Witchcraft and Supernatural Themes Present in Macbeth

During these modern times, with movies such as “Harry Potter” and “The Covenant” (both movies are based upon groups of children being cast into the magical world of witchcraft and wizardry) we see witches as magical beings with spells, potions, wands and regular quidditch matches. We do not see these individuals as the awful and disgusting creatures that were exiled in the sixteenth century. Throughout the Elizabethan Era more than sixteen thousand men and women were prosecuted under the belief that they were practicing witchcraft or associating/worshiping the devil. William Shakespeare knew of the hysteria upon the subject during this time and he recognized the fascination King James 1st had with the paranormal and mystical aspects of the world, and with that knowledge he composed the play “The Tragedy of Macbeth”. Throughout The Tragedy of Macbeth, there are many themes present. One of the most significant of the themes displayed would be that of witchcraft and the supernatural. This can be verified by exploring what exactly caused the witch hunts and when they began, who was accused of witchcraft and the punishments that followed as well as the relevance of these factors within the play itself.

The first of the witch hunts in Europe were held at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The problems stemming towards the witch hunts had been brewing since the end of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In which, the Catholic and Christian Churches began prosecuting members of their diocese to the regard that they were thought to be sorcerers, worshipers of Satan as well as accused of sodomy. The prosecutions continued, and branched out to homosexuals, those of Jewish faith, lepers and heretics (heretics were persons who had beliefs or theories that were strongly at variance with those of the mainstream church). This was only the beginning of what was soon to be one of the largest exterminations during the Elizabethan Era. Throughout the first prosecutions of