William Shakespeare's play “Macbeth” is shaped by supernatural forces with the use of strange witches, the appearance of the ghost, and the floating dagger. These forces cause Macbeth to act the way he acted and add suspense to the play. The play opens with the three witches, and later Macbeth and Banquo meet them. They prophesied that Macbeth would be promoted to Thane of Cawdor and then become King of Scotland. In addition to this, Banquo was told that his sons would be kings, but never him. Macbeth was skeptical about the prophecies, but until some of King Duncan's men came to inform Macbeth that he would be made Thane of Cawdor due to the former's treachery and sentenced to death. Then Lady Macbeth gets the idea to kill King Duncan and take their place as kings as prophesied. He convinces Macbeth to kill him that same night and he is guided by a floating dagger to do the evil deed. Fearing the witches' prediction that Banquo's sons will ascend the throne, Macbeth hires assassins to kill Banquo and his son Fleance and the boy flees. Later that night Banquo's ghost appears at Macbeth's dinner party. In the second meeting with the witches, they warn Macbeth about Macduff and tell him that no woman born will harm him, and to move the trees. These events are driven by the supernatural and lead to Macbeth's downfall. The three witches are the most important supernatural phenomenon. At the beginning of the play “there is but an echo of the witches' rune” (Wiley, 35) “Beautiful is ugly, and ugly is beautiful” (1.1.10). At the beginning of the play is a dominant line that leads to a motif of misfortune and the beginning of shaping the actions of the play. In “Macbeth,” the first prophecy of the strange sisters is “Greetings, But...... middle of paper ......ral forces have caused Macbeth's greed for power and action. Macbeth's downfall came when he was killed by Macduff. He was not born of a woman, but torn from his mother's corpse, just as the witches had prophesied. Works Cited Hibbs, Stacey and Thomas Hibbs. "Virtue, natural law, and supernatural solicitation: a Thomistic reading of Shakespeare's Macbeth." Literary reference center. EBSCO, September 2001. Web. 29 June 2011. .Shakespeare, William and Sylvan Barnet. The Tragedy of Macbeth: With New and Updated Critical Essays and a Revised Bibliography. New York: Penguin Group, 1998. Print.Wiley, Edwin. A study of the supernatural in three Shakespeare plays. 4th ed. vol. XV. Berkeley: Berkeley, California,. University of California, 1913. PDF.