When the witches’ chant they appear to act as one unit, they seem to end each other’s sentences, and rhyme is a feature of the Witches’ speech throughout the play, which intensifies the sense of incantation, of magical charms, it also makes them seem very powerful. The Witches’ also add to dramatic effect in the way that they create uneasiness with the audience, such as when they cast the spell against the sailor over such a minor motive
“Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’th’Tiger:
But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,
And like a rat without a tail,
I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.”
This shows how evil, and vindictive the witches are, by getting their own back on the sailors wife by making her husband suffer, but not die.
“I’ll drain him dry as hay:
Sleep shall neither night nor day”
“Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.’
The Witches’ add several mysterious touches to the play. Especially when the first line Macbeth says in the play is an echo of the withes words in scene 1 “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” The line its self is also mysterious, along with “When the battles lost and won” as how can a battle be lost and won? And how can fair be foul? What are opposites for us, the audience; seem to be interchangeable for the Witches’.
Another role the Withes’ have in Macbeth is characterization. For one the Witches are not at all like the other human characters in the play, they’re different, and this is emphasized when all of their speeches rhyme, and are in iambic pentameter,
“Weary sennights nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle peak and pine.
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest tossed.”
It is also an idea that the Witches’ may be representations of Macbeth’s personality. This is proved somewhat when Macbeth repeats the words of the witches, and when once he has heard the prophecy of him becoming king, he goes to aside with,
“Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock against my ribs”
Which might prove that the idea of killing the king may already have been in his head, as he came up with the idea so quickly.
The prophecies the witches’ tell to Macbeth and Banquo are very interesting. They show how the witches can look into the future, as the audience knows that Macbeth has been promoted from Thane of Glamis to Thane of Cawdor, yet Macbeth does not yet know this. And they also develop the characters of both Macbeth and Banquo to the audience.
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.”
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor.”
“All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.”
As soon as the witches vanish, Ross and Angus enter to tell Macbeth that he is know Thane of Cawdor, again this keeps us thinking, and makes Macbeth believe what the witches say. The witches have been proved right about the Thane of Cawdor, and then the next stage may be inevitable.
The reaction of Macbeth to the greeting of the Witches’ is quite different from that of Banquo. Macbeth is perturbed and frightened, ”Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair” where as Banquo is calm and skeptical,
“The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.”
The propheci prove to show unpleasant qualities in Macbeth, and with the asides Macbeth’s makes after meeting the witches reveals that Macbeth has a disturbed mind.
The witches themselves have little character development, other than they are irrational, this alone also adds to their mystery.
Finally, the last role the witches play in Macbeth is a representation of theme. The theme in the play good verses evil, is brought about in one example, after Macbeth has heard the propheci, with the urge to destroy whatever is good, with murderous intention, and action (‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair”)
The theme appearance and reality also comes across in the witches. Where evil lurks behind fair intentions, when the witches appear to tell Macbeth good news-that he will become king, but the audience knows that all is not what is seems. And lastly the theme of equivocation, when Macbeth echoes the words of the witches, when we first meet him in the play.
Overall, the witches are a very important part of the play, with a very important role. The Witches’ are what makes the play so interesting, and they succeed in keeping the audience guessing, and wondering what will happen as a result of the witches’ actions
