In the seventeenth century, Shakespeare wrote the two plays, Hamlet and Macbeth. In the play Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet is a Danish prince whose father has just been murdered and mother married his father’s brother. After seeing a ghost in the image of his late father, Hamlet engages in conversation with the ghost and learns the truth of his father’s demise. In Macbeth, the story is centered around a Scottish thane(duke) of Glamis named Macbeth who has just won a great battle for the King Duncan. Along the way home from the battle, Macbeth is encountered by the paranormal and told he will be the next king of Scotland. Although both play’s characters encounter early on and are changed by the supernatural, Macbeth’s plotline ultimately depends more on the supernatural. The celestial tampering in Hamlet and Macbeth are akin to each other because it provokes the characters, changes the way they act towards others, and caused both main characters to lose their lives. The provocation caused by the paranormal inspired Hamlet to seek vengeance for his father and Macbeth to send “[Duncan] to heaven or to hell.”(-Macbeth, Macbeth 2.1.77) It also prompted Hamlet to “put on an antic disposition.” (-Hamlet, Hamlet 1.5.192) Macbeth also began killing off his friends one by one as a result of the interference made by the otherworldly. The tampering triggered the tragic death of Hamlet because he had sought out redemption against Claudius who had already plotted to kill Hamlet through Laertes. It also induced the death of Macbeth because he turned into a traitor for killing King Duncan and Macduff’s family which led to his doom at the hand of Macduff. The metaphysical visitation in the plays vary in the ways one looks into the future instead of the past, the ways people are contacted, and the number of people affected. The spectral beings appearance differed because in Macbeth, the Weird Sisters read Macbeth’s future and divined all that would happen to him. In Hamlet, the ghost only reveals how he died “with juice of hebona” (-Ghost, Hamlet 1.5.69) in the past and does not warn Hamlet about what is to come. The forms with which people are contacted by the spectral contrast; in Hamlet, Hamlet had to search for the ghost of his father in order to learn of the betrayal of his uncle. Macbeth however, was approached by the spiritual in the form of three witches who spoke “with such prophetic greeting” (Macbeth, Macbeth 1.3.81) that he was transfixed upon the words that they had spoken to him. The number of people affected by the supernatural is much greater in Macbeth because Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo were all visited by spirits of some kind. In Hamlet, the only person to be contacted by and engage in conversation win the ghost was Hamlet. Even though both plays were impacted by the paranormal, Macbeth is more affected by it because it made Macbeth turn on his friends, turned Lady Macbeth into a vicious person, and gave Macbeth the fatal thought to kill the family of Macduff. The prophecy given to Macbeth given to him by the Weird Sisters pressed him to kill Duncan because Malcolm was named to be the next king of Scotland. In addition to changing Macbeth into a power-hungry tyrant, the souls of the dead corrupted Macbeth’s wife and “[filled her] from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.” (Lady Macbeth, Macbeth 1.5.49-50) In the second encounter with the Weird Sisters, the augury that they give Macbeth pressures him into slaying the family of Macduff because he is told to be wary of Macduff.
In the end, Macbeth was more influenced by the paranormal and made mistakes because of an ambition created by an omen given to him by witches. Macbeth ended the lives of Banquo, Macduff’s family, and Duncan as well as ruining the lives of all the other people who got in his way. Macbeth’s jealousy and vaulting ambition led him to cross a line that could never be forgiven because he took advantage of the trust of his friends. The mistakes and benefits that Macbeth made is a portrayal of the power/influence that the supernatural can have over people. In addition to showing off the strength of the otherworldly; Hamlet and Macbeth exemplify that ambition in small amounts is beneficial to growth, but aspiration in excess quantities is detrimental to the overall health of any person. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence’s motive was to end the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. His plan to fake Juliet’s death with a sleeping potion was far-fetched to begin with and after fleeing the scene of Romeo and Juliet’s death, the Friar was arrested and had to face the consequences of his actions.