# Supernatural characters of Shakespeare **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094 "2015-03-03T14:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flying\_Saucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9dc877/32.png) [@Flying\_Saucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Saucer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/1 "2015-03-03T14:40:07Z")
I’m trying to find – or create – a list of Shakespeare characters with supernatural elements or abilities. For me, that includes: Characters that are themselves magical (Oberon, Ariel, the ghost from _Hamlet_) Characters that possess magical powers (Prospero, the witches of _Macbeth_) I don’t count minor abilities or elements, such as Calpurnia’s vision of her husband’s death in _Julius Caesar_ or the silent ghost of Duncan in _Macbeth_. Can you help me find the rest? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/2 "2015-03-03T15:31:14Z")
_The Tempest:_ Caliban (in addition to the ones already listed) _Julius Caesar:_ Caesar’s ghost had a few lines, which would make him more than “minor” by the indicated standard – indeed, Caesar’s ghost might qualify as “great”. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/3 "2015-03-03T15:34:57Z")
From A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Fairies Oberon – Titania’s husband and King of the Fairies Titania – Oberon’s wife and Queen of the Fairies Robin Goodfellow/Puck – servant to Oberon Peaseblossom – fairy servant to Titania Cobweb – fairy servant to Titania Moth – fairy servant to Titania Mustardseed – fairy servant to Titania First Fairy, Second Fairy ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/4 "2015-03-03T15:35:23Z")
Lots of fairies in _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, of course. Banquo’s ghost in _Macbeth_ Sycorax in \*\*the Tempest – Caliban’s mother was a witch. To tell the truth, aside from being a Son of a Witch, I don’t know if Caliban himself qualifies as a “magical creature”. Although he’s often played as a magical thing (as in the Teller-directed version I saw last year), there’s nothing in the script to imply he has magical abilities. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/5 "2015-03-03T15:35:47Z")
_Midsummer Night’s Dream_ is rife with them. Oberon you named, but then there is Titania, Puck, all the other fairies, etc. And how would you class Bottom? When be-assed he is definitely magical, without having a speck of magic in him. ETA: triple simulpost! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/6 "2015-03-03T15:40:58Z")
By the way, there are other supernatural creatures in _The Tempest_. During “Prospero’s feast” there are appearances by Ceres, Juno, Iris, and numerous non-speaking nymphs. Sycorax doesn’t actually appear, but she’s referred to. Prospero is a wizard, of course, but there is no reference to him performing magic (although, in Teller’s staging, he actually performs quite a bit. So does Ariel.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/7 "2015-03-03T15:46:10Z")
Hermione in **A Winter’s Tale** ; her statue comes to life. Either that or Hermione has been in hiding for 16 years. The play directly says the statue comes alive, but there are hints that it might be the latter. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/8 "2015-03-03T15:55:25Z")
Owen Glendower in _Henry IV, Part I_. If you believe him. [QUOTE=William Shakespeare] **Glendower** : I can call spirits from the vasty deep. **Hotspur** : Why, so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/9 "2015-03-03T17:19:07Z")
By that logic, Iago. > [@](#): > > OTHELLO: I look down towards his feet, but that’s a fable. If that thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee. _[stabs Iago]_ > > IAGO: I bleed, sir, but not kill’d. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/10 "2015-03-03T17:22:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Banquo’s ghost in _Macbeth_ Debatable if that’s an actual ghost, or just MacBeth losing his mind. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/11 "2015-03-03T17:31:54Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Debatable if that’s an actual ghost, or just MacBeth losing his mind. The same argument has been made about the ghost of Hamlet’s father, other witnesses notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/12 "2015-03-03T17:34:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The same argument has been made about the ghost of Hamlet’s father, other witnesses notwithstanding. I think the other witnesses do a substantial amount of withstanding in that case. Plus, the ghost give Hamlet accurate information about events Hamlet could not have been privy to. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/13 "2015-03-03T17:49:15Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I think the other witnesses do a substantial amount of withstanding in that case. Plus, the ghost give Hamlet accurate information about events Hamlet could not have been privy to. Nevertheless, Hamlet has been psychoanalyzed to death, and the suggestion has certainly bgeen made (How vdo you REally know Hamlet didn’t have that information?) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/14 "2015-03-03T18:18:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Nevertheless, Hamlet has been psychoanalyzed to death, and the suggestion has certainly bgeen made (How vdo you REally know Hamlet didn’t have that information?) I’m sure the suggestion has been made. _Hamlet_ is arguably the most studied work in the English language. Which means that there have been a lot of really stupid analysis of it. Well, that might be a little unfair. You could probably do a pretty good _Hamlet_ production where the existence of the ghost is much more ambiguous, but you’d need to cut certain scenes and characters to make it work textually. Taking the text as a whole, though, there’s as much evidence for the ghost being real as there is for Polonius. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/15 "2015-03-03T20:47:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Well, that might be a little unfair. You could probably do a pretty good _Hamlet_ production where the existence of the ghost is much more ambiguous, but you’d need to cut certain scenes and characters to make it work textually. Taking the text as a whole, though, there’s as much evidence for the ghost being real as there is for Polonius. There’s the line in the play about death being _“the undiscovered country, from whose bourn, no traveler returns”_. That could be Shakespeare telling us that the ghost didn’t really appear but was only something people were imaging. And the fact that Hamlet said the line meant he was himself aware that he hadn’t really received a message from his father. His father’s ghost was just the personification of Hamlet’s suspicions rather than an independent witness that corroborated those suspicions. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/16 "2015-03-03T21:26:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > There’s the line in the play about death being _“the undiscovered country, from whose bourn, no traveler returns”_. That could be Shakespeare telling us that the ghost didn’t really appear but was only something people were imaging. And the fact that Hamlet said the line meant he was himself aware that he hadn’t really received a message from his father. His father’s ghost was just the personification of Hamlet’s suspicions rather than an independent witness that corroborated those suspicions. I think that line is better explained in the context of Hamlet’s stated suspicion that the ghost might be misleading him - that it’s a disguised devil, tempting him into unwarranted revenge, and not the returned soul of his father. The fact that the dead don’t regularly pop back over to chat with their undeparted loved ones would argue that this might be something more sinister. Which is why he stages the play-within-the-play, to test the intelligence he received from the apparition - not just to find out if Claudius is the murderer, but the specific method by which the murder was accomplished. While he might already suspect his uncle of fratricide, it seems a stretch that he would just happen to hit upon “death by ear poison” as the exact cause. Plus, there’s three witnesses to Hamlet’s talk with the ghost, two of whom first saw it before Hamlet even knew the castle was supposed to be haunted. Mass delusions and suppressed memories can be a real thing, but I question how widely they were recognized in the 16th century. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/17 "2015-03-03T22:26:51Z")
In the little-read, little-performed _ **Henry VIII** _, real life Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is shown having the power of clairvoyance, as he accurately predicts the glorious future that awaited the Virgin Queen Elizabeth. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/18 "2015-03-03T23:54:57Z")
Queen Margaret in Richard III may possess witch like power. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/19 "2015-03-04T01:18:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **CalMeacham** : > > To tell the truth, aside from being a Son of a Witch, I don’t know if Caliban himself qualifies as a “magical creature”. He’s certainly supernatural in his own right (arguably, considerably more so than the natural air-spirit Ariel): His mother is a witch, but his father is claimed to be a devil. As for magical ability, “You taught me language, and my profit on it / is that I know how to curse”. Though the efficacy of his curses is certainly debatable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094/20 "2015-03-04T01:46:37Z")
The soothsayer in _Julius Caesar._ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supernatural-characters-of-shakespeare/714094.md?page=2)