mischievously, in the hounding of Stephana and Trinculo through

F
bogs. We see magical occurences that bewilder, confuse and
~

frighten, which do not seem to serve any obvious end: the

music, the songs, the harpies, the violence of the storm. In

this way Prospera cannot be wholly respected in his whimsical

use of magic, despite the fact that the whole magical situation

was conceived and set up by him for a dramatioally acceptable

purpose, namely to bring the usurpers to justice. As Derek

Traversi says! "Intuitions of value are encountered in a

context instinct with the atmosphere of ambi9uDuS imagery.~

Magic in TheTmamaeit is not consistently a representative of

the moral norm which measures and judges the actions of others.

Too often it seems an expression of Prospera's moods. Hence,

the supernatural machinery and Prospera's motivation in

controlling it, whether for egaisbical or altruistic reasons,

have been questioned and a firm moral standpoint, denied to

the audience.

The other obvious subject which could indicate some

measure of identification and orientation of values is the love

between ferdinand and Miranda. When compared to the love

exhibited by the other Shakespearean couples such as Romeo

Juliet,' or Antony and Cleopatra, they emerge faded or simplified.

They seem "sweet" or "delightful" (as a reviewer of a'rec~nt

production of The Tempest in London, England,commented ) but

hardly dynamic. Dover Wilson suggests a very convincing explan-
q
ation of this. He calls The Tempest a "father's play", as the
relationship is conducted through Prospera's perception and
illuminated by his comments. His cynicism undermines its value,
shown by comments such as : "Poor worm, thou art infected."
The affair seems to diminish in importance beside other matters
that occupy Prospero. He utters one instinctive blessing
that recalls his old idealism: "Fair encounter / Of two most
rare affections. Heaven rain grace4, On that which breeds
between them~" The play has Prospero and not Miranda at its
centre, and her love is on the periphery of the main
concerns. Prospero and his growing maturity of vision form
the main focus to which all other events are secondary.
This is made obvious in the masque where the major significance
is . Prospero's reaction rather than Ferdinand's. Therefore,
as I mentioned at the outset, Shakespeare has used the
supernatural framework to undermine th. traditional .~aiu.s2of

a Romance, which basically revolve around toe celebration

of human love.
My conclusion then, must be a reiteration of that "
insidious ambiguity that pervades the play and which cannot
be conclusively resolved. Lytton Strachey's conclusion that
Shakespeare was
with everything except poetry and poetical dreams)
been refuted.
.
Itbored with real life, bored with drama, bored
" has I hope,
However, there is some truth in this statement
concerning the "poetical dreams", as the play can 'be seen to

represent Prospera's playing out of a dream which is eventually

shattered and rejected for reality whatever that future might

involve. for the purposes of this thesis, I cite Dover

Wilson's eVidenceITthat the last part of the play to be

written was the masque which was "added for the second court

performance, given for the nuptual celebration of the Princess

Elizabeth early in 1613. 11 Prospera's speech 8esms inseperable

from the masque as it is directly related to it, and hence would

appear to be the last note sounded by Shakespeare. His mood of

dissatisfaction with temporality and impermanence and his

gensral uncert~inty concerning the status of human life is

in keeping with the speculative material that I have traced.

One could feasibly present this speech as articulating

Shakespeare's philosophical attitude underlying the whole play,

following the themes and the characterisation of Prospero,

which as I have shown are at best ambiguous and pessimistic.

I must realistically conclude however, that there are

sufficient "delightful" and convincing elements in the play to

support the termllRomance s , such as the wooing of Miranda, the

dance of the spirits, the reconciliation between Alonso, Gonzalo

and Prospera. This supports my argument that The Tempest is

a "problem play», as the two sides (Romance and non-Romance)

co-exist simultaneouslyo In the final analysis, to use Nuttall's

words: "The minutely perceptive scepticism of The Tempest

defeats the stony allegorist and the rigid cynic equally." 19~
 NOTES

I
A.D.Nuttal, Two Concepts of Allegory; pp.I38-16o.
2Ibid • p.159.
31 -take the type of magic Prospera uses to be the polarized
opposite to that used by the witch, Sycorax and the witches
in Macbeth. He has the same type of control over nature
but does not exercise it for evil or wanton ends, and hence
his magic can be labelled 'white' rather than 'black'.
4William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Arden edition. All further
references will be to this edition.
5Twentieth Century InterpretatioMs of the Tempest,ed. SMith.
liThe Tempest", Bonamy Dobrae. p. tf-l
6
"The Tempest: A Problem Play,," R.Egan •. 5hakespear·eah..
Studies. VII.

'I rwentieth Century 1nterpretations of The Tempest; ed .. 01V\L-I:h.

~Derek Traversi, Shakespeare: The Last Ehase~J p.I08.

q Dover Wilson, The Meaning of the Tempest. p .. lI.
10. I bid. p. 24 <)

II Ibid. p.23 4 ' . .... ••

IaA.D.Nuttel~ Two Concepts of Allegory. p .. I4o·

 II

HAMLET

The ambiguity of the ghost has been attest.ed by

the vast number of critical theses put forward over the last
four hundred years. Many of these explanations are convincing
but finally inadequate as they usually involve some distortion
of the text, or some kind of "special pleading~. The initial
problem seems to be whether or not the ghost is a "spirit of
health", or something in the nature of "e goblin damned",
whether his exhortation of revenge is to be admired or
condemned. from this stam divergent theories on the cause of
Hamlet's wild behaviour. These interpretations are accordingly
either sympathetic or depreciatory, depending on the moral
status of the ghost.
We are presented with conflicting arguments on this
issue because of the popularity of the revenge tradition in
the Elizabethan theatre. Critics, such as Dover WilsoQ~

preeeed on the assumption that revenge was drama~ically

if not ethically desirable, and that Hamlet's failure to

conform to the traditional Renaissanse response formed the root
of his dilemma. This involves, however, some eJaborate
rationalisation, on Dover Wilson's part, of the first act,
particularly the "cellarage scene",I if his argument is to hold.
Alternatively, critics such as Miss E. Prosser have

presented convincing "nrnn~" ~hA~

.... --~.. _ •• _ -
~he
----
Eli7abethan~~
-------~ ~---- #'
in fact.
--- #'
did not support the action of private revenge and that the· \'

revenge tragedies of the time exhibit this through a dramatically

operative Christian code or an implicit condemnation of

2
revenge. She then proceeds to emphasise the darker elements _

surrounding the ghost's appearance to articulate a convincing

thesis that Hamlet, not unlike Macbeth, is ':incited and "led on"

by supernatural visitations. She directly compares the dramatic

functions of the two supernatural agents, the ghost and the

"we;rd sisters", when she cites Banquo's statement as an

explanation of the ghostls"honesty!': "Tis strange/ And

oftentimes to wan us to our harm/ The instruments of darkness

tell us truths." An obvious objection to this argument is that

the onus of responsibility is somewhat shifted from Hamlet if

we are to understand him as a helpless victim caught in the

clutches of a stronger power. It also impltes some maliciousness

on the part of the ghost which seems to undermine the whole

essence of tragedy, namely:the initial act of choice by the hero.

Hamlet would be denied this choice, from this reading. These

two alternative paths of argument, from this initial

orientation of opinion on the ghost's nature, proceed to classify

Hamlet's less rationAl behaviour as either an "antic disposition"

interspersed with hysterical loss of control (Dover Wilson),

or·as the "natural outcome of the savage course to which he has

committed himself"J(Prosser). Both readings testify to the

fundamental dramatic importance of the ghost as a moral

representative- of either good or evil.

It seems that the interpretation finally rests on

a choice of stage direction for the ghost. There is dramatic

scope in the speeches to support both a pitiful, saintly

style of delivery as well as a vicious, calculatedly obscene

manner. If the entire speech is read in the former manner, the

pace of .the play is liable to slacken. Speaking of a performance

in London.'-in 1824, Tieck noted that the ghost spoke its part

as if it were a "cold blooded lecture", usin~ a "slo~, dull,

3
monotonous recitation, accompanied by hardly a gesture." Also,

the more violent passages in the long speech tm Hamlet will

seem misplac~d in such a reading. Alternatively, the second

reading, although more dramatically exciting, will be forced to

overlook or rationalise firstly, the passages which are obviously

sympathetic in tdne~ for the ghost, such as its final

appearance, in Act five, in a night shirt,secondly, the fundamental

integrity of the ghost's message. i.e. that Claudius did in fact

deserve punishment, and finally, the Christian forbearance

P 1 ea d e d f o r G
e r t ru d e. . t
As b 0 th 1n t:. t
erpre~ .
10ns appear to b e

lacking in some way and are also .~utually exclusive, it

seems that affresh look at the material is called for, perhaps

in the light of this very ambiguity.

The limits of m~ thesis do not warrant an exploration

of Elizabethan pneumatology and my study will be confined only

to the dramatic effect of the ghost)which is timeless. I will

carry out a close examination of the scenes in which the ghost

appears and reassess the dramatic cues the audience are given

for their judgement of it. following this, I will attempt a

brief reading of the character and behaviour of Hamlet, in so

far as it is enlightened by the dramatic presence and influence

of the ~host.

My thesis is that the ghost plays a far larger role

than merely instigating the course of the play's actio~ through

the news it brings. This can be well illustrated at this point

if one considers hypothetically, the difference that would be

made to the dramatic and thematic quality of the play if the

news bearing function of the ghost was enacted by a witness of

Claudius' crime, a servant perhaps. Technically, this would not

affect the main movement of the play which is concerned

primarily with Hamlet's response to the knowledge. However,

Hamlet's subsequent preoccupations and behaviour would become

progressively more baffling and his actions, finally unacceptable

in their brutality, outside the context of his initial encounter

with the ghost. This would suggest then that the revelation itself,

although obviously crucial to the plot of the play, is not

otherwise of the first dramatic importance. In fact, as is made

clear, Hamlet already harbours suspicions of his uncle's villainy

before he is told of it. Speaking of the recent accession and

marriage, he says in his first soliloquy: "It is not nor it

cannot come to good". Also, he reponds to the news with the

 ejaculation: "0, my prophetic soul", As I will proceed to show
then, rather than the message itself, which is half intuited
by Hamlet, it is the words of the ghost, its appearance and its
significance as a dead person that form the dramatic features
that come to dominate Hamlet's behaviour and indeed, the whole
mood of the play.
First then, a close analysis of the early scenes,
with a view to highlighting that very ambiguity that critics
have struggled to overlook or deny with copious rationalisations.
In doing this, I will follow 5.Johnson's reasoning: "I have
always suspected that the reading is right which requires many
words to prove it wrong."4 If it appears dramatically
obvious that one explanation of the ghost's moral status will
not hold, then the ambiv~lence should be acknowledged and apprec-
iated.
The playJopens with a startled, shouted question
"WhoJs there?", and an equally distrustful reply: "Nay,
answer me. Stand and unf.old yourself." This exchange sets the
tone of mistrust and duplicity which is to form one of the
main dramatic moods of the play. The point that is evident
immediately is that the sentinels are frightened, despite the
fact that they would normally be accustomed to the long night's
vigil. francisco!s statement that he is "sick at heart" is
not amplified, and before Horatio's question' "What, has this
-.: thing ,appeared again tonight?·' the impression has been
established that the night seems to harbour something fearful
and unhealthy. Throughout this scene, Shakespeare seems

careful to emphasise the objectivity of the witnesses and the

setting, which will contrast with scene iv,where we will be

prejudiced by sympathy for Hamlet. In this first scene, we are

offered various rational criteria for assessing the integrity

of the ghost. Horatio's scepticism establishes the initial

attitude towards the spectre and sets up a norm of scholarly

mistrust. His spontaneous fear at the supernatural sight does

not negate this impression, and the tenor of his words

articulate his suspicion of a malignant spirit who has

wrongfully assumed a familiar form:

What art thou that usurp'st this time of night

Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee, speak.
Marcellus: It is offended.(I.i.45)

Marcellus is quick to make the connection between the ghost's

"stalking off" and the mention of heaven. Horatio's reply

expresses a menacing sense of foreboding: "This bodes some

strange eruption to our state." This comment and the next

speech concerning the harbingers of fate that anticipated

Caesar's assassination, can be understood to suggest that the

ghost is represe~tative of natural order, which will rise up

against an evil feature in the state in order to purge it,in

a similar way to the diseased landscape in Macbeth, which reflects

moral disorder. The audience might assume here that the

ghost's appearance signifies a disruption of natural order

which must be righted. Hence it could be understood as a

"minister of justice". Horatio's questions enforce this. They

also recall the traditional Catholic reasons for the return

of a spirit from Purgatory. One of the~e comes near the truth:

"If thou art privy to thy country's fate / Which haply

foreknowing may avoid,/ 0 speak." The later revealed"honesty"

of the ghost on this point would seem to suggest that it was

a benevolent spirit who was sent on some kind of divine mission •

••
The next occurence, however, seems to deny this
A

as the Christian context is deliberately evoked for judge-

ment on the ghost. When the cock crows,it "starts like a guilty

thing upon a fearful summons." Horatio refers to it as an

extravagant and erring spirit" who is recalled to its confines

because of the imminent dawn. Marcellus goes further and

expressly states that spirits who roam at night and "dare not

stir abroad" during daylight are "unwholesome". The specific

reference to Christmas day when "no witch hath power to charm"

confirms the Christian criterion which is being set up to

"place" the ghost. His comment also describes popular

superstition and he reduces the ghost to the same level as the

amoral fairies and witches.

At the end of the first scene then, the audience

will have a confused and probably superstitious attitude

towards the spectre. It has failed the Christian "test" in its

fear at the word "heaven" and its disappearance on the cock's

crow. It has appeared fiercely frowning in martial armour and

 45

seems arrogant. However, Marcellus describes it as majestic;

it ~ommands awe and respect through its reticence~ In

conjunction with the preparations for war which are mentioned,

it has also been suggested that it could be a precursor of some

direful phenomena which it wishes to either avert or warn

against. Various indications then, have been given for an

assessment of its nature and motives, and uncertainty will

probably be the main reaction of the audience. The next scene

in which it appears will be dominated by Hamlet's credulity

and our objective evaluation of its significance at this point

is obviously dramatically necessary.

Apart from this important objectifyin~ function, the

scene builds up the atmosphere and mood of suspense which is to

be maintained. The ghost scene, followed by the aively court

scene sets the pulse of tension followed by release that operates

throughout. The sequence of events is thus arranged to heighten

the suspense to the utmost. Significantly then, it is not to

Hamlet's reception of the news chat we are now taken, but to

the court and apparently 'urrassociated matters. Apart from

our tension and nervousness which grows as we await Hamlet's

reaction, this distancing technique also serves to present

an alternative point of view which will conflict with our

sympathy for Hamlet, later on. Hence, our introduction to

Hamlet is from Gertrude and Claudius' point of view. This

objectifying p~oces~ . indicates the way in which our sympathy

will be manipulated for and against Hamlet in the course of the

play. Incidentally, the suspension has become so pr longed by

the time Hamlet speaks ,with Horatio that Shakespeare can make

use of it through dramatic irony:

Hamlet: Methinks I see my father.

Horatio: Where, my lord?
~amlet; In my mind's eye.(I.ii.I85)

The themes that are established in this court scene

throw ligh"€ on the second appearanc~ of the ghost~ They are

.,
important in that they portray the character of Claudius and

the temperment of Hamlet, before the midnight encounter. Firstly,

the rational, glib manner and tone of Claudius' long speech is

reminiscent of Milton's Belial. As L.e.Knights says: "We need

know nothing of Claudius' previous activities to react to those

6
unctuous verse rythms with so~e comment such as: 'slimy beast!."

(Therefore) Have we, as ~twere with a defeated "joy,

With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole
Taken to wife.(I.ii.IO)
Secondly, Claudius' propensity for alcohol and his condonement

of revelry is emphasised, and is referred tOi\again by Hamlet

before the meeting with the ghost. Hence, we see a rather

debauched kingdom, which is headed by a suspiciously diplomatic

man. However, as Wilson Knight emphasises; on the dramatic

level, the court business seems to be thriving and the state

appears to be healthy enough, despite the fact that the audience

will be anticipating some sign of disease, following the ghost's

appearance. Although the war has been mentioned again, it has

been dealt with positively by Claudius. The only suggestion
of social discord or sickness is the black robed figure of
Hamlet, who is shown to be exhibiting "unmanly grief", while the
rest of the court seems to be in a state of repressed gaiety.
In the same way that our first view of the ghost was two sided,
in that we were made aware of its sinister qualities, so here,
we are offered a point of view that will not accord with
Hamlet's attitudes. De~pite his U~ily" manner~ Claudius' does
n6t dramatically appear as co~rupt as Hamlet weuld believe.
Hamlet's soliloquy illustrates his deeply
melancholic state, following the shattering of his two
life defining ideals: the noble example of his father, who
has died and the sacredness and purity of womanhood, which
has been defiled by Gertrude. The important point to
nmtice here (for my purposes) is his tendency to dwell on
sensuous, nauseous imagery in reference to Gertrude's second
marriage:
••• "Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. 0 0 .
As if increases of appetite had grown
By what it fed on ••••
e • • 0, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets.(I.ii o I35)
It is clear that :,.wha,t is Iforemost in his mind is the
obsession with Gertrude's infidelity and not grief for his
father's death. He is quick to link moral dishonour with
physical filth and decay, an association which is established
significantly before he listens to the ghost's wards. I am
here anticipating my thesis which will be that Hamlet only
selects certain things t6 respond to in the ghost's "advice".
His imaginative susceptibility to the connection betwiaen.sin and
physical corruption has been confirmed. The following scene
where he hears of the appearance shows his willingness to
commit himself to what,the night will bring, and his attitude
suggests a certain recklessness: "I'll speak to it though hell
itself should gape / And bid me hold my peace." The final
couplet in this scene anticipates bmsiinteJ1·pretaiion~pf"the

ghost as a moral agent which has been sent to restore order%\

"foul deeds will rise / Though all the e'EthoJerwhel~ them, to
mens eyes." Before the encounter then, we are aware of the
ambiguity of the ghost's purpose, the impressionability of
Hamlet's imagination and the relative affability of Claudius,
as compared to Hamlet's prejudiced opinion.
The first part of the ghost scene (I.iv.) supports our
original dramatic impressions of its dubious nature. Hamlet,
upon sight of it,is as terrified as the others were: "Angels
and ministers of grace defend us~ This spontaneous cry for
divine protection suggest~ that he is facing an evil opponent.
Hamlet's complete confusion as to what ·it rep.resents indicates
the "quBstionability" of its Bxtetior. His language is shot
through with violent imagery that is suggestive of a voluntary,
brutal visitation, on the part of the ghost:
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death
Have burst their cerementa; why the sepulchre .-,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws
To cast thee up again.(I.iv.47)
The sight makes night "hideous" and "horridly" inspires "thoughts
beyond the reaches of our souls". Hamlet's words as well as ~ ..

the fears expressed by Horatio stress the possible maliciousness

and devilment behind the ghost's motives:
And there assume some other horrible form
Which might deprive your sovereignity of reason
And draw you into madness.(I.iv.73)
His next words confirm Hamlet's recklessness and near hysteria:
"He waxes desperate with imagination." Before the ghost speaks
then, the audience will be more than half convinced that the
ghost harbours some hideous, wicked inten~,and secondly, that
Hamlet,in his desperate state, will be thoroughly responsive
to whatever is to occur.
The following conversation between them depends
entirely for its dramatic effect on the tone of voice in which
the ghost speaks. His first speech can be understood as a
deliberate heightening of the mystery and terror of hell or
purgatory, in order to gain Hamlet's sympa~hy. Having reached
a peak of emotional fervour, he pauses, for effect, on the
moment of revelation: "List, list, 0, listl"~ before springing
with violent intensity onto the iteration of the crime itself.
Alternatively, the words can be read self piteously and tortuous~Ye

Either way, Hamlet's attention is rapt. The ghost's words: "I

find thee apt" can express a sinister irony, after he has mani-
pulated Hamlet into this position with his colourful rhetoric.
Having announced the purpose of the visitation
"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder", the ghost
 50

immediately anticipates Hamlet's delayed action and insinuates

an attitude which Hamlet later adopts towards his hesitation:
And duller should'st thou be than the fat weed
That rots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf
Would'st thou not stir in this.(I.v.33)
The insinuation of sensuousness in these words is picked up
later by Hamlet when thinking of hisfldullness", and reinter-
preted in terms of self disgust: "Yet I I A dull and muddy
mettled rascal, peak I Like John-a-dreams unpreg~nant of my
cause." The words "dull", "muddy", "unpregnant", seem to
vibrate with the type of imagery used by the ghost, Hamlet
seems to have subconsciously identified with the fat, rotting
weed of Lethe. further, the ghost begins his exhortation
.t h
W1: If 1ft hou h as t na t ure 1n
. t h ee, b ear 1. t no t 1II Nature can
he interpreted as "manliness" or "spunk" and in this context,
can be seen as expressive of the same approach Lady Macbeth
used to incite Macbeth:
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were you would
Be so much more the man. (Macbeth. I.vii.52)
"Nature" can also be understood as "filial pietY"ror rki~8hiplf.

However, Hamlet seems to respond to the challenge of manhood

in his soliloquie~ as I will show, and its source can be traced
back to this initial supernatural suggestion. In the
soliloqu)eS J he meditates intellectually on the conflict between
the passions of the blood and the dictates of his reason, ( see
Miss Prosser) or as Dover Wilson will have it, between the
 dictates of the Renaissance code of honour and his natural
instincts which are abhorrent to murder, (My concern here,
is to show the terms in which Hamlet understands his dilemma,
rather than the dilemma itself.) He admonishes himself as a
coward because of the hints dropped in the ghost's speech:
"Am I a coward?", "For it cannot bel But I am pigeon livered
and lack gall\ "Why, what an ass am I." These reproaches make
his attitude clear. Cowardice, not reasoned restrain:>" i·s· seen
't by ~Hamlet·.as the basic- impediment..of ,:h;i,s,'revenge g
Later, we see him distorting the example of
Fortinbras' behaviour to reflect against himself. He initially
recognises the Norwegian prince's behaviour as reckless and:
futile:
Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
Will not debate the question of this straw.
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace.{IV o iv.25)
"Imposthume", meaning "abscess", indicates Hamlet's fundamental
repulsion to the sight of the Norwegian army marching to
invade Poland: "a little patch of ground." He recognises the
aggression as caused by boredom and restlessness as much as by
hornour, as is shown by the tone of this image. However, the
example of opposite behaviour to his own, serves to remind
Hamlet of the tenor of the ghost's advice: " •• and duller should'st
thou' be •• II , and he distorts the occasion into a condemnation of
his own weakness, which he comprehends, not as noble restraint,
but as cowardice : "How all occasions do inform against me I
And spur my dull revenge. 1I Notice how the word "dull" has been
picked up from the early scene and is reiterated throughout
as a term of self reproach and laceration. His language in
this soliloquy seems to significantly articulate his moral
objection to Fortinbras' attitude to war, despite the fact that
he finally rationalises it as bravery and "honour~i

Witness this army of such mass and charge.

Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit,with~di~ine a~bition; puffe~.
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure •••
Even for an eggshell.(IV.iv.47)
These depreciating images. an arrogant figure pulling a
scornful face at his fate, and the victory described as an "egg
snell". in fact work against Hamlet's intention at this point
and subt\] show the dilemma operating on the subconscious level
of imagery in speech. (The same thing can be seen to happen in
Hamlet's inapproproate similes in response to the call of revenge:
Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love
May sweep to my revenge.(I.v.26)
Even at this point, his doubt" and hesitation to carry out revenge
is anticipated.) The ghost's image of fat weeds nodding on
the banks of Lethe serves to imaginatively convince Hamlet}then,
that his intellectual hesitation is not admirable but cowardly
8
and despicable:"Hince conscience doth make cowards of us all."
He understands "h6nourV it seems, as martial pride. I would
prefer to call this~"vainglory" as Hamlet stresses that it is
important only for its own sake, rather than for any integrity
of motive or result o
 ~T, •• ~Rightly
to be great
Is not to stir without great argument
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honour's at stake.(IV.iv.53)
The ghost's attitude to "honour" seems to be the initiil

catalyst of this main theme of intellectual torment and reckless

decision.

The tenor of the ghost's next speech to Hamlet in

this same encounter (I.v.4If) is striking in that it assumes the

same attitude of physical emphasis that Hamlet had attempted to

blot out in his mind in the earlier soliloquy. "Let me not

think on't", he had cried, sighting, perhaps, a danger of mental

imbalance if he were to pursue the kind of associations he

was setting up, as I have discussed. The ghost, however,

directs his attention to it:

So lust, though tb a radiant angel linked

Will sate itself on a celestial bed
And prey on garbage'(I.v.55)
Hamlet is forced to review his mother's infidelity in terms

of sexual impetuosity and physical corruption, terms which

will recur again and again in his speech. This image of sexual

wantoness becomess easily transfered to Ophelia, as is seen in

Hamlet's words to her in the "nunnery scene": "You jig and

amble and you lisp ••• and make wantoness your ignorance." The

tenor of his words to Ophelia is shown to reap tragic

consequences when her "gibberish" reflects the same kind of

language in her bawdy songs. Imaginative identification does

not stop with Hamlet~

Then up he rose, and donn'd his clo'es,

And dupped the chamber-door,
 Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.(IV.v.5I)
The closet scene with Gertrude particularly reflects imagery

which is very similar to that used by the ghost, and shows Hamlet's
1\
obsessive association of sexual wantoness with physical filth:
"
"Do not spread the compost on the weeds / To make them ranker."

He uses the very same garb.age image as the ghost, as I quoted

earlier. What begins as a context for repulsion at sexual

freedom, develops into a general medium of reference for

judgement on any moral issue. This can be seen in his image of

Rosencrantz as a nut in~a monkey's mouth "first mouthed to be

last swallowed", and as a sponge: "It is but squeezing you and

sponge, you shall be dry again." His direct cynical statements

exposing dishonesty, deception and flattery are mostly termed

within this very physical frame of reference.

This can be traced back further, to the initial

emphasis placed on physicality, when we look at the next section

of the ghost's speech,(I.v.65f.) which seems to deliberately

indulge in a vision of disease and decay. Significantly, this

part is usually "cut" by directers who wish to promote a sympa-

thetic, "gentle" ghost, because of the insistence on the morbid

details of physical decay:

So did it mine,
And a most instant tetter barked about
~Most lazar-like with vile and loathsome crust
All my smooth body. - , ( I.v.70 )
As well as pursuing the emphasis on corruption in sensuous terms,

this descipticn initiates Hamlet's absorption with the body's

decay. The catalyst seems to have been the significance of the

ghost as a dead person, who can describe the actual event of

death. Hamlet's jibes to Claudius concerning Polonius' decay,

suggest strongly ~. note of hysteria because of the intensity

of his vision of dead matter::

(At supper) Not where he eats but where 'a is eaten

A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him •
••• We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat
ourselves for maggots'(IV.iii.I9)
Similarly, in the graveyard scene, his bizarre suggestion to

Horatio shows this tendency to brood over the image of death

and waste: "Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of

Alexander till 'a find it stopping a bung hole?" (Horatio:)

"T'were to consider too curiously to consider so." Horatio's

re~~y perhaps indicates the dangerous mental path Hamlet is

following and as our norm character, establishes a reasonable

judgement on Hamlet's temperment at this point~

The ghost's vocabulary then, sets up an entire context

t
of identification for Hamlet's moral repulsion, his interpretaion
-'\

of his "duty", and his pessimistic musings on the equality of

all men because of the fact of death:three central themes in

the play. As L.C.Kgights expresses:it? it is not that Hamlet

is wrongly condemning a debauched kingdom, but that there

exists a "particular vibration" in the saying of it. He is

fascinated to the point of infatuation with what he condemns,

because of the emotional light thrown on the situation by the

ghost. We can SBe then, that the imaginative "heart" of the

play is dominated by the ghost's orientation-6f~values-arld

attitudes. He calls not on Hamlet's sense of outraged piety at

the usurpation of the throne, but on his disgust at the

incestuous behaviour of his mother and uncle. His final

exhortation is: "Let not the royal bed of Denmark be / A couch

for luxury and damned incest."

Having focused Hamlet's mind very powerfully on this

vision, the ghost's next words can again ring with that same

irony I noted earlier: "But howsomever thou pursues this act •• "

~not~ce that Hamlet is not recommended to use specifically

Christian justic~ "Taint not thy mind." The speech seems to

have been designed precisely to taint and infect to the utmost,

~

as I have shown. His final command:~"Remember me!" can also

be effective as an ironic understatement. Hamlet's reply shows

that not only will he do this, but he will wipe away all "pressures

past" from his memory, "and thy commandment alone shall live."

L.C.Knights has admirably stressed the "all" in this speech, as

significant of Hamlet's total concentration on the ghost's

message:

There is a terrible significance in that repeated"all", .

for what it means is that Hamlet does not merely see
the evil about him, does not merely react to it with
loathing and rejection, he allows his vision to activate
something within himself - say, if you liKe~ his own
feeling of corruption - and so to producs that state
of near paralysis~th~t so perplexes him
IO
The point I wish to make is that this p~ralysis is born

within him be~ause of his response to only one indict )ment in

the message: the condemnation of Gertrude, despite the ghost's

last wards about her. 5igni~icantly, Hamlet's first words are

about Gertrude: "0 most pernicious woman." His fertile

imagination has been fired and captured by the sensuous images

which will dominate his vision of Denmark and blind him to the

objective reality and demands of the situation. His

reason is forfeited for a course of unreflected. destructive

action because of his initial inability to see clearly.

The followinG "cellarage" scene serves to impress

upon the audience firstly.the apparent malignancy of the ghost Q

(see footnote I ) Hamlet's jibes come close to the tone of

faustus' attitude towards Mephistophiles: "Well said, old mole!

Can'st work i'th' earth so fast?" Secondly, Hamlet's hysterical

temperment is clearly illustrated by Horatio's levelling

comment~ "These are wild and whirling words, my lord." I do

not wish to imply that Hamlet is "gazing with fascinated horror

at an abyss' of evil" (L.C. ~r'lignts fP As ·thlaVe already

ment&oned, his subsequent cruelty, indifference and insolence

would lose much of its impetus if occasioned by a deliberately

malicious and misleading agent of evil forces. I have described

mainly the dubious. actively sinister elements exhibited b~

th~ ghost. However, the variety of ways in which the ghost has

been handled on stage testifies to a number of possible choices.

The manner of delivery has been mentioned. Many of my quotations

could be under. toad sympathetically, such as: "Taint not thy

mind." The main point which seems to command respect for the

ghost is his Christian forbearance towards Gertrude shown in

the early and later scenes which cannot be feasibly denied.I~

 It will be noticed that the dramatic effect of the
ghost differs greatly between the first and fourth act~.

Following his early martial, ferocious appearance, he now

appears in a nightshirt and seems considerably weakened in
spirit and purpose as he reminds Hamlet again of his "purpose".
We seem to be intended to respond to the "pitiful action" and
the gentleness of the ghost, rather than to any veiled or
malicious speech as before. In attitude and manner, it
ressembles most clearly the traditional figure of a spirit
from Purgatory who cannot rest until vengeance is effected.
The dramatic function for this sudden change appears to me to
be designed to throw the utmost emphasis on the extremity of
Hamlet's irrational behaviour. The reduced figure of the ghost
stresses the unwarranted extent to which Hamlet has
imaginatively responded to the ghost's words, and exceeded
or misdirected the behaviour prompted by him. Hamlet is
suddenly viewed in his true colours, for all his ugly
obsessions and sordid preoccupations. Just before this third
supernatural appearance, Hamlet's words have reached a pitch. of
hysterical, obsessive _ fervo'ur = 'c,

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseam;d bed
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty stY-{III.iv.92)
He is shown as having no compassion for his mother, in the
same way that he had flouted Ophelia's innocence earlier with
his obscenities. Hamlet, by comparison to the gentle "harmless"
ghostly figure, is totally lost to the fever of his corrupting
visions and at this point is on a lower moral level than the

ghost. This can be paralleled with the contrast between Hamlet

and Claudius after the play, where Hamlet's hellish thoughts

far surpass the impression we are given of Claudius at that time.

r should perhaps stress here, the obvious point

that despite his obnoxious behaviour, the audience's sympathy

is still with Hamlet because of his initial high ideals of

integrity and aesthetic purity. His outrage at the knowledge of

the crime commands an obvious sympathy, and his ideal vision of

chastity and fidelity can be repect$d. Claudius' words, in the

prayer scene, are appropriate to descibe Hamlet's tragic course:

" 0 lim~d soul, that struggling to be free / Art more

engaged." The more Hamlet tries to articulate his ideals

and bring them into effect, the more his actions bring about

distress and ruin, because of the very intensity of his vision

of evil, which loses all sense of perspective. Hence, Shakespeare

ie very intent on presenting an objective as well as subjective

view of Hamlet, through contrast. The barbarity of his behaviour

is vividly illustrated in a dispassionate, rather than sympathetic,

manner constantly. Why else are we forced to dwell on Ophelia's

pathetic madness and death if not to be shown the tragic outcome

of Hamlet's surrender to evil, the evil that paradoxically~ "

repells him? It is also important to remember that during Hamlet's

speech to Gertrude advising self control, the body of Polonius

is visible throughout, at his feet, itself a terrible indictement

on the irony of his words.

 As a result of the ghost's initial suggestions which

have fired Hamlet's imagination, his self control has collapsed

and in striving to assert order, he creates more chaos. As

Wilson Knight convincingly illustrate6I~ Hamlet's imagination

or soul has become diseased by the taint of the ghost; he is a

sick soul who is commanded to heal,and hence, in order to act

?

as the "minister" of heaven, must also be its »scourg~".

We are presented then, with a double perspective for

judgement of Hamlet, The objectifying scenes, such as the first

three in Act Four, impress us with the consequences of his

behaviour. His actions themselves testify to his unwarranted

savagery, such as his murderous intentions towards Rosencrantz

and Guildenstern, which are carried out: "I will delve one yard

below their mines / And blow them at the moon." Yet the nature

of his "disease" is such that it partially -excuse"s -'hie "madness n.

In the same way, the ghost has two sides, and at different times

must be criticised, fear,Bcl,~ respected and sympathised with.

His appearances and message contain potentially life-and death-

giving elements as regards Hamlet's mental balance and the health

of the state. Its message i,s theoretically to be respected,

(see Dover Wilson's thesis) and dramatically' to be shunned. Its

appearance is both startling and soothing. It is perhaps

too obvious an observation to point out that had Hamlet responded

only to filial outrage and brought Claudius to public trial, the

ghost would be considered an instrument of justice. The fact

 (, ( I

that this could feasibly have happened indicates the potential

for good effects in the ghostts exhortation. In choosing to

respond to the vocabulary rather than the central purport of

the request, Hamlet chooses self destruction.

To conclude, as Wilson Knight remarksI~the play is

not abo~t indecision but rather, death and corruption, two

fundamental themes initiated by the ghost. The shadow of the

ghost falls across the whdle play, not only as I have shown,

primarily through its influence on Hamlet's intellect, but also

on related levels of atmosphere, mood and tone. The questionings,

pretences, tricks, covert theories and the various fagades

exhibited by almost all the characters are prepared for and

illumiated by the ambiguous character and intention of the

t
9 h os. • t cone l
C • 5'. 1.1. ew~s '
us~on 1.5 seems t 0 a dm~ra'
' bl y summarJ.se
. my

thesis on the fundamental dramatic importance of the ghost:

The Hamlet formula, so to speak, is not: 'a man

who has to avenge his father t , but:ta man who has
been given a task by a ghost. t
 FNOTES

Inover Wilson, What Happens in Hamlet? p.36. Wilson argues that

Hamlet's conversation with the ghost beneath the battlements is
intended to ressemble a discourse with the devil so that the
witnesses, particularly Marcellus, will be terrified into
silenc~, He suggests that this is the first evidence of the
"antic disposition" which is calculated to confuse. As Miss
Prosser points out, if this is the case, Hamlet "aets" so well
that the audience, like Marcullus, is equally confused and
suspicious of the ghost. A more feasible ~dramatic" reaction
would surely be to respond to the ghost as a devil if in fact
he is behaving as one.
2 Miss E.Prosser, Hamlet and Revenge. pp.36 -73.
3
Ibid. p. 243.
4
Ibid. p./HI
5 l .~, ,.

J. Paul SR .. Gibson, . 5hakespeare'.scUs.e",of, the SupeJulattaral

~p.I33. Ke associates this characteristic of Shakespeare's ghosts
with an indication of intended respect for their motives.
6
L.e.Knights, 50me Shakespearean Themes and an Approach to Hamlet.
p.I83.
7
Wilson Knight, The Wheel of Fire. p.I7.
8
E~ther interpretation of ffconscience" fits my reading: either
"consciousness" or moral "conscience" in the modern sense.
9
L.e.Knights, Some Shakespearean Themes and ari~Approach to Hamlet.
p. 196
10
Ibid. p. 188.
II
Ibid. p. 188.
12
Miss Prosser, Hamlet and Revenge. ~;.I96. She argues that the
ghost's words, in the closet scene: "Step between her and her
fighting soul" (III.iv. 15IJ imply, by dictionary definition:
"To come between, by way of severance, interruption or
interception,"(O.E.D.) She argues that the ghost deliberately
prevents Gertrude's repentence and in so doing, commits her
to hell. This logical argument does not seem to accord with
the dramatic impression given of the ghost" at this time.
13
Wilson Knight, The Wheel of Fire. P.39.
14
Ibid t.4-~. .
15
e.S.Lewis, "The Prince or the Poem?" Shakespeare's Tragedies. p.65
 III

·'.MACBHTH

A study of the supernatural material in Macbeth

presents us with the two main areas of dramatic interest that
I have already defined i~ Hamlet and The Tempest. A discussion
of these, prefaced by some comments on the type of supernatural
powers the sisters embody, will form the main divisions of this
chapter.
These two areas are as follows. firstly, the supernatural
medium represented by the weird sisters and Macbeth's subjective
visions provides the main source of moral challenge for the hero
in a similar way to the type of ghallenge Hamlet and Pro spero

experienced.';Ihe_bupernatural is~p~~tinent to the moral

universe that we see operating in the play, as I will show.
Secondly, the type of magic the sisters employ establishes the
dramatic imaginative principles upon which the play is constructed.
1 refer here to the main themes of equivocation and mocked
expectation as well as to "tonal" factors such as atmosphere and
mood. This is introduced by their opening chant. "fair is foul
and foul is fair " and is similar to the type of ambiguous
appearances that the magic in The Tempest afforded. In both 2
plays, the deception and uncertainty provided by the supernatural
mediums form the predominant structural mood.
However, the differences between,_Macbeth and the other
two plays as regards the treatment of this ambiguity should be
indicated at the outset. The questioning, confusion, doubt and

insecurity is restricted to the perception of the characters

only in Macbeth, and does not extend its ambiguity to the

audience's apprehension, as it did in The Tempest and Hamlet.

In these two, as I have shown, the nature of Prospero's

magic and the character and intentions of the ghost are

deliberately baffling to the audience in order to broaden the

theme of deceptive appearances. The powers and motives of the

weird sisters are made dramatically obvious before they exert

any influence and there is no undercutting or questioning on the

primary dramatic level where the supernatural beings themselves

are ambiguous. The characters within the play are fearful and

confused but the audience's standpoint is secure as each

occurence is made logically acceptable. As I will show, Macbeth~

rather than being reliant on subtl~ties of shifting levels

of reality (like The Tempest' ).oron the complexities of defining

a sensitive psyche (D.ike Hamlet)lachieves its dramatic success

through a naDI:'OW , well,·defined structure which is the more

dynamic and powerful for its simplicity and directness.

I will first show how the role of ~he sisters can be

clearly comprehended before moving on to a discussion of the two

areas of dramatic interest thatvare informed by the supernatural.

I am not concerned with the problem of a literal definition of

the sisters, whether they be Scandinavian norns or real witches,I

but rather with'their moral status which is established early

en. For my purposes, Curry's definition of the sisters will

serve: :±ragic creatures who "for the sake of certain

abnormal powers had sold themselves to the devil."2 Their

ritualistic behaviour and speech around the cauldron indicate

their attachment to a demonic cult which would be generally:.;

termed "witchcraft". Their supernatural characteristics such

as vanishing and forecasting the future would, judging from

d ocumen t ary eV1. d ence, . d b y th e or1g1na

3 h ave b een recogn1se .. I

audience as apprppriate to witchcraft. What concerns u~ in

this thesis is their pbjactivepresince as testified by Banquo,

~nd their dramatic function as agents or mediums b.tween man and

powers of evil or the "devil". They are women who indulge in

4
black magic for their own whimsical pleasure and a certain

sense of sadistic power. Banquo neatly places them for us

following his encounter with them:

But ~t±s-6tr~nge:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of Darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to be;ray's
In deepest consequence.(I.iii.I22)5
This quotation outlines the main dramatic focus of the

supernatural in"Macbeth'( which is the extent to which it

dominates and influences the main character, not the curiosity

it prompts for its own sake, unlike our interest in the ghost

in Hamlet, provoked by the very reason of its unspecified

character and motivation.

The dramatic characteristics of the witches can be

easily enumerated. The opening line establishes the kind of

demonic sisterhood they share, that they should be dependent

on the elements: "When shall we three meet again?! In thunder,

lightening, or in rain?" Their chant, in its careful r~ythm

and alliteration sugges;ts they are casting a spell: "Fair is

foul and foul is fair:/ Hover through the fog and filthy air."

Their chant over the cauldron later on, reaffirms this: "Double,

double toil and trouble:/ Fire,burn; and cauldron, bubble."

Their conversation together before Macbeth meets them,expresses

the malicious amusement they indulge in. The first witch'S ~,

threats of violence to the sailor in Aleppo whose wife would not

give h~r chestnuts demonstrates effectively the type of

whimsical mischief they employ. This is not unlike the type

of mischief embodied in the fairies Ariel, Puck and Queen Mab,

tne difference being that here it is more consistently

motivated by malicious intent and not high spirits. An

important point in this scene suggests the limits of the

witches'power. They can play with the elements and other

natural powers in their control but cannot change the face of

events or alter the future. "Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest tost." The confines of their power then,

are clearly defined and emphasised before they exercise any

influence on ~acbeth, and the audience can be in no doubt

concerning either their character or their status. Their

dramatic function seems to be to provide the initial setting of

a gothic "landscape" and to thereby give credibility to the

strange "natural" phenomena that occur such as the sun's eclipse.

They are important in so far as they provide an imaginative

coherence for the main themes of expectation mocked,and the

spreading national "disease"~ Most important is their function

in initially articulating to Macbeth the moral challenge

which is then developed on a more subjective level. In all

cases, the sisters are necessary for what they initiate and the

powers of evil they symbolise, rather than for what they are

themselves. As Coleridge;says: "The true reason for the first

E. e. openin~ appearance of the w. ,rd sisters is to strike the

6
keynote of the whole play."

I will now turn to the character and career of Macbeth

and indicate the extent to which our comprehension of,and sympathy

for, him is defined and measured by the supernatural material.

In a paper entitled:"Shakespeare's Tragic Villains"! Wayne Booth

explores the ways in which Shakespeare manages to retain sympathy

for the villainous hero without lapsing into"punitive tragedy"

as he recognises RichardAII~ to be. He demon~trates that the

audience responds to the moral decline of a great man who

once has been virtuous. He praises Shakespeare's achievement

of choice of how to present the moral decline:

He has the task of trying to keep two contradictory

streams moving simultaneously: the events showing
Macbeth's growing wickedness and the tide of our
mounting sympathY'a

He demonstrates how Macbeth is always shown apart from ~is

crimes, that we are never confronted with the physical

spectacle of Macbeth committing murde~,how his poetry marks

him out as worthy of our sympathy, how Lady Macbeth partially

shoulders some of his guilt through inciting him by false

argument. What he does not mention however, is Macbeth's

relative innocence through bein9 "set on" by the sisters. The

extent of this influence seems to have been deliberately kept

uncertain and indeed, the suggestion of helplessness in the face

of diabolical prophe.cy increases our sympathy for Macbeth.

Qn this point, we are presented with various critical

interpretations that dispute the extent of Macbeth's guilt.

Although everyone recognises his definite susceptibility

to the idea of promotion, as this is made clear in the contrast

between his and Banquo's reaction~to their respective prophecies,

many critics seem to sense a certain helplessness on the part

of Macbeth which cannot alt0gether be termed "weakness". Wilson

Knight describes Macbeth's fascination with the supernatural

in terms of instinctive compulsion:

Macbeth may struggle but he cannot fight. He can no

more resist than a rabbit resists a weasel's teeth
fastened in its neck. g

Knight comprehends evil, in this play, as having a dynamic will

of its own,as is supported by the imaginatively sympathetic

natural landscape which seems to respond in outrage to Macbeth's

crimes. A:C.Bradley testifies to that same sense of compulsive

obedi~nce to some stronger force:

"Macbeth embarks on his career of crime

with anguish and reluctance as if it were an
appalling dutY.IO .

Macbeth then, seems to be motivated by three

apparently mutually exclusive forces. The first is his strong

sense of moral obligation dictated by his active conscience.

His awareness of the moral significance of his actions is

reiterated throughout and serves to mark him out as an acutely

morally sensitive character:

And Pity, like a naked new born babe,

Striding the blast, ••• ,--~ ~
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.~(I.vii.2I)
There are numerous examples: his horror at being unable to

reply "Amen" to the chamberlain's prayer, his "hallucination",

(more of which I shall discuss later); his insomnia and his

general accelerating frenzied fear which, in its intensity,

suggests more than mere fear of defeat. The second motivational

force, his ambition, seems to be contained in a vacuum, as he

desires promotion and yet would not venture for its gain.

Professor Muir points out:

Macbeth has not a predisposition for murder. He has

merely an inordinate ambition that makes murder
itself seem to be a lesser evil than failure to
achieve the crown.
II
The third force that impells Macbeth is harder to

define and probably contributes to the attraction of his

character for us. It attributes to him a depth of sensitivity

and intellect that some critics only recognise in his "yellow

leaf" soliloquy and in the judgement of Lady Macbeth of his

"~ilk of hum~n kindness". It is the extent to which he is

"enchanted" by the witches through fascination at their power,

and through his irr~sistable attraction to their promises

concerning himself. Lamb's famous passage on_.Macbeth testifies

to this:

From the moment that their eyes first meet Macbeth,

~e~is:spellbound. That meeting sways his destiny.
He can never break the fascination.
I2
This is not to say that he is therefore rendered innocent of his

crimes. His independent choice of this course is made clear.

However, existing alongside this decision is his preoccupation

with his potential greatness as promised by the supernatural

powers. Bradley's description of anguish and reluctance is

relevant here as Macbeth seems to anticipate his failure and

yet wilfully pursues it. This is well expressed in his image

of the over eager horseman: "Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps

itself and fallon the ather (side)." He realises the

obsessiveness of his fervour and yet will not act against it.

Some drive within him forces him on beyond his better

judgement, and it is this complex semi-conscious state of mind

that provides the intensity o~ the play. This, as I will show,

is developed through the more subjective supernatural visitations

he receives. The tension betweRn compulsive desire and reasoned

moral restraint is established immediately after the sister's

encouragement has been reCeiVBQ:

Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man,
That function is smother'd in surmise
And nothing is, but what is notO(I.iii.I37)
The "horrible imaginings " of his ambitious nature are at odds

with his moral principles to the point of near mental anarchy.

 '7/

Banquo's words "Look, how our partner's rapt" emphasise the

power of Macbeth's imagination by drawing attention to his state

of extreme preoccupation.

The development of the play shows a man embracing

his fate which he knows to be set against him, and yet which

he will compulsively pursue despite the propestations of his

imaginative conscience. Much of Macbeth's interest for us

exists in his almost wilful refusal to recognise and accept his

own sensitivity, ,He i\!JnoreEntbe~.diootates ·of.· his moral reason

and also the circumstances of his power. He knows that Banquo's

sons are to succeed him and yet defies that fate, trusting in

the juggling equivocations of the sisters against his better

judgement.

The two subsequent "visitations" are subjective and

seem to articulate the moral conscience that he strives to ignore.

In responding to Lady Macbeth's taunts about his manhood,

Macbeth had replied~ "I dare do all that may become a man;/

Who dares do more is none." By putting f,ai th in manly courage

and underestimating the sensitivity of his imagination, Macbeth

allows himself to be driven to the murder, on spurious grounds.

In this way, he separates two sides of himself and trusts in his

more superficial qualities such as physical prowess. Hence the

series of images commence that testify to the lack of correspondence

between natural and familiar objects: limbs being envisaged as

acting independently of the body, and illfitting garments which

will not lie still. As Professor Muir points out:

 72

The opposition between the hand and the other organs

and senses recurs again and again. Macbeth observes
the functioning of his own organs with a strange
objectivity~ In particular, he speaks of his hand
almost as though i t had an independent existence
of its own.
I3
On an imagistic level, these expressions articulate the

unnatural division he has imposed between his desire and his

moral reluctance~ "What hands are ~here7 he: They pluck out

mine eyes." He describes his crime as if his hands had

acted against his will, to the horror of his eyes that

witnessed it. He exhorts the eye to wink at the hand.

His footsteps seem to be divorced from him! "Hear not my steps,

which way they walk for fear / The very s~ones prate of my

whereabout." This tension is expressed by Angus towards the

end. He refers to Macbeth's inability to accept or carry

through the role he has chosen:

Now does he feel his title

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.(V.iii.20)
Menteth replies accurately:

Who then shall blame

His pester'd senses to recoil and start,
When all that is witDin him does condemn
Itself for being there?(V.iii.23)
This statement aptly describes the type of inward conflict

that Macbeth faces.

Both "visions" ~xpt~s~ the moral conscience that he

is ignoring, while containing within them, elements of his

ambivalence of pu~pose. The "air drawn'! dagger, with gouts of

blood upon it, demonstrates to him the savagery of his intended

 73

murder and yet, while it avoids his hand and seems to lead him

toward Duncan,represents his inner defiant impulse to walk into

damnation. Significantly the dagger would seem to be detached

from him, to the point where some productions have actually

shown a physical dagger before him. This seems,to me, to lose

that element of intensity that is created by suggesting that

Macbeth's overwrought mind has responded with this image.

His attitude of suprise and terror at the sight develop that

theme of unrelated correspondences of which 1 spoke. His mind

presents him with a symbol of his purpose, while his eyes are

horrified at the realisation of it.

Macbet~,however, will not recognise this moral

ptesentiment and rationalises it as fear: "It is the bloody

business which informs thus to my eyes." This is the same

process that he employed to overcome his initial reluctance to

murder Duncan, in the scene with Lady Macbeth. His "~ublic"

reaction to Duncan's death accords well with this interpretation

as he expresses grief with a genuine sincerity. His words seem

heart felt and indicate the way in which his personal philosophy

is changing:

There's nothing serious in mortality;

All is but toys; renown and grace is dead:
The wine of life is drawn and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.(II.iii.93)
This heart sickness seems too appropriate to Macbeth's mental

state to be contrived. Murray descibes that same sense of the

action working against the intention that I discussed earlier

in reference to this speech:

He intends the monstrous hypocrisy of a conventional

lament for Duncan: but as the words leave his lips
they change their nature and become a doom upon
himself. He is become the instrument of the ~equivocation
of the fiend / That lies like the truth~I4

Our sense of Macbeth's "split personality" is becoming

progressively _ stronger.
~
The second subjective supernatural occurence is the
~

appearance of the ghost, Banquo;5 and the timing of ,its

appearances is relevant to the ambivalence in Macbeth that I

am ~~aci*~g~. In the same way that he had plunged recklessly

into the murder of Duncan despite this premonition, so, during

the banquet, in his courage and self confidence, he seems to

deliberately court disaster by speaking of Banquo: "Were the

grac'd person of our Banquo present" (Enter the ghost of Banquo)

It is dramatically suggested here that Macbeth had succeeded in

summoning his ghost. Upon sight of it, Macbeth reacts in terror

wttih feeble protestations of innocence: "Thou canst not say, I

did it." His horror is vivid and real and shows strongly his

susceptibility to imaginative symbols. On recovery though, he

swings sharply back to his former reckless self assurance and

defies his apparent power of conjury by deliberatel~ invoking

Banquo again: "Would he were here." He is compelled to exploit

his own supernatural powers by sheer recklessness and bravado,

despite the knowledge that his success will appall him. This

second summoning of Banquo provides the main support for my

interpretation of Macbeth's demonic obsession. It is as if

 7~

his ego insists upon this kind of behaviour t while his more

selflesS,90mpassionate side revolts against it. His horror,

on both occasions here, springs, not from his visual torment

at the sight of the bleeding Banquo t but at the recognition

of his murderous behaviour, in all its brutality. I agree

wi'h Wilson Knight's thesi~6that these two supernatural

visitations, (in Act lI.ii'.and~IIL.iv.) represent subjectively

his moral repulsion at his crimes. His be.haviour in both

cases shows a wilful embracing of that terror with overtones

of masochism, as well as a complete failure to comprehend the

significance of the appearances or visions. In the c6nfrontaiion

with Banquo t he again understands his fear to represent cowardice

and the rationalisation begins anew:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

The arm'd rhinoceros t or th' Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my. firm nerves
Shall never tremble: •••
••• Why,so; - being gone,
I am a man again. (III.iv. 99)
He can shrug off ~~is fear as effectively as he initial~y

suppressed his reluctance to murder Duncan. He explains the

banquet horror in this way: "My s~range and self abuse/ Is the

initiate fear that wants hard use,. / We are yet but young.·.. in deed. II

He concludes that he simply needs more experience. In a sense,

this is true t since he is not troubled by his conscience in

this way again, having virtually denied it out of existence.

Therefore, at this point, a change occurs in Macbeth's

vulnerability& The knowledge that he is "in blood / Stepptd

in so far that should I wade no ~ore / Returning were as tedious

as go o'ar " gives rise to a total abandonment to his

commitment to evil. It is as if he has finally and effectively

crushed his moral pangs in this last act of braien confrontation.

When he next visits the siste~,he takes control of~the discussion

and orders their compliance. His bold greeting indicates this

change of attitude in his total lack of fear: "How now, you s~cret,

black, and midnight hagsl" Here, he defies universal chaos

in his desire to know his future. He insists on security,

despite his knowledge from their first prophecies that he is not

to be granted it. The contradictory assurances he is given

confirm him in his commitment to his advance, and this

statement expresses his decision to become bolder and more

immediate in his actions: "From this moment / The very firstlings

of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand." He now has

almost completely become the insensitive person that he desires

to be in his bloody course of action, and the pathos of the scene

of the Macduff household comes ;iiose" to turning the tide of

sympathy against Macbeth.

His final soliloquies show signs of his early

sensitivity. Bradley says:

To the end, he never totally loses our sympathy.

In the very depths, i ijleam of his naiive love
of goodness and with it a tinge of tragic grandeur
rests uoan him.~
• J. (

However, the mood of surrender, rather than regret,as expressed

in these last speeches modifies my sympathy. He never attains

a recognition of the nature of his obsessions but understands

finally how he has become trapped on a level of existence

that offers no release from its mental restriction. This is

seen in his unemotional response to Lady Macbeth's death:

She would have died hereafter:

There would have been a ~ime-for such a word.-
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time'(V.v.I7}
I find the following explanation of this mood very

convincing in its recognition of Macbeth's failed potential:

'Hereafter' is purposefully vague. It does not mean

'later: but in a different mode of time from that in
which Macbeth is imprisoned now. 'Hereafter' in the
not-Now, there would have been a time for such a word
as: "The queen is dead", but the time in which he is
caught is tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, one
infinite sameness. 'e. for his wifcits deatD to have
some meaning, there needs some total change, - a
plunge across a new ab-yss into a 'Hereafter"IB

Macbeth, having chosen a destructive course which p~ompts __

a negative reponse to creative thought,cannot respond

in a positive emotional manner to the news; the greatest he

can do is to recognise his flatness of vision. The subsequent

heartsickness can be compared to Prospero's, both men having put

their faith in vain, empty ideBl$. These words of Macbeth

express basically the same vision of ~:life's transitoriness

as seen in Prospera's masque speech, only here £~e~~~Bke~a~more

extreme expression because of the tragic context, as opposed to

the semi- Romantic form of The TempestJ

 Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothingo(V.v. 24)
Macbeth can be compared to Hamlet in the extent to
wbich he is ignorant of his own weakness, and his susceptiblity
to supernatural suggestion. In both, the supernatural agents
appeal to an almost unconscious vulnerablity in the heroe5
This initial influence is then developed by them, independent
of the original stimulus. In th~s way, the ghost and the
sisters cannot be "blamed" for the tragedies. They both have
in common an ability to confront the main characters with a
challenge or attitude that neither can resist. In both, this
confrontation seemed designed to put the hero to the test
and not to wilfully cause ruin or chaos. Both plays testify
to the ultimate power,;,of which the mind is not in control
and which is is symbolised by the supernatural. Hamlet
and Macbeth both find themselves influenced against their
better judgement through some innate mental disposition which
is drawn out insidiously by the ghost or the sisters. However,
the second "half" of the tragic pattern is dependent on the
volition of the main character, having been set up against the
challenge. The element of free choice is all important and only
in so far as they are shown to act freely without real constraint,
do they a~tain full tragic status. However, in both cases, the
supernatural provides the ambiguous "escape clause". as one must
decide how free the two characters are in the face of
some independent moral order working in nature which Macbeth's
savagery has set in motion. Lennox's description follows the
murder)and the association between this and the troubled natural
environ~ent S66ms warranted. The latter is shown to be
sympathetic to tha moral innocence that has been outraged by
Macbetlil, e~i.dBnced by the long darkness that shrouds the
country, the savagery of the animals and birds against their
own kind, and the howling and groaning that is reported
which seems to be drawn from the very ground itself. Although
this is not directly the work of the witches, this upheaval
in nature is conceived in the same imaginative terms as those
that define the sisters. In the following quotation, the
medium of superstitious magic,that Macbeth speaks of,serves as
a dramatic construct or context in which all the events are
depicted:
-Now o'er one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtained sleep: Witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's off'rings; and wither'd Murther
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy paoe,
With~Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost.(II.i.49)
The personification of inanimate things and actions, here,
emphasises the type of dramatic "landscape" Shakespeare employs,
on which to set Macbeth's career. The witches are an essential
part of that setting as their trafficking with the "devil"
requires that suspension of disbelief that the subsequent events
also rely on.
 Hence, it can be dramatically acceptable that
Macbeth's crimes have literally atained his country. This is
demonstrated not only by specific accounts of unnatural
events,as mentioned above, but also by the notion of national
disease that is maintainedttbroughout, of which Macbeth is not
in control but which his crimes seem to have initiated. He says
to the doctor:
If thou could'st, doctor, cast
The water of my land, find har disease
And purge it to a sound and pristine health
I would applaud thee to the very echo.(V.iii.SO)
The image is pursued by Angus, speaking of Malcolm's force as
the ~healing ~otion":

Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal

And with him, pour we our country's purge
Each drop of us.
Lenn~: Or as much as it needs
To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.(V.iii.27)
It would be helpful to an understanding of the'
dramatic funetion of this theme to compare .-wilth_it Shakespea:tetfL
treatment· of a simila±- cri,n:ce:gt in !:!.amlet e This is the theme of
corruption in Denmark that is portrayed through Hamlet's
apprehension. In_Hamlet, the subject is conveyed only through
the hero's consciousness,whereas in Macbeth, we are ponfrobted
with a physically,diseased landscape which is presented
o~jectively, outside Macbeth's point of view. The corruption
then, is dramatically taken one step further and becomes literal
rather than imagined. This is described by Ross and Lennox
and can be supported by certain stage effects such as storm~
supernatural prophecy and corruption.
I would now like to turn to the other area of
dramatic supernatural influence that I indicated and discuss
briefly some of the ways in which the play is based on the premises
of ambiguity that the sisters establish. It is common in
productions of Macbeth to present ~he three sisters on a
balcony or raised platform, to·sun~y the whole action of the
play. Although this .st~ge· direction runs the risk of
attributing too much responsibility to the sisters for Macbeth'S
behaviour thrpugh suggesting that they are stage managing the
whole action, it does impress dramatically the extent to which
the play is imaginatively controlled by the type of evil they
propogate. Firstly~he popula~'~ type of magic they~use,(shown

by their language and their ritualistic chantings) is directly

correspondent to the unnatural phenomena that occur the night
of Duncan's murder. Lenno~'s description of the nightts events
envisage the same kind of riotous evil spirits the witches call
up:
••• and as they say,
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,
And, prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to th' worful time, the obscure bird
Clamour'd the livelong night.(II.iii.55)
The similarity of the gothic setting would seem to suggest that
the witches had summoned the night's tempest~ However, it is
made dramatically clear that these events were caused more by
darkness and shrieking sounds. Roman Polanski demonstrated in

his film version of Macbeth the extent to which t.~ film

medium can enhance this sense of a supernatural setting.

This contrastin.g treatment indicates the tlrJO very different

types of plays we are dealing with. The~~brld of Hamlet is

basically realistic; the conflicts are internal in so far as the

passions do not extend to nature itself. The universe of Macbeth

is founded almost totally in the imagination. This is not to

say that it calls for the same kind of suspension of disbelief

as required by The Tempest, where we saw the interaction of the

realistic and the fantas~ic. In Macbeth,,'a reallstic situation

is c6nceived in imaginative terms which serve to intensify the

effect of his crimes, rather than to fantasize them. This

can perhaps be described as a type of inverted realism where one

feature of the situation is distortedly exaggerated~to portray

more vividly a psychological truth. As Wilson Knight says:

"The logic of imaginative correspondences is more significant

and more exact than the logic of the plot."I9 In this dramatic

unity, in this close correspondence between setting, mood and

theme, i t is perhaps the most dynamic of the tragedies because

of its limited scope and therefore more intense impact. In

Macbeth, more than in any other of the tragedies, we visualise "a

universe travailing for perfection~~20as Macbeth's crimes are
shown as having perverted the elements, the birds, the animals

and the land as well as his own society.

The attendant theme of the reversal of expectations is

developed throughout on the level of dramatic irony, as well as

in the action itself. The supernatural setting Shakespeare has

chosen lends itsilf well to the theme of deceptive appearances:

The maxim: "fair is foul and foul is fair" is demonstrated at

2\
almost every turn of the action and dialogue as L.C.Knights

thoroughly explores:

It is fitting that the final movement of the reversal

that takes place in the last act should open with the
command of Malcolm to the camouflaged soldiers; -. 11
"Your leavy screens throw down, And show like those you are.
. ( V.vi.I)
The supernatural in Macbeth forms the basis for Shakes-

peare's dramatic structure in toto. It initiates the action,

it articulates the moral content, it propagates the dominant~moods

of distrust, ambiguity, deception and fear, and offers a medi~m,~

of chaos and hauoc that is fundamental to our apprehension of

Macbeth's career. In this broad sense, it is appropriate that

the sisters who embody the source of this energy, should be

presented as onlookers of the action.

 :. ~;~ "; NOTES

I
Spalding ,.JJ.ll§lbtg_·than....D"f'dUpnolg"gX. He deals adequatl31y with this
qUBstion of definition.
2 Cur ry J s t~~~.,fL"E!:riJ,QJl9l1bi.,f;ia(21~1 p • 6 I
3 R aginald Scot 1 I!:lfLlLi,sc,Q¥~:'.:L§ of..JrJi tg,!l£.f,Ef J'!...t. p" 6 I" "These can
pass from place to place in the air invisible ••• they ride and flfa
in tho air.
4 5sB footnote 3 in chapter I.
r.::
"'~1illia!Tl Shakespeare, t1ac£~.b., Arden sdi tion. All further: :csferences
will be to this edition.
65.T.CGleridget9Jl~k~~ea~ar~~,p.6B.
7§hsj,!s:8~~aJ':!1§Jl..frr,.Ellledies, ed. Lerner. p. I80f.
el 1bid • p.I84.
9\~ilson Kni.ght 9 l,he..JJheel_of Fj:l:£.·, p" I 53"
I~.CoBrad18Y, S~~~~~~r9~~' p.350~
IIIntrodwction to Arden ed. ~a£bethJ p. Ivi.
I2-, . ,
1:13.0. r~-j
'J8
13 Ibr;>'.J...!(1.J f) l't') (, )'·"x·,·
.~." ~
,-,x"

14 ' ..
Murr8~l j
e

::;!l.i?.Js.esLLsai'8 i ' as repri.!l:ted. in Arden introduction. fl. irv

I5 See I~WvRodgers, §h~~ts_i.n"~D_~~~t p.38-46. He closely
identifies the appearance of Banquo with documented phenomena
concerning wraiths~
16WilsrJl1 knight: flbJLJ:Lt!.,~§,l_J?.LJ:",ill,p /l"i,g. G

17A. C ~ Bradley ~ Sb.i:d(8s.l}JlliJ;:£illL.Ira~.. p.1 0,1 .

18 l\~urray ~ ~5 hf~JfUll~M.~j>
k " pc. 3':)5
.J ..

19 Wi 1:sofl KiiJ_grn: t .lhB.Jr~tuzfL..QL Fir.§. , pI> r 41.

20 I OJ.,c
'·1 e .!-
C \/1·"
lio : .i. .•

2 I L • C ~ Kn i 9 h t 5, eS O.J!JJL1ill.92dlR,~CL,1l:L~m£.EL..9..lJ..<i..illL..8.p.Q£!;?Sl c h t g.Jt~mlE!.l'~ p ~ I 0 ~j ,.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIHAHY SOURCES

Shakespeare, William. The Tempes\, ed.. Frank Kermode .. London: He thuen , 1962.

lLamlet, ed. Cyrus Hoy. New York: Norton Inc9 19630

Macbeth, ed.. Kenneth Muir. London: Methuen, 1958.

Works, ed. P.Newdigate. London: Odhams, 1957.

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Bradley,A.C. Sh~ear~an Tr~e~~ London: Macmillan, 1971.

Clark, Cumberland. :?hakespeare's US!'l. t)f the SuperE!itural.New fork: Haskell

House, i971 ..

Coleridge,S.T, ~akespea~ean Criticism, Vol I. London: bveryman, 1961.

Egan,M.F. The Ghost in Hamlet. New York: Books for Libraries, 1951.

E11iot,G.R. Scotrrge and Minister. Durham, N.Carolina: Duke University Press, 1951.

Gibson,J.Paul S.R. Sh~(espeare~ Use of the SUEern~!t~al. London: Bell, 1907.

Knights,L.C. ~ Shakesp'e~~~rrhem¥s and an Approach to Hamlet. Harmonds\'lorth,

Middx: Penguin, 1959.

Lerner, Laurence,~d8 Shakespea~e's Tragedie~e Harmondsworth, MiduA : Penguin, 1968.

Nutta1, A.D. ~ Concepts of AlleJiorle London: Routledge ffi1d Kegan, 1967..

Prosser,E. Hamlet and Reven.E£. London: Oxford University Press, 1967"

Rogers,L Qh.osts in ShakesDeare," Chicago: Theo .. I3ks. Co. 1925..

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 86

Smith,H ,ed. Tvlentieth Century Interpretations of liThe Tempe'21". Englewood

Cliffs, NevI J"ersey: Prentice Hall. 1969..

Thiselton Dyer, Rev. Eglk ~ore in Shakespe~. New York: Dover Publications, 1883.
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Wilson, Dover. ~eanin&. of "1J].e Temnestll .. Newcastle: J.Jiterary and

Philosophical Society of Hewcastle, 1936..

-------- Vhat Happens in Hffi~o London: Cmnbridge University Press, 1935..

Wilson Knight,G. The \Jheel of Fire.London: I1ethuen. 19'12.