Shakespeare’s Christianity: The Supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth

Shakespeare’s Christianity: The Supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth

This article focuses on the supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth with considering the religious contexts and conflicts of the sixteenth century in England for arguing the question of “Is Shakespeare’s use of supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth more indicative of Catholic or Protestant belief?” Both these great tragedies use the supernatural as a key role and supernatural elements in these plays engage with the religious debates and controversies of the period so that the knowledge of the religious contexts can shape the readers’ response to the supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth. Therefore, this paper’s aim is exploring Shakespeare’s use of supernatural in religious views. In this study, after the religious context of Elizabethan era and audience are given, Shakespeare’s use of supernatural in both plays are examined in depth, especially in terms of Christianity with its professions: Catholicism and Protestantism. All of these supernatural elements are linked with Christian theology and it leads Shakespeare’s readers to gain a religious perspective towards the supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth. In the process of it, the supernatural theme in both Hamlet and Macbeth is going to be compared with each other in terms of their kinds. In Hamlet, supernatural theme comes from some elements like ghost and the doctrine of purgatory, while witchcraft and the prophecy in Macbeth can be also examples of the supernatural. After all, the main question of this study, which is stated before, naturally reveals in minds. The answer of this debatable question is the main argument of this article with comparing the existence of these supernatural elements in both beliefs. Therefore, the supernatural in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth are examined in religious perspectives with theological details.

Introduction

???????????Hamlet (1603) and Macbeth (1606) have many common points. Both plays take places in countries that have monarchs and are also threatened by foreign powers. Both focus on the plots in which the kings are murdered in a certain mysterious way. In both, there are revelations that kings’ murderers are of his relatives who are portrayed as being trusted and respected if not loved but are in secret harbour their unquenchable ambitions to ascend the thrones. Both also show the death of the murderers in certain bloody ways at the ends of their plots. Both touch on the psychology of main characters, Hamlet and Macbeth, with all emotional upheavals and changes often in their anxieties and fears. In both plays, there are tense and violent ambiances that are full of terror. Both clearly demonstrate the historical events in Shakespeare’s own period in England with emphasizing the tradition, culture and religion of various medieval countries like those of the medieval Denmark and Scotland. Among these many interesting common elements, however, the supernatural theme in both plays is the most striking and interesting common point that is worthy of a further exploration.

???????????At first glance, it is quite interesting and hard to fathom that supernatural as an unusual and mysterious theme is being used in the most known and popular tragedies of Shakespeare, and it makes one think that they have a certain intended purpose in the setting of the plays. As supernatural elements, the old king’s ghost and the notion of the Purgatory are seen in Hamlet while Shakespeare uses the supernatural in the scenes of the Weird Sisters who are witches with all their spells, charms and prophecies in Macbeth. Since these supernatural elements have a key role in the plot for exploring the hidden truth within and reaching the inevitable results of those tragic stories, the aim of their existence needs to be examined in detail. Like the role of the supernatural in these plots, these supernatural figures might help to gain religious perspectives towards the supernatural with relating to Christian elements. In Hamlet, Purgatory and the ghost are supernatural elements that can be also considered as religious reflections of the Catholic belief. Like Hamlet, Macbeth also contains some Catholic elements, such as prophecies and spells. However, in Elizabethan era in which Hamlet and Macbeth were written, the regime of England was Protestant. These supernatural figures shed a spotlight on the ongoing traditions and cultures of Catholicism under the Protestant regime in the sixteenth century’s England. Besides the exploring of the forms and roles of the supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth in a chronological order, the purpose of this study is finding the answer to a debatable question that put a question mark in the readers’ mind: Is Shakespeare’s use of supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth more indicative of Catholic or Protestant belief?

???????????In this article, the supernatural figures are examined in a Christian perspective for proving that these are the elements of Catholic theology. As a possible result of this answer, supernatural figures in both great tragedies of Shakespeare suit the profession of Catholicism, instead of Protestantism, despite of the Protestant regime in Elizabethan England. Under this aim, the religious context of Shakespeare and his period, Elizabethan era, are given before the supernatural figures as religious elements in two plays are examined in depth. After these, for each play, general beliefs among the society about the supernatural (ghosts in Hamlet, witches in Macbeth) in Shakespeare’s own era are argued. Along the line, the religious considerations of the supernatural elements will be made in the light of evidential sources.?

?The Religious Context of the Sixteenth Century’s England

???????????The Sixteenth Century’s England was full of religious conflicts between different theologies, Catholicism and Protestantism. However, the audiences of the Elizabethan era was not completely affected by that Protestant regime because they were used to live with traditions and cultures of Catholicism for years so that it was difficult to change their life styles that depended on their religion. For examining the supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth in a Catholic perspective, it is quite significant to know well the religious context of the sixteenth century’s England and religious background of Shakespeare because both can reveal the periodic effect of Catholicism on these great tragedies. According to Wilson, Elizabethan audiences believed in the supernatural: “Spiritualism … formed one of the major interests of the Elizabethan period” (1935, 65). In addition to this, they even had “three schools of thought … on the question of ghosts” (1935, 61). Especially English Catholics generally believed in the supernatural, therefore, witches and ghosts were quite popular beliefs for Catholics. The powerful belief in the supernatural of the Elizabethan audience can also demonstrate the persistency of Catholic traditions among the English society in the sixteenth century.

???????????However, it is impossible to know Shakespeare’s profession because his religion was unknown so that his conviction cannot be found. On the other hand, Enos states: “When many of the extant pieces of the puzzle of Shakespeare’s life are assembled, it is very difficult to deny his Catholicism” (2000, 45). In other words, despite of the uncertainty of his religion, it can be said that he was naturally affected by Catholicism, which was one of two major professions of his period. Therefore, it is important to explore Shakespeare’s religious background before examining the supernatural figures that he uses in a religious perspective. His association with the profession of Catholicism can show how he was affected by Catholic theology, although he did not directly believed in, while he was writing his major tragedies of Hamlet and Macbeth. After each of them are gathered in light of the examination of Shakespeare’s life, the supernatural in his tragedies can be interpreted properly in religious perspectives.

???????????Although he was legally obliged to attend Church of England services, his religious faith can be argued with various arguments. The reason for his uncertainty in his religious belief can be assumed as having derived from a tension with the Protestant regime of his period. He lived in Elizabethan era, in which the English Catholics were not allowed to practice Catholicism so that they could not reveal their Catholic belief freely because they could be punished for their religious faiths. Because of this, the English Catholics could not admit that they were Catholics and then they started to disguise themselves as Protestants. Like those people, Shakespeare might be a Catholic who was seen as a Protestant because he had some connections with Catholicism, which was considered illegal, through his family and teachers from his school. It is known that he had parents and teachers who were covert Catholics under the rule of Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. The period in which Elizabeth I outlawed Catholicism, Shakespeare showed that he was also a Protestant in public but his hidden religious beliefs were actually unknown. Thus, in addition to his personal life that includes his Catholic family and teachers, his era’s religious background should be also considered for examining the supernatural in his plays.

???????????The examination should be began with Shakespeare’s Catholic parents under the Protestant regime to explore the role of the supernatural. In Shakespeare’s era, there were conflicts between the beliefs of Catholic and Protestant in England. Before the declaration of Protestantism as the official religion of England, Queen Mary was the last Catholic queen of England in the years between 1553 and 1558. She was known as Bloody Mary because of her passion to persecute Protestants with burning them alive and executing them due to their belief in the Protestantism. In other words, Catholicism was supported by the current queen of that time. After a while, Elizabeth I, who was a Protestant, became the new longtime queen with succeeding her sister Mary. After her succession, she declared Protestantism as the official religion of England from that date on. In time, England started to be dominated by the rules of the Protestantism under the Protestant regime of Elizabeth I who was officially regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as illegitimate, so that Catholicism became a religious profession that only a minority believed in. In “The Conflict between Queen Elizabeth and Roman Catholicism”, it is stated: “Even though they were alienated by the atrocities of "Bloody" Mary, a large minority, if not a majority, of the population were attached to the forms of the old faith” (Shires 1947, 222). It means, Catholics continued to believe in Catholicism and this made them “minority” in the English society. This minority was legally punished in some cases because of their attachment to?Catholicism (O’Malley 2001, 149). However, there were several Catholics who were against Queen Elizabeth I. It clearly demonstrates that not each Catholic respected to the Protestant regime of Elizabeth I by showing themselves as Protestants in public. Therefore, many people were punished due to their Catholic faiths because it was forbidden to publicly profess in Catholicism.

???????????Shakespeare’s parents were married under the regime of Queen Mary, according to England and Another Shore: A Life (Wilson 2011, 651). Like the other resisting Catholics, Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was also fined because he refused to attend the Protestant church services. John Shakespeare was a covert Catholic and also was close friend with William Catesby, who was imprisoned for years because of his religious belief in Catholicism. He had a son, Robert Catesby, who was the head conspirator and aimed to break the Protestant monarchy of England with Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In short, both William Catesby and Robert Catesby were associated with Catholicism and John Shakespeare’s close friendship with William Catesby demonstrates that his close circle was also Catholic. Moreover, in 1750, a document, which was believed that John Shakespeare had written, was found in the family home in Stratford-upon-Avon and this document touches on the declaration of Catholic belief of John Shakespeare in a spiritual testament format: “But another document might be thought to tip the balance: the so-called “Spiritual Testament.” Allegedly found in 1757 among the roof-tiles in the Shakespeare family house on Henly Street in Stratford by a bricklayer, Josephy Moseley, the pamphlet is a Catholic profession of faith in fourteen articles attested to by John Shakespeare” (Kastan 2014, 22). In addition to this, John Shakespeare’s name was also among the Catholic recusants published in 1592 (Wood 2011). It is also quite questionable that Shakespeare's name never appeared on the registered list of those who went to the Anglican churches. Furthermore, Shakespeare's older sister was baptized as a Catholic, while Shakespeare was suitably baptized according to the Protestant traditions of the Anglican Church. Richard, who was the grandfather of Shakespeare, was a farmer in Wroxall and his sister, Joan, worked as a nun in a monastery. Moreover, the only house that Shakespeare bought in Stratford was previously a Catholic sanctuary.

???????????Additionally, in his education years, Shakespeare became close with his tutors who were Catholics, especially John Cottam and Simon Hunt who later became a?Jesuit priest (Hammerschmidt-Hummel 2002, 161). Besides, other tutors of Shakespeare in King's New School of Stratford were also Catholic supporters. Thomas Jenkins, who was another teacher of Shakespeare in his youth, was a student of Edmund Campion who?was also a Catholic Jesuit priest and martyr. Jenkins's successor at the grammar school in 1579, John Cottam, was the brother of Jesuit priest, Thomas Cottam. All of these connections with Catholics can be counted as evidence to Shakespeare’s link with Catholicism.

???????????All of these probably show that although the family was seen as Protestants in the public because of the Protestant regime of Elizabeth I, they might have secretly continued to believe in the Catholic belief. However, Shakespeare’s did not clearly state his religious belief and his religious views was not directly expressed in his works. Therefore, his religion cannot be exactly known. However, the supernatural that fits in the traditions and rules of Catholicism in Hamlet and Macbeth demonstrates that he was affected by the Catholic faith, although his conviction is unknown. Therefore, both historical and religious background of Shakespeare and the sixteenth century’s England are important to examine the supernatural in religious perspectives because in a Catholic view towards to the supernatural, it should be known that that profession, despite of the uncertainty of his religion, obviously affected Shakespeare.

The Supernatural in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

???????????Shakespeare’s Hamlet includes several figures that belong to the Catholic belief that was one of the two rooted theologies in England of Shakespeare’s period. Although Shakespeare’s era was under the Protestant regime of Elizabeth I, he gave places to Catholic notions that Protestants did not believe so that it causes to question Shakespeare’s religion. Some elements like the purgatory and the ghost in Hamlet are Catholic ideas which need to be examined in depth for gaining a religious perspective towards to the supernatural. Although the location in Denmark can be counted as Protestant with its folks and the Lutheran traditions in Shakespeare’s period, these Catholic ideas are emphasized in the supernatural details so that Shakespeare underlines that whether a location was ruled with Protestantism or not, the Catholic habits in the society could not be completely destroyed. Although that time’s Protestants stated their official religion as Protestantism, there were countless Catholic traditions that had been stereotyped and turned to habits so that they would not be changed easily in time.

???????????The doctrine of Purgatory and ghosts are linked with each other in Catholic theology and both are used in Hamlet. The Catholics who lived in England as a persecuted minority believed in ghosts because the Catholicism includes the existence of ghosts as the spirits who can come in sight after the death. According to A New and Copious Lexicon of the Latin Language, the word “purgatory” comes from Latin language; its Latin root is “purgō” that means purifying (Leverett 1836, 723). Like its meaning in Latin, it is also associated with the purification in the Catholicism: "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification..." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994, 1030-1031). Purgatory is a location between heaven and hell for such spirits who cannot go directly to Heaven or Hell for such spirits who cannot go directly to Heaven or Hell because they are neither sufficiently good or bad enough. However, the Catholic theology also gives Purgatory another meaning: judgment. After death, each person is going to be judged and the location of the soul is specified as joyful Heaven, sinful Hell or Purgatory (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994, 1021-1022). In that case, Purgatory can be counted as a gate between both Heaven and Hell or Life and Death. This gate occurs with cleansing with the painful temporal punishment so that purgatory is defined as purification. In other words, in the Catholic theology, Purgatory is an intermediary but temporary location in which each human being is purified from sins that are committed during the lifetime. On the other hand, in contrast to Catholics, Protestantism rejects the doctrine of purgatory. Thanks to the Reformation, Protestants started to question the existence of Purgatory. Some Protestant theologians like Luther suggested that the soul of human being goes to sleep with the vessel after the death until the Day of Judgment. Only on the Day of Judgment, that sleeping soul can be awoken. On this subject, Almond states: “No man is yet in hell, neither shall there be any there until the judgement” (2016, 82). It means that the souls have not any chance to purify themselves from their sins, in Purgatory or somewhere else, according to the Protestant faith. Another example of this rejection of Protestantism is John Wesley, who was an Anglican theologian and influenced by various Protestant reformers of his time, especially about justification. According to him, the perfection of justification that the Catholicism intends to do with the doctrine of Purgatory should be rejected because “instant of entire sanctification generally is the instant of the death, the moment before the soul leaves the body” (Walls 2011, 48). It suggests that there is no importance of the afterlife because the most crucial part of death is that exact moment of dying. In short, while the doctrine of Purgatory has been counted as a part of the Catholic faith for years, it was already rejected by the Protestant Reformers in the sixteenth century.

???????????The supernatural figures that include religious connotations start with emphasizing Purgatory in Hamlet. The concept of Purgatory brings itself with also Heaven and Hell and all of them are references that Shakespeare used to the Christian faith of the early modern period of Europe. The religious question occurs in readers’ mind with the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. The ghost is firstly seen in Act I, Scene I, when Bernardo and Marcellus at their watch. As an Elizabethan belief on ghosts, “ghosts could not speak unless addressed by some mortal”, so that they need to be seen and addressed by a person. (Wilson 1951, 75-76). In Hamlet, the ghost starts to speak after Hamlet says: “Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak; I’ll go no further” (1.5.1). According to Catholics, ghosts come from Purgatory as spirits: “Thus most Catholics of Shakespeare’s day believed that ghosts might be spirits of the departed, were allowed to return for some special purpose, which it was the duty of the pious to further if possible, in order that the wandering soul might find rest” (Wilson, 62). The ghost of King Hamlet exemplifies Wilson’s statement in What Happens in Hamlet, because he has also an aim for appearing to Hamlet. The ghost wants to avenge his “foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.25) with using Hamlet because of his bodiless form. After starting his speech with saying “So art thou the revenge, when thou shalt hear” (1.5.7), he tries to reveal the truth behind his death with these words:

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown (1.5.39-40)

????????????It clearly states that the ghost of King Hamlet wants to revenge with demonstrating the hidden truth of King Claudius. The ghost firstly reveals the seducing of Gertrude by Claudius with saying “O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power / So to seduce! – won to his shameful lust / The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen” (1.5.44-46) and then his poisoning by Claudius with saying “Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand / Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched” (1.5.74-75). These speeches of ghost prove the revengeful aim of his appearing to Hamlet, as Wilson states. In addition to this, the ghost clearly shows his aim directly with these words: “Let not the royal bed of Denmark be / A couch for luxury and damned incest” (1.5.882-83). While the ghost appears to Hamlet, he also asserts:

I am thy father’s spirit,

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,

And for the day confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature

Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison house,

?I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres

[…]

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood (1.5.9-22

???????????It clearly shows that the notion of Purgatory is firstly seen in ghost’s speech in an indirect way. Shakespeare avoids using the word, Purgatory, because with using that word which was usually used by Catholics, he would have a trouble under the Protestant regime of his period. However, he still means Purgatory with differently stating words: "burnt and?purged?away.”?Moreover, West claims: “Decisive explanation of supernatural figures tends to reduce their effect of awe and mystery; the indecisive answers Hamlet provides to the standard questions it raises tend rather to create awe and mystery” (1968, 65). West’s claim might be another reason for Shakespeare’s indirect statement of Purgatory in Hamlet. Besides, he emphasizes the temporariness of this horrible punishment for his judgment with the phrase of “a certain term” in the second line of this speech. According to the speech, “his prison house” is so terrifying because of his sin’s judgment and he cannot tell the secrets of this place. The location that he emphasizes is Purgatory. Another reference about purgatory can be seen in ghost’s same speech:

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled,

No reckoning made, but sent to my account

With all my imperfections on my head (1.5.76-79).

In this selected part, with underlining some words like “unhouseled”, “disappointed”, “unaneled” and “no reckoning made”, the ghost claims that he has no time to confess or reckon his sin so that he cannot purify his sin. He is murdered before his last rites. He is caught unprepared to death. This is the reason why he goes to Purgatory, as he states in his previous speeches. These rites belong to the Catholic faith and both the doctrine of Purgatory and rites demonstrate that the ghost of King Hamlet is Catholic. The fear of death can be also seen in King Claudius’s speech:

But ‘tis not so above.

There is no shuffling; there the action lies

In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,

Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,

To give in evidence. (3.3.60-64)

There is always a punishment of “our faults” with the concepts of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and one must live with knowing the responsibilities of all kinds of faults. Rites, therefore, were quite important for Catholics in the sixteenth century, for being purified. Hamlet’s one of sayings can be an example to this: “Confess yourself to heaven / Repents what’s past, avoid what is to come” (3.4.-150-151). It is clear that Hamlet has a fear of being punished because of his sins in his afterlife so that he also thinks that rites are important. The doctrine of Purgatory in these parts well suits Catholic theology of Shakespeare’s period. With using Catholic beliefs behind the supernatural figure of ghost, Shakespeare enables his readers to make think that his religious faith could be affected by Catholicism because he would not give any place in his most famous play, if he did not tend to believe in this or found this ridiculous.

???????????Shakespeare’s ghost of Hamlet is quite different than traditional stereotyped ghost beliefs in Elizabethan era. In Hamlet in Purgatory, Stephen Greenblatt argues that “The ghost in Hamlet is like none other – not only in Shakespeare but in any literary or historical text that I have ever read. It does not have very many lines – it appears in three scenes and speaks only in two – but it is amazingly disturbing and vivid (2013, 4). According to him, the uniqueness of this ghost causes to various arguments by many critics. It has an ambiguity that has been argued and cannot be ensured by theorists for years so that beside of the Catholic interpretation of the ghost in Hamlet, it has various counter arguments. Some of them believe that the ghost of King Hamlet is Protestant that comes from Heaven or Hell and others state that it is a Catholic ghost that comes from Purgatory. Another group of critics support that it is neither Protestant nor Catholic, it is the devil itself. This though can be supported with one speech of Hamlet:

The spirit that I have seen

May be a devil, and the devil hath power

T’ assume a pleasing shape (2.2.610-612)

According to West, “To tell a truth as part of a wicked and deceitful design was, as Banquo and innumerable pneumatologists warn, a thing devils often did. So perhaps the ghost is a devil” (61). If the ghost is used as a devil, again this possibility includes Catholic context because King James Bible states: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14). It means that Banquo’s ghost as a kind of angel of light can be actually Satan. Apart from these, a different group of critics thinks the figure of ghost is just a hallucination. All of these several opinions about the ghost of King Hamlet make this supernatural figure one of its kind. West also states that the ghost in Hamlet is an “ambiguous ghost” (56). According to West, the ambiguity of Shakespeare’s ghost is intended: “Shakespeare knowingly mixed the evidence and did it for the sake of dramatic impact” (63). In Elizabethan era, the concept of the ghost was quite questionable because of the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism. Both theologies have different beliefs about the ghost as it is stated previously so that Shakespeare tries to appeal to his Elizabethan readers who were both Protestant and Catholic with using the ambiguous figure of the ghost. This can be the reason why the ghost can be directly interpreted in a Catholic perspective by each theorist with enabling alternative cases. One way or another, it is obvious that this ghost has a crucial aim for the plot of Hamlet because it leads the whole setting with changing the main character’s mind. For example, Stephen Greenblatt also asserts that the ghost reveals the fear of being forgotten after death (138). His argument can be exemplified with this speech of Hamlet:

Who would fardels bear

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others that we know not of? (3.1.76-82)

According to this, Hamlet wants to commit a suicide and end his “weary life” because of his sorrow and probably his gradual madness. However, he fears from the death and the ghost’s previous speech about Purgatory might cause this fear. The lines of “The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns, puzzles the will” clearly refer to the afterlife in Catholicism and apparently, the ghost of King Hamlet spreads the fear of dying. Another example part of Hamlet’s fear of death is:

To sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

Must give us pause (3.1.64-67)

Moreover, according to Catholic theology, suicide is a mortal sin against God. Thus, he does not want to end up in Purgatory or Hell because of his sin. It might be counted as a proof to the Catholic influence on Shakespeare. On the other hand, Ophelia commits suicide in Act IV and after her suicide, the Clown questions: “Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation?” (5.1.1) Ophelia’s burial is made with Christian rules, although it is forbidden to arrange a burial for a person who commits suicide in Catholicism. Suicide is a sin and it is commanded to avoid it for Catholic theology: “Thou shalt not kill” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994, 2280-2281). However, Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts: "We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (2283). It also states that “Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.” (2282). In that case, Ophelia’s suicide may be accepted because of her sorrow, although suicide is counted as a sin in the Catholic faith.?She kills herself because she feels a deep sorrow after her father is murdered by Hamlet, her brother is off in France and being rejected by Hamlet before leaving Denmark.

???????????As the last religious aspect of the supernatural in Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet also brings the notion of fate. With using the ghost figure, Shakespeare makes his readers question the fate and free will so that the ghost becomes a manifestation of fate in Christian theology. In Catholic belief, fate and destiny are significant subjects that need to be examined: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). According to this verse, everyone has own faith that is already decided before from God so that the events follow the same path one way or another in every option that is chosen. Hamlet describes the notion of fate as:

I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so,

To punish me with this, and this with me,

That I must be their scorge and minister

I will bestow him and will answer well

The death I have him. (3.4.174-178)

According to him, each action of him is already determined by God because God “pleased it so”, and Hamlet is just a “minister” of him with performing what God wants in Hamlet’s faith. Also with saying, “will answer well the death I have him”, he refers to his punishment in the afterlife. It might mean Purgatory or just Hell and the afterlife are general beliefs of Catholics. While knowing that he must do what he already did, he is also aware of the punishment of sins that he commits in his life after the death. He also states: “Not a whit. We defy augury. There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.” (5.2.220-225). It also proves his belief on fate because he thinks that whatever will be, will be because God already plans everything.

???????????Briefly, Hamlet includes some Christian faiths like the doctrine of Purgatory, fate and destiny, rites and sins that the figure of ghost brings with itself. Therefore, it can be counted also as a religious tragedy which has Catholic characteristics under the Christianity. Kitto states: “religious drama is not a form of drama in which the real focus is not the tragic hero but the divine background” and then he adds: “religious drama in which the gods do not appear, and the secular drama in which they do” (2014, 251). The Catholic elements that Shakespeare used did not alarm the Protestant authorities because “for most English Protestants Catholicism was native and familiar”, according to A Will to Believe: Shakespeare and Religion (Kastan 2014, 56). Although England adopts the Protestant regime of Elizabeth I with the Reformation in 1530s, traditions and culture of English society was already affected by the Catholic profession so that it was difficult to elude from the Catholic theology. Naturally, Shakespeare gives these Christian elements in Hamlet, especially Catholic ones, as a result of customary traditions of the Catholicism in the sixteenth century’s England.

The Supernatural in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

???????????Like Hamlet, Macbeth also includes the supernatural context that can be also associated with Christianity from the very beginning of the plot, even more than Hamlet, with both the figures of Banquo’s ghosts and three witches. Those witches provide to question the prophecy and the destiny, while Banquo’s death brings another question about the afterlife. All the terms of prophecy, destiny and afterlife that come from the supernatural theme of Macbeth are the important subjects of Christianity that have been touched on for years by many ecclesiastics. The opening scene of the play begins with the appearances of three witches, Weird Sisters, without knowing where they come from, who they actually are and what they really want while the third one is already giving directly the name of Macbeth: “There to meet with Macbeth” (1.1.8). Therefore, after he sees them, Banquo also questions their identity:

What are these

So withered, and so wild in their attire,

That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth,

And yet are on ‘t? Live you, or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so. (1.3.39-47)

With especially saying “That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth / And yet are on ‘t? Live you, or are you aught”, Banquo also interrogates those weird-looking witches. Weird Sisters are seen in just three scenes of Macbeth, which are 1.1, 1.3 and 4.1. However, they are crucial figures in shaping Macbeth’s actions. The witches have quite important role on Macbeth’s call to action with their prophecies that determine Macbeth’s faith with previously giving five key predictions about his future. They cause the downfall of Macbeth with influencing and manipulating him with their prophecies. Therefore, the supernatural is a significant theme that needs to be examined in depth because without Weird Sisters, there would be no story of Macbeth. Their first prediction suggests that Macbeth will become both Thane of Cawdor and the king:

FIRST WITCH??All Hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH??All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

THIRD WITCH??All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! (1.3.49-51).

Weird Sisters salutes Macbeth with those depictions and these are their first prophecies about Macbeth. These sounds like quite convincing because the first one hails Macbeth as “Thane of Glamis” and it is true because it is already happened, as it stated in Macbeth’s speech: “By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis” (1.3.71). After this prophecy, Banquo says: “I’ th’ name of truth / Are ye fantastical, or that indeed / Which outwardly ye show?” (1.3.52-54) Even Banquo questions whether they are supernatural creatures or not, because foretelling was not counted as a normal act also in Elizabethan era. Other prophecies of Weird Sisters are that they advise Macbeth to beware Macduff: “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! (4.1.71), then they convinces him that he cannot be beaten until “Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him” (4.1.93-94) and they also encourage him with saying that Macbeth cannot be harmed by anyone who is born by woman via ghosts: “The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.80-81). All of these prophecies come true in Act V with firstly coming of the wood towards Dunsinane in Scene 5, then the fight between Macduff and Macbeth, and lastly the revelation of caesarean birth of Macduff in Scene 8.

???????????It is obvious that Shakespeare was affected by his era’s popular beliefs on witches. The society of England have been believed in witchcraft for a very long time even before Christianity touched on witchcraft in Europe. With the spread of Christianity in also England in the sixth century, magical practices of witches started to be made in a hidden way because Christianity forbids the witchcraft with directly ordering: “Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft” (Leviticus 19:26) and “Those who practice witchcraft will be disgraced”?(Micah 3:7). Although witchcraft was banned and counted as a sin from the authorities, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology states that the Church did not regard it as a serious threat because it was seen as “a crime against man” (Robbins, 160-161). However, witches and witchcraft started to be punished seriously after they were seen as “a crime against God” in the later years of the sixteenth century (Robbins, 161). In Elizabethan period, witchcraft became quite known because Moore argues that “200,000 supposed witches were put to death in Europe during the witch hunt between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, and many more badly tortured, all in the name of the Christian Church” (1962, 141). According to the statement of Moore, the Christian Church was personally involved with witchcraft in Shakespeare’s era in which the religion had a crucial role in the regime, so that there were many witchcraft accusations that were punished with torture or execution. Also, Moore asserts that many people who were accused of being witches were women. Also in Macbeth, witches were women, according to Banquo’s previous speech. Naturally, while Shakespeare was writing Macbeth, he was probably affected by punished witchcrafts by Catholics in Protestant England of his period. According to common belief in the sixteenth century, witches had stereotyped features like “commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle and full of wrinkles”, according to The Discoverie of Witchcraft (Scott 1584, 4). Weird Sisters well suit to these descriptions of stereotyped witches when Banquo’s sayings are considered while he is questioning their existence. He says, “So wittered, and so wild in their attire” (1.3.39), then he adds: “You should be women / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so” (1.3.45-47). It is quite clear that three witches in Macbeth have an ugly and old appearance, according to Banquo’s statement, as Moore states in his book. Also, Robbins uses some depictions about witches like old, ugly and wrinkled in his book (542-543), like Shakespeare’s witches.

???????????Witches were accused by Catholics for three reasons: it was commonly believed that they “made an agreement with the Devil to deny the Christian god” (Robbins, 550), they played God with assuming that they can seal the faiths with foretelling and they had strong connections with other mysterious supernatural creatures. Therefore, they were punished in several horrible ways. For example, the tragedy of Macbeth also presents three apparitions who witches use for foretelling in Act IV, Scene 1. Moreover, Hecate who is the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft is also seen in the play as the ruler of Weird Sisters. Hecate appears as angry because of witches’ prophecies about Macbeth in Act III, Scene 5:

Have I not reason, beldams as you are?

Saucy and overbold, how did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth

In riddles and affairs of death,

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close contriver of all harms,

Was never called to bear my part,

Or show the glory of our art? (3.5.2-8).

Hecate says “I, the mistress of your charms” and then she adds “show the glory of our art” and these sayings emphasize that she is the one who teaches the witchcraft to them. Hecate as “a mistress” of witches demonstrates the connection of witches with demonic figures. Thus, Catholics believed that witches deny the Christian faith with accepting the Devil and other evil creatures like Hecate as their God. In addition, Catholics also believed that witchcraft was also used for making a pact with the Devil. It is the trade of one’s soul that can be done by dealing with the Devil for diabolical favours. According to Catholic theology, after dealing with the Devil and selling out the soul, a person can get what s/he desires like wealth, beauty, power, great skill or something else, providing that going to Hell. In Macbeth, misleading of witches might be a kind of pact with the Devil. Hecate states that she does not like human beings with using these words:

And, which is worse, all you have done

Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you. (3.5.10-13)

Based on this speech, Hecate as witches’ master and probably witches, in general, hate human beings so that they may try to make people commit sins for sending them Hell with cursing their souls. If Hamlet was not been affected by various prophecies of three witches, he would not kill both the King and his close friend, Banquo. Because of these, now, his soul is damned but he gets what he wants. He becomes the King of Scotland. Farnham argues the aim of witches in the tragedy of Macbeth with firstly exploring their roles among Elizabethan society in order to make Shakespeare’s readers believe that they are not simply women who do not simple hocus-pocus. Farnham depicts witches as “woman devils” (95), “fairy demons” (101) and “superhuman” (100). The word of “weird” in Weird Sisters of Macbeth, means “fate” in old English, according to Online Etymology Dictionary. When witches’ ability of foreseeing is considered, this word seems related. According to Farnham, witches do not decide to the future of people. Instead, they just know the events in the future with foreseeing them. If they have a determining power, they have not a master, “the mistress” like Hecate, Farnham states (100-102). In addition to this, in “Shakespeare Bewitched”, Greenblatt also asserts: “If the strange prophecies of the Weird Sisters had been ignored, the play seems to imply, the same set of events might have occurred anyway, impelled entirely by the pressure of Macbeth’s violent ambition and his wife’s manipulation” (1993, 21). It means that Weird Sisters’ crucial role in the plot just only comes from their prophecies. In other words, they do not anything except foretelling his future to Macbeth. They do not change the future of him, they just tell him what he is going to do in future. In all cases, Macbeth would kill both Banquo and the King, become a king and be killed by Macduff. It also shows the stability of the fate. In Catholicism, fate cannot be changed if it is decided by God. In terms of this, the supernatural in Macbeth suits perfectly to Catholic theology.

???????????Another supernatural element of Macbeth is Banquo’s ghost. The appearance of ghosts to only Macbeth, except Banquo, resembles with the appearance of the ghost of King Hamlet who shows itself to only Hamlet, except of his friends. Lady Macbeth cannot see a ghost in Act 3, Scene 4, while Hamlet boggles with the vision of Banquo’s ghost. According to Farnham, Hamlet’s act after the vision of the ghost “is a challenge to the divine power, which, as Shakespeare’s age firmly believed, could work justice upon murderers by supernatural means”, while it also represents another challenge to appearance of Banquo for proving his guilt (122). Whether the ghost is real or not, whether it is a challenge or just a psychological hallucination that comes from Macbeth’s guilt, it has a religious context in terms of both. The first option that includes the possibility of the ghost’s reality, it already suits the profession of Catholicism. The second option, which refers to Macbeth’s psychological hallucination that comes from his guilt with rejecting the reality of ghost, can be also counted as religious because it shows that Macbeth sinks into a depression after he murders Banquo because he knows well the sin of homicide. It shows the Christian faith that penetrates Hamlet. Moreover, sin causes a restlessness for each human being, according to Catholicism: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah” (Psalm 32:3-4). Therefore, there is the tradition of confession in the Catholic profession, for getting rid of the restlessness that comes from the hidden sins.

???????????In a nutshell, the supernatural is also a major theme of Macbeth for reaching a Catholic perspective towards the play. With giving mysterious forces and creepy elements, Shakespeare cooks his characters goose so that the supernatural plays quite vital role in the plot. Weird Sisters, their prophecies, their “mistress” Hecate and their foretelling drive the story of Macbeth forward. Because of the common belief in witches in Elizabethan era, Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural via witchcraft is not surprising for his readers because of the supernatural ideas that were taken seriously in the sixteenth century. The ghost of Banquo, as the product of prophecies of three witches, also is the continued part of the supernatural after the witchcraft and it helps to associate the tragedy of Macbeth with Catholicism under its religious theme.

Conclusion

???????????Hamlet and Macbeth, which are the masterpieces of English literature, can be counted as religious dramas and the supernatural plays a role on exploring the Catholic theme of the play with ghosts, witches, prophecies and the afterlife. Although some sceptic critics support that these supernatural elements are just object and symbols, instead of real things, Horatio, Marcellus, Bernardo in Hamlet and Banquo in Macbeth cannot see the supernatural, ghost and witches, with their all eyes, if all of these are not real. It is clear that the supernatural literally exists and through the supernatural, Catholic elements under the religious theme of the plays can be explored. Elizabethan England was in a conflict that caused cultural and religious crisis among the English society and it affected Shakespeare’s great tragedies. It is clear that Shakespeare was well informed about the Christian theology. Although his profession has been unknown, he was affected by Catholicism, according to the supernatural in his major tragedies.

???????????In conclusion, when the supernatural elements of Hamlet and Macbeth are examined, the perfect integration of Catholicism and drama is seen. He ably reflects the cultural air of the sixteenth century’s England. With exploring the influences of Catholicism through the supernatural on Shakespeare’s tragedies and revealing how Catholic theology was still important under the Protestant regime of Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century when was full of religious conflicts between two major professions, Catholicism and Protestantism, the play acquires a new dimension for the readers. They can gain a different perspective towards the supernatural elements in the plays with not considering the supernatural as just supernatural. The supernatural in Hamlet and Macbeth is key element and has a crucial role on the plots, thus, they need to be well examined for analysing themes and subtexts of these tragedies in detailed.

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