THE SUPERNATURAL ELEMENT IN SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare makes an effective use of the popular superstitious and beliefs his time in many of his plays. Belief in the supernatural and wonder at the inexplicable mysteries of death was largely shared by the Elizabethans. Shakespeare is said to have introduced the supernatural elements in his plays in order to cater to the tastes of his audience. One would wonder at the way in which he blends the natural and the supernatural elements in the plays like The Tempest.
Attempts to depict supernatural beings rarely succeed. Sometimes the characters are merely beings to whom human instincts and feelings are attributed, and who are therefore not supernatural at all. Some times they are allegorical figures, expressionless, and impersonal. Sometimes they are a jumble of inconsistent elements : the author’s imagination, working outside the sphere of nature, has lost its bearings altogether. None of these faults are seen in the delineation of Ariel and Caliban in The Tempest.
In introducing the witches, Shakespeare adopted a popular dramatic convention. The Elizabethans believed in the existence of witches and considered the evil creatures. Shakespeare has transformed the most common place devices into tools of great dramatic value.
The role of witches is therefore very important. It presents comprehensively, the author’s vision of evil. In this play, Shakespeare has treated the supernatural in two ways : They are (i) the human with supernatural powers (Prospero) and (ii) the supernatural beings (Ariel and his spirits). As the supernatural element is predominant, it has a strange effect on the nature of the play. There is no scope for the development of character even though the plot is developed.
In Macbeth, the supernatural element acts as the instrument of darkness (and talks in a double sense). The philosophy of the witches is ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ and we find that atmosphere in the whole play. The play opens with the supernatural and the conversation of the witches spells a darkness over the entire play.
The supernatural in Hamlet fills the whole play with a deep mystery. It diffuses an atmosphere of awe through which the tragedy looms more impressive. It is a reminder of the existence and immanence of the more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our every day philosophy. The ghost in Hamlet is a representative of that hidden ultimate power which rules the universe and the messenger of divine justice. Unlike the ghost in Macbeth and Julius Caesar, the ghost in this play is not the hallucination of a single individual. It is objective and has a “real existence outside the sphere of hallucination”.
Shakespeare has created the supernatural element out of the existing Elizabethan Tradition, by selecting, improving, omitting the ridicules, loathsome, heightening and refining popular superstition.
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