The supernatural elements in each story intrigue, excite and capture the attention of readers, adding an extra dimension to the text and performance. Rather than simply delight his readers, however, Shakespeare incorporates ghosts and apparitions into his plays to serve a very specific purpose in the progression of the story. In some cases, Shakespeare chooses thoughtful soliloquies to convey a character's inner workings; in others he chooses otherworldly hallucinations. From Julius Caesar, where Caesar's ghost has a brief interaction with Brutus, through Hamlet, where King Hamlet returns to his son to reveal the truth, and finally to Macbeth, where ghostly images torment the ambitious king into madness, Shakespeare he continually develops his use of the supernatural as an important method of characterization. Although ghosts, apparitions, and hallucinations in these tragedies always serve as an internal look into a character's mental state, they do so most prominently in Macbeth. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Shakespeare's early tragedies, Julius Caesar and Hamlet, the ghosts of deceased figures who played an important role in the protagonists' pasts return, and in both cases, serve as a manifestation of their inner turmoil. Caesar's ghost appears to Brutus in Julius Caesar and declares to him that they will meet again at Philippi, the site of the battle at the end of the play in which Brutus dies. Before killing his leader, Brutus had doubts about his actions; now these doubts have increased. Critic F.W. Moorman makes the important point that "Caesar's spirit is the embodiment of Brutus's sense of the failure and imminent ruin of his cause" (195). Although we never explicitly hear Brutus' thoughts in this scene, his conversation with the spirit makes it clear that he is eager to face the consequences of his actions. Something similar happens in Hamlet, when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears to confirm what the young prince had always suspected: that his father's death was a murder and that someone very close to him, Claudius, was responsible. After hearing the truth, Hamlet's first words are "Oh, my prophetic soul!" (I. v. 40), confirming the idea he had had his suspicions long before they were confirmed. We didn't learn about this, though, until the ghost appeared: King Hamlet's ghost serves as a driving force, revealing Hamlet's tormented thoughts and turning them into actions that will ultimately lead to his downfall. These elements of the supernatural, however, do not appear as prominently in these early plays as in Macbeth. Shakespeare's use of ghosts and apparitions progresses over time. Although these figures, as discussed above, appear in Julius Caesar and Hamlet, there are more obvious ways in which we learn about the characters' mental states. In Julius Caesar, we learn more about Brutus through his interactions with others, particularly through his discussions with Cassius early in the play. In Hamlet, Hamlet's famous soliloquies play the most salient role in revealing his thoughts; especially towards the end of the play, when he is increasingly troubled by the delay in killing his uncle, his deliberative ramblings become frequent and quite revealing. In Macbeth, ghosts and apparitions are central to the development of the title character. Moorman notes that “A ghost is required in Macbeth by virtue of the peculiar constitution of the ghost-seer's mind” (195-96), echoing the idea that in this tragedy the presence of a ghost is indicative of the stateMacbeth's mind. Macbeth is tormented by the power of his own ambition which clashes with his ingrained morals which condemn acts of regicide. He is driven both by the prophecy that proclaims him king and by that of his determined goad wife, but held back by his own conscience. His panic to ensure the throne remains his even leads him to kill someone he once considered a friend. Because of this, his mind is in one of the most delicate states a Shakespearean protagonist has ever experienced, and following the crime, he begins to completely fall apart. The ghost of Banquo's appearance at the banquet is so disturbing in part because he doesn't even need to utter a word to accomplish his goal. This spirit appears as the embodiment of Macbeth's crippling guilt for the crimes he has committed, for killing both Duncan and Banquo, as evidenced by the frantic line Macbeth utters in response: “You cannot say that I did it. Never wave your bloody locks at me” (III. iv. 50-51). Although the ghost is a hallucination, as it appears to no one other than Macbeth and speaks no words, this hallucination reflects the deterioration of Macbeth's psychological situation. His mind is slowly collapsing under the weight of guilt, and Shakespeare incorporates this vengeful spirit to convey it to the audience. This same theme holds true for Macbeth's other hallucinations, which, while not involving the physical embodiment of a spirit like his vision of Banquo's ghost, nevertheless reveal just as much about his mind. Just before killing Duncan, he imagines voices shouting "Macbeth kills sleep!" (II. ii. 33), which effectively reveals his guilt even before he commits the crime. The famous hallucination of the dagger serves the same purpose: its presence exposes his inner uncertainty to the audience, and therefore an explicit declaration of the guilt he feels is not necessary. This, in many ways, is very powerful; we can see his guilt in the image of the dagger, feel his guilt as he stares at it and wonders if it is truth or fiction. We don't have to feel his guilt. Through the image of the dagger and the hallucination of shouting voices, we learn exactly what is happening in the mind of the ambitious nobleman. These apparitions are both hallucinations and supernatural messengers; although they are not real, they are a very significant product of the inner workings of a troubled mind. Shakespeare places them in strategic positions throughout the text, both before Macbeth commits the fateful crime and after the deed is done, to characterize his antihero in a much more subtle way. The fact that characters other than the protagonist also experience these supernatural projections further distinguishes Macbeth from previous plays. Lady Macbeth also falls prey to these hallucinations, which contribute more directly to her death than Macbeth's. At the beginning of the play, she seems incredibly self-confident, sure that killing Duncan will bring her and her husband the esteemed status they deserve. While Macbeth's confidence wavers from the beginning, Lady Macbeth never seems to waver. Only later, through her persistent hallucinations of blood on her hands, do we learn that her mind is more fragile than it initially seemed and that guilt has affected her too, perhaps even more than her husband. The critic Isador Henry Coriat describes it as "one of the cases in which hallucinations developed from fixed ideas of the subconscious and acquired a certain intensity" (72), which suggests that the newly appointed queen's guilt silently accumulated over the course of of time. of the work and now, finally, manifests itself as this hallucination. This.