February 23, 2014

Compare the significance of the supernatural in Brighton Rock

and Macbeth

Sebastian
Venter

In this essay, I will show the differences and similarities of the significance of the supernatural in
Brighton Rock and Macbeth, and show how that also links to the concept of right and wrong. In both
these texts, supernatural influences and coincident events contribute to linking and explaining
events in the plot, moving the stories between phases.
Firstly, I will use the example of the witches in Macbeth because the opening scene of the play
focuses around them. In Act 1, Scene 1, the witches arrange to meet Macbeth after the battle. The
witches are the main catalyst of supernatural events in Macbeth, they represent Macbeths
ambitions, his black and deep desires (Act 1, Scene 4: Line 53). They prophesy of Macbeths future
greatness and Macbeth believes them; this is similar to the tip on Black Boy given to Ida by Hale on
page 15 of Brighton Rock:
Black Boy, Hale said, in the four oclock.
Hes twenty to one.
The fact that this tip is shown to be true later in the novel makes the reader consider the prophetic
nature of the tip. The way Ida follows Hales lead and goes with the tip almost echoes Macbeths
following of the witches prophecy. These events are both very important as the witches prophecies
set up the entirety of the plot and are the cause of Macbeths downfall to begin with, and the money
Ida earned off her bet on Black Boy allowed her to continue her investigation into Pinkie and Hales
death alone without the help of the police, which eventually leads to Pinkies death, at the end of
the novel.
Secondly, Ida is the channel of supernatural events in Brighton Rock, most notably her use of an
Ouija board when she returns to London after Hales death. An Ouija board is a device used in a
sance to allow a dead spirit to communicate by spelling out a message. When Hales spirit is called,
the board spells out the word: FRESUICILLEYE. Ida remarks that FRE- is short for Fred (Hale), SUICI is
short for suicide and the -EYE is in reference to one of her sayings: an eye for an eye, thats what I
always say. Initially, she cannot decipher the remaining two Ls, but she says she will bear them in
mind, although they are not brought up later in the novel. The message is what convinced Ida to
return to Brighton, as she is convinced that Hale was driven to suicide, and wishes to catch the
culprit. This sets the scene for majority of the novel, starting Idas investigation into Pinkie and his
gang. This could be compared to Macbeths first vision, the air-drawn dagger, which points towards
Duncans room, although these events are different in that Macbeths dagger points him towards
the first step of his downward spiral into madness, while Idas sance points her towards the first
step to seeing justice for Hales murder.
Religion is a large influence on characters choices in Brighton Rock, in that both Pinkie and Rose are
devout Catholics, but whereas Rose believes that Heaven must exist and all people can be saved,
Pinkie shows Credo in Unum Satanum- the belief that Hell must exist, therefore Heaven exists as a
result. Throughout the novel, Rose tries to make Pinkie repent for what he has done, believing that
they can both go to heaven; but Pinkie is certain he is going to Hell, and seems to be dreading it, as
shown by this quote when he got splashed with vitriol (sulphuric acid):
It was as if the flames had literally got him
February 23, 2014
Compare the significance of the supernatural in Brighton Rock
and Macbeth

Sebastian
Venter

This is a metaphor for going to Hell. Religion also features, although less prominently, in Macbeth,
mainly in the form of biblical references and metaphors. Shakespeare would be writing this play for
a very Christian audience, and so it would be favourable to place religious references in the script.
For instance, in Act 1, Scene 2, a sergeant tells Duncan of Macbeths great victory, he says: Except
they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, or memorise another Golgotha Golgotha is the name of the
hill on which Christ was crucified, and the sergeant makes the connection that he was like the
ruthless soldiers who pierced Jesus sides to ensure he was dead. This means that from the very start
of the play, Macbeth is associated with evil doings and people, foreshadowing subsequent events.
As Brighton Rock reaches its denouement, Rose is in confession, talking to a priest; the priest says:
You cannot conceive, my child nor can anyone the appalling strangeness of the mercy
of God
He goes on to say that Rose can only hope and pray that Pinkies soul was not cut off from salvation,
but she has resolved with the fact that he is damned, and wishes to go with him. The priest replies:
Corruptio Optimi Pessima this is Latin meaning: corruption of the best is the worst of all this can
be seen in Macbeths descent from Noble Macbeth in Act 1, to a Dead Butcher in Act 5. In the
beginning, Macbeth is a competent warrior who is admired by all his acquaintances, but by the end,
he is seen as a treasonous and ruthless monster. This falls in line with the phrase from John Acton in
1887: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great mean are almost always bad men
There is also a difference in the portrayal of the supernatural caused by the nature of the texts;
Macbeth is a play, while Brighton Rock is a novel. In Macbeth prophesies and summoning by
witchcraft are much more appropriate to a play as they are speech-based, which allows Shakespeare
to write lines for them and still keep all of the aspects and characteristics of the play e.g. rhyming
couplets at the end of a speech or act. In a novel such as Brighton Rock, the author would have much
more freedom over what they use, but a Ouija board I think is more appropriate for a text-based
format as it is text-based itself; if Greene used lengthy prophesies as his medium for the
supernatural, it would be hard to follow and uninteresting to read, making it easy to lose the plot.
But since Ida uses an Ouija board, any message from Hale would have to come as a single word, in
this case FRESUICILLEYE the way that a novel reads, allowing the reader to move at their own pace,
allows the reader to think about this word before Greene reveals its actual meaning, making it far
more interesting and suitable for a novel. In a play, the audience are not given time to ponder over
the meaning of lines, as at the time they would have no control over how the play flowed, unlike
today, where we can pause and rewind at our leisure; this means that Shakespeare could present
the prophesies in a dense, compact way as the audience would have trouble understanding and
would have to think for several seconds on its meaning, this could cause them to miss important
parts of the plot. The fact that Shakespeare uses elaborate speeches with poetic features such as
rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter allows the audience to better keep up with what is being
said, making a speech-based medium very fitting for a speech-based format.
Some events in both texts do not have parallels. For instance, before Duncans murder, Lady
Macbeth asks Murdering Ministers to help her become ruthless in her pursuit for power, the
change in her character can be seen in the play as Lady Macbeth falls from Macbeths dearest
February 23, 2014
Compare the significance of the supernatural in Brighton Rock
and Macbeth

Sebastian
Venter

partner in greatness to a brief candle after her death. In Brighton Rock, a number of chance
meetings take place which are imperative to the plot, such as Ida meeting Hale and, by connection,
Pinkie, without these meetings, Ida would not have the motive or funding to investigate Pinkie and
Hales death, which is the most basic cause for all the events in the novel, rendering coincidence an
important part of Brighton Rock as a whole.
The supernatural in Brighton Rock and Macbeth have a strange link into the concept of Right and
Wrong. For instance, Ida, the supernatural medium in Brighton Rock, has a strong sense of right and
wrong, as said by her several times throughout the novel. In Idas pursuit of Rose and Pinkie, their
differing ideologies clash greatly, Ida with her worldly and rational Right and Wrong, and Rose and
Pinkies religious Good and Evil. Macbeth is a Thane of Scotland, and is shown from the start to know
the difference between right and wrong, never being comfortable with murdering Duncan in the first
place, but instead coerced by his wife to do it. His eventual mental breakdown is caused by him
choosing to do wrong without being able to justify it himself. In the first scene of Macbeth, the
witches arrange to meet Macbeth when the battles lost and won; this entertains the view made
by English novelist Francis Edward Smedley: that Alls fair in love and war, meaning that in a battle,
there is no right and wrong side, only winners and losers.
In conclusion, the Supernatural plays a very important role in both texts, while linking in with the
ideas of coincidence and right and Wrong. The writers of the texts used a suitable medium for
conveying the supernatural dependant on the style of their piece, allowing the reader/playgoer to
easily and thoroughly understand what is going on These 3 ideas combine in the texts to make very
interesting and deep stories which provide abundant material for reflection and study.

Bibliography:
http://www.field-of-themes.com/shakespeare/essays/Esupernatural.htm
http://www.eriding.net/amoore/prose/brighton.htm
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/prose/brightonrock.htm
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=f22xhx0lVDwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=brighton+rock&hl=en
&sa=X&ei=a2cPU5rALMGShQe85YGQDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=brighton%20rock&f=false
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Macbeth by William Shakespeare