Storms are always symbolic in Shakespeare plays, and such symbolism appears in the beginning of the third scene. The stage direction calls for thunder and lightning. Thunder and storm sounds could easily be produced by rattling large sheets of metal and banging on large kettle drums. The actors’ words and actions supply the rest of the illusion.
Casca meets the Roman senator Cicero on the streets and exclaims how he had never seen such a wild storm in all of his life. Casca adds that he also saw fire falling from the skies (line 10). Casca fears that the gods are angry and are going to destroy mankind. Casca then lists four other omens that he saw:
As Casca concludes, these sights are “portentous things” (31). They are omens. They are supernatural signs that some disaster has happened or will happen to the ruler of the nation.
The State of the State Reflects The State of the King. In other words, the condition of a kingdom or nation depends upon the condition of the king. This is an old myth that goes back to ancient times. One of the oldest myths upon record is that of the Fisher King. A king has become ill or is dying, and everyone in his nation suffers from diseases, plagues, and disasters. Only when a hero solves the problem or finds a miraculous token does the king, and thus the kingdom, become cured. This myth was adapted by the Christians to become the Myth of the Holy Grail (the grail being the chalice or cup that Jesus Christ used during the Last Supper). A version of this myth also appears in numerous other works, like Gilgamesh, The Odyssey by Homer, and Beowulf. The idea also appears in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. In that play the city of Thebes is experiencing plague, famine, and ruin because King Oedipus has killed his father and slept with his mother. In this story, then, the king is infected with evil; and so his entire kingdom is suffering. As long as a king is good and well, his kingdom is well. But, if a king is ill or evil, then the entire kingdom suffers.
In other words, there is a relationship between the nation and the ruler, and so natural or supernatural troubles occur when the king is ill or in trouble. Shakespeare uses omens in other plays as well to indicate the fall of a king. In Macbeth (see Act II, 3: 50-56), for example, omens occur before the murder of King Duncan. Shakespeare also uses a storm in a symbolic manner in other plays as well: see, for example, Othello (Act II, 1: 1) and King Lear (Act II, 4: 282). Shakespeare, time and again, suggests that a greater force, a supernatural force, plays a role in the lives of mankind.