Spirituality in the Life of Pi and Macbeth

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Spirituality in Life of Pi and Macbeth
Thesis statement: Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Macbeth by Shakespeare utilizes spirituality to provide an in-depth narrative meaning.
Introduction.
Spirituality in the Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
Pi’s belief in God.
The use of Pi’s belief to highlight his struggles when in the lifeboat.
Spirituality in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The three witches’ lines and their spiritual connection to Macbeth.
The use of hallucinations to encourage sympathy and understanding.
Conclusion

Spirituality in the Life of Pi and Macbeth
Introduction
The paper discusses the use of spirituality in the novels Life of Pi by Yann Martel and Macbeth by Shakespeare. The two stories use spirituality to provide an in-depth narrative meaning (Kusch).
The Life of Pi
The life of Pi uses spirituality whereby Pi belief in God is a significant theme. Throughout the narration, Pi makes the reader aware that he believes and loves God to the point he can worship as either a Hindu, Muslim or Christian. Pi talks of an atheist whom he thinks are not aware he believes in God until he dies. Pi finds the lack of belief unforgivable as shown in the passage where he asks the Japanese officials the story they preferred of the two. Pi does not see any reason why they would not believe the better story.
Pi’s dedication to God is eminent up to the point where he is on the lifeboat and physical need supersede his spiritual beliefs.

Although, Pi does not question his faith in God during his struggles rather he concentrates more on other things. Spirituality works as a way to emphasize the survival theme.
Macbeth
Macbeth by William Shakespeare utilizes the supernatural and spirituality to give the narrative shape. It provides definitive illustrations of how the spiritual can be used to provide meaning to a story. Macbeth is a story about temptation and weaknesses that uses spirituality as the primary plot element. The story comprises of several supernatural components, for example, the three witches. The first line, “so foul and fair a day I have not seen” is a direct reflection of the witches’ first chant, “fair is foul and foul is fair.” The two lines show the close and mystical link between Macbeth and the witches is developed before the temptation. Shakespeare use of the supernatural determines the overall interpretation of the story.
Additionally, the book associates the witches to each event as it occurs using the weather description and their influence on it. The witches say, “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or rain” and later on there is intemperate weather on the night of Duncan’s murder. The weather demonstrates the witches’ supernatural influence in tempting Macbeth to immorality and the effect of the prophecy to his behavior. Macbeth uses two other supernatural elements: the floating dagger and Banquo’s ghost. Although, these elements could be a creation of Macbeth’s troubled mind after he killed Duncan. The use of the elements as a hallucination encourages feeling sympathy for Macbeth and comprehending the effects his actions have had on him.
Conclusion
Macbeth uses supernatural elements to reveal a deeper meaning and gives a level of ambiguity that helps develop the plot. It also encourages reflection on temptation and the effects of succumbing to the darker side of human nature. The Life of Pi uses Pi’s belief in God as a way to draw attention to the survival theme. Both stories show how the supernatural can be utilized to provide an in-depth narrative meaning.

Work Cited
Kusch, Celena. Literary Analysis: The Basics. Routledge, 2016.