ACT 4, SCENE 1: EXPLAIN HOW THE WITCHES' BEHAVIOUR IN THIS SCENE MAKES AN IMPACT ON MACBETH AND INFLUENCES HIS ACTIONS

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ACT 4, SCENE 1: EXPLAIN HOW THE WITCHES’ BEHAVIOUR IN THIS SCENE MAKES AN IMPACT ON MACBETH AND INFLUENCES HIS ACTIONS

Act 4, scene 1 links to the rest of the play in a number of important ways. We know that Macbeth has achieved  his position by murdering King Duncan of Scotland. He has also murdered Banquo, his best friend, and Macduff’s wife and son because he thought that they were too suspicious and knew too much about Duncan’s murder, and so they meant a threat to him. These actions resulted in Macbeth having to cover his tracks continuously by murdering people.

He describes his mind as “…full of scorpions…”. This metaphor suggests that is mental state is very confused and he is constantly worried that someone could discover his guilt. He has also seen the ghost of Banquo which has made him have an hallucination.

This scene links with Act one, Scene 3 when the witches appear in a storm and predict Macbeth’s future. In this scene the witches predict that Macbeth would firstly become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. Macbeth’s response to the witches shows that he doesn’t really believe the witches because he can’t find an explanation to all of this and he doesn’t understand how the witches could know this, because both the Thane of Cawdor and the king of Scotland live. We know this because he states: “Say, from whence you owe this strange intelligence? Or why upon this blasted heath you stop our way whit such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you!”. This quotation shows that he’s not sure if what the witches say is true. Macbeth decides to seek the witches because he needs further information about them and in particular about his future and what they told him. In act 3, Scene 4 Macbeth says: “But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears”. This shows that he’s going crazy and his mind is playing him strange tricks, as he’s having hallucinations of Banquo. His mental state could be described as tortured. This scene influences Macbeth’s behaviour in the rest of the play by making him over anxious about everything. In Act 5 Macbeth behaves as though he is afraid of everybody who, even in a small way, poses a threat to him. This is shown particularly when he states: “Bring me no more reports! Let them fly all! Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear…The mind I sway by, and the eart I bear, shall never sag with doubt, nor shake with fear”. The scene links to themes of superstition and the supernatural. The scene develops these themes by Lady Macbeth exposing and showing her madness. It also presents Macbeth as wanting to impose his demands on everybody else. The force of the supernatural is seen as Lady Macbeth’s madness, due to the guilt overcoming her. This is highlighted particularly by this quote she says: “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!...The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no  more o’ that…”.

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The original audience would have reacted to Macbeth, as king, seeking guidance from the witches in the following ways:

  • As a lost person.
  • As someone who relied too much on the weird sisters.
  • As someone now being scared of everything.
  • As a person who could go on without killing.

They would have responded in these ways mainly because people at hose time were very superstitious and were scared of the supernatural world, so they thought that a person who relied completely and could not do without someone from the supernatural world would be surely going to fail and ...

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