Undergraduate Research Journal Volume 21 Article 7 2017 Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Supernatural and Unnatural in Macbeth Mary Spencer University of Nebraska at Kearney Follow this and additional works at: https://openspaces.unk.edu/undergraduate-research-journal Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Spencer, Mary (2017) "Something Wicked This Way Comes: The uS pernatural and Unnatural in Macbeth," Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 21 , Article 7. Available at: https://openspaces.unk.edu/undergraduate-research-journal/vol21/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity at OpenSPACES@UNK: Scholarship, Preservation, and Creative Endeavors. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Research Journal by an authorized editor of OpenSPACES@UNK: Scholarship, Preservation, and Creative Endeavors. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Supernatural and Unnatural in Macbeth Mary Spencer Fate is an omnipresent force woven through much ancient literature, and in English literature it is named from the earliest recorded writings as wyrd. By tracing this influence from its first appearances in Anglo-Saxon writing to the Early Modern period, we can see how Shakespeare uses his cultural inheritance to create the supernatural world of Macbeth, specifically through representations of wyrd. In the play, he examines the question “Does fate make the characters, or do the characters create their fates?” Juhász Tamás, a Shakespeare scholar, makes the point, “Of all Shakespearean dramas, the concept of fate and destiny seems most applicable in this particular play.