Why did ghosts appear in Shakespeare's plays?

Answer 1

Witchcraft is included within the play of Macbeth due to it was set in the 16th century. In the 16th century many innocent people were tradigcally killed if they were thought to be witches. Hope this answered your question :)

Answer 2

Shakespeare only wrote about witches in three plays. In Henry VI Part 1 Joan of Arc prays to evil spirits to help her defeat the English. They don't help her, however, and she is burned as a witch. That takes one scene. In Henry VI Part 2, Eleanor of Cobham hires a witch called Margery Jourdain and a couple of guys claiming magical powers to predict the future. This takes about one scene; they are caught and Margery is burned.

And then there are the witches in Macbeth. Scholars think that they were originally only in a couple of scenes but they were a hit so another playwright called Thomas Middleton was asked to write in some longer scenes with some comedy and some song-and-dance numbers for the witches.

The function of the witch reference in Henry VI Part 1 is, first, to explain what happened to Joan of Arc (she was indeed burned as a witch) and second to reassure the patriotic English that the French weren't likely to beat them without demonic aid.

Margery Jourdain and the witches in Macbeth have a single function--to foretell the future. They are prophets or prognosticators. They fall into the same class as the soothsayer in Julius Caesar, Leonatus's dream in Cymbeline, the oracle in The Winter's Tale etc. They all are devices to allow foreshadowing. The plays are ambiguous as to how people should react to predictions: in Julius Caesar, he makes a mistake in ignoring a true prophecy; in Richard III, Edward IV makes a mistake in paying attention to a false one which Richard has planted. In Macbeth, he seems to have trouble making up his mind what to do.

Answer 3

Some people say that Shakespeare included the witches to please the King, who was interested in them. On the other hand, this is not the only play with a witch in it; Henry VI Part II has a witch called Margery Jourdain, and it was written long before Queen Elizabeth's death. Soothsayers, ghosts, witches, sorcerers and gods appear in all kinds of Shakespeare's plays. The supernatural was a favourite plot device for him.

Answer 4

Usually the ghosts in Shakespeare's plays are there to haunt or annoy the people who killed them. In one case, that of Hamlet's father, he is there to impart information which was only known to him, and which otherwise would not be known.

Answer 5

He used witches in Macbeth because they were in his source. Does that sound boring? But it's true. This is what Holinshed's Chronicles say:

It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho iournied towards Fores, where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie togither without other companie, saue onelie themselues, passing thorough the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund, there met them thrée women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of elder world, whome when they attentiuelie beheld, woondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said; "All haile Makbeth, thane of Glammis" (for he had latelie entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Sinell.) The second of them said; "Haile Makbeth thane of Cawder." But the third said; "All haile Makbeth that héerafter shalt be king of Scotland."

Then Banquho; "What manner of women (saith he) are you, that séeme so little fauourable vnto me, whereas to my fellow heere, besides high offices, ye assigne also the kingdome, appointing foorth nothing for me at all?" "Yes (saith the first of them) we promise greater benefits vnto thée, than vnto him, for he shall reigne in déed, but with an vnluckie end: neither shall he leaue anie issue behind him to succéed in his place, where contrarilie thou in déed shalt not reigne at all, but of thée those shall be borne which shall gouerne the Scotish kingdome by long order of continuall descent." Herewith the foresaid women vanished immediatlie out of their sight.

Shakespeare didn't alter that much.

Well, the witches turned out to be very popular so someone thought it would be a plan to make Macbeth, the musical, with lots of singing witches. Thomas Middleton added a bunch of new scenes and a new character Hecate who tended to be silly and burst into song a lot. But that wasn't Shakespeare.

Answer 6

Yes. In "Macbeth", there is the scene where he consults some witches to know the future.

There are ghosts in Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Richard III.

Answer 7

ghost represents guilt and feelings ghost represents guilt and feelings