Superstition: Suicide and Macbeth

Superstitions can make people do crazy things. In the tragic playMacbeth, by William Shakespeare, superstitions play a great role. In the play there are three witches that supposingly can predict the future and have some great power. Macbeth and many others put much faith into what they have to say. Many would plan their actions solely on what the witches predict. These days that kind of thing really does not happen. Most people plan their actions based on what they want. In Macbeth's time most people relied on superstitions as a way of life, but these days most people do not.

In the play everyone seems to rely heavily on what the witches have to say. Everyone has a common belief that the witches know all and that they should trust what they say. Macbeth is one of these people. He puts so much faith into what these witches have to say that his mind begins to play tricks on him. At one point in the play Macbeth has a man named Banquo murdered. Of course the witches already new this and his conscience began to play tricks on him. He thinks he sees the ghost of Banquo. He gets so wrapped up in all this superstition that he begins to go mad. In this day they did not have all the advances in science and studies that we have today and therefore did not have much of choice to not believe in these superstitions.

These days we do not see as much belief in superstitions as they did then. There still are some believers today, but they are not as strong about it. Small stuff like not opening umbrellas indoors or lucky rabbit's feet still go on, but nothing life changing like the witches. People are much more educated these days and have good grasp on reality. In the play people went to the great lengths of even murdering and committing suicide just based on these crazy superstitions. It was not just superstitions that made them commit these actions, but that is where the trouble all began. One small superstition got stretched into a huge one and pretty soon people would just