In Shakespeare’s time, the belief in the presence and power of the supernatural touch life at every point. Customs were formed by it and behavior was dictated by it. Not only did the poor believe in it, but all classes of people were under its spell from nobles to the poor. It governed people’s lives down to the smallest details. They carried charms and mascots, found horror in spilling salt and walking under ladders, and dr

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

Due to the widespread obsession with the supernatural, Shakespeare was compelled as a writer to adopt the views of the majority. The people who crowed the theaters and paid the money demanded fairies, ghost, and witches, and all the commonly held beliefs regarding them. So Shakespeare packed his works with popular beliefs about the supernatural.

Shakespeare was always ready to accept the beliefs of the Elizabethans. His ready acceptance was also typical of the young Shakespeare’s attitude toward life overall. In his years of optimism, he wrote his early plays. However, Shakespeare’s happy enthusiasm didn’t last. Schiller believes that wen he left Stratford and moved to London, He entered a new environment filled with scholars (49). As he developed as a thinker and a philosopher, he lost his cheerfulness and joy of being alive which are so apparent in his early works. The passage of years replaced it with seriousness and later with pessimism. Shakespeare, however, didn’t end his days in mental gloom. When he retired again to the peace and quietness of Stratford when he had become rich and famous, he then returned to the enthusiasm and hopefulness of his youth (Schiller 49).

At least six or seven years pass before he writes Hamlet. A profound change has come over his attitude toward the supernatural. No longer does he handle it with the cheerfulness shown in his earlier works. Hamlet reveals that his mind is darkened by doubts and questions. The form of the supernatural he uses is the terrifying ghost. He had used it in Richard III but not until Hamlet did he develop it fully and demonstrated dramatic use of it ( Dameron 87).

Macbeth was a work of Shakespeare’s darkest years, when his own attitude toward the supernatural was one of gloominess.

The last of the plays dealing with the supernatural was The Tempest, which reveals Shakespeare’s final attitude, not only toward the supernatural, but also toward life overall. Six years passed since Macbeth and Shakespeare was approaching fifty. He retired from the busy world of London to the peace of his home town, Stratford. He once more returns to the use of fairies, but he uses them to express a new theme—reconciliation with a forgiveness of sins or mistakes (Hoffman 278). Prospero forgives his brother, Antonio for the terrible wrong he has don and no traces of anger or resentment linger. In this final play the supernatural is entirely beneath the control of man. All authority is taken form the spirits in The Tempest and the pow

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