The Supernatural in Macbeth Throughout Macbeth depictions of supernatural activity were used and evidence of this was highlighted in the appearances of the three witches. In Shakespeare's time, no special effects were used in his plays. Therefore, dramatic performances and suspenseful scenes were the key qualities for making a great play. Shakespeare used the element of the unknown to evoke fear in the minds of his audience. By allowing the witches to see into the future, it made Macbeth more suspenseful. With their prophecies about Macbeth's future, they intrigue the audience to see if they are correct. Witches were a symbol of evil and Shakespeare uses this fear of the devil to give his plays an added disturbing and unsettling effect. Shakespeare also used an evil character who could easily influence the main character of his stories, in this case it was Lady Macbeth. It is essential that Lady Macbeth and the three witches create the plot of Macbeth. Without the Witch's power to predict the future and the evil persuasions of his wife, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would never have become king. The expression "strange sisters", used since the 1400s, means "fatal sisters". The word "strange" or Old English Wyrd was a noun meaning Fate. In Act 1, scene 3, the three witches describe themselves as fortune tellers, and they all introduce themselves to Macbeth and Banquo as "The strange sisters, hand in hand". The appearance that the three Witches possess is that of pure evil. At the beginning of the scene, each of the three witches describes their wickedness in a proud tone. For example, when they asked the Second Witch where she had been, she replied, "Killing pigs." This statement shows how witches liked to be evil. The public's impression of witches is that they are horribly evil. In Shakespeare's time, witches were believed to have supernatural powers and could transform into other forms, usually animals. When the First Witch describes where she has been, she is referring to crossing the sea in a sieve and turning into a tailless mouse, But in a sieve I will sail there, and like a tailless mouse, I will do, I will do and lighthouse? Witches were also believed to be fortune tellers. The three witches' prophecies in Macbeth foreshadow later events in the play.