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 loose him self. Macbeth is seen as a figure who is lost and can’t find any ways of adjusting what he has done
The overall dramatic impact of his scene on the audience should be very effective and shocking. The original audience would have responded to the witches in the following ways:
- with fear
- believing what the story tells
- with mystery
This was because the unknown is something people at those times didn’t understand, because they didn’t have an open mind and open view of things, this is why they were scared of things they didn’t understand. And superstition is a perfect example of this (the unknown), it was a thing that people didn’t understand and therefore they were scared of it and of anyone who approved it. The three apparitions also create fear, and they have a particular dramatic impact both on the audience and Macbeth. This is how at the end of the scene the audience should feel. Towards Macbeth, the audience should not be very sympathetic as they should reject what the apparitions told him because Macbeth believes and follows what the supernatural world tells him: the second apparition told Macbeth that he should fear anything as he cannot be killed by any son born of woman; this made Macbeth feel invincible.
The use of lightening and sound could contribute to this overall effect by creating thunders, lightings and appropriate music which could help to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere.
Throughout this section of the scene the witches speak in rime.
The dramatic impact this has on the audience is that they’re drawn into the speeches therefore sometimes they could pay more attention to the rhythm than the words.
Their spells are full of images of animals of which they use their insides as ingredients. For example “brindled”, “hedge-pig”, “blind worm”, “howlet”, etc… They create an impression of fear and mystery as well as suspicion.
The witches in their spells use many poetic devices such as rime, repetition and onomatopoeia. Examples of these are “bubble” (onomatopoeia), “blind-worm sting…howlet’s wing” (rime), “double, double” (repetition). The effect of these poetic devices is to emphasise certain words and meaning, particularly by repetition, and also to draw the audience into the speech.
The lines should be delivered with a strong tone of voice and at the same time very involved and drawn into the speech.
The actors should move slowly and stirring.
The audience should view the witches as some old, scary and malevolent old women; therefore after the scene, the audience should have quite a bad and scary impression of them.
Macbeth enters the scene when the witches are making a spell; in fact the second witch felt that Macbeth was coming, and described him as “wicked”. Macbeth, once entered, calls the witches “secret black and midnight hags”, this shows that he is angry and aggressive towards the witches, in fact he insults them.
These lines should be delivered with a powerful, strong and bold tone of voice of the actor, because he has to show all his anger towards the witches.
In his opening speech Macbeth demands the witches what they were doing, then he describes the powers they all have and he asks them to answer all of his questions. As he says this speech the actor should move following a quite specific pacing to convey Macbeth’s feelings at this point.
The witches, as mentioned before, speak in rime and make use of many poetic devices, which shows that they have the total control of the situation and know what is going on. In contrast to the witches Macbeth speaks in free verse.
Shakespeare chooses to make Macbeth speak in free verse, not using any poetic devices, as it means that he has no control of what is going on and that he has no control of the decisions he makes.
During this speech Macbeth refers to the powers that the witches have to destroy everything so to the misfortune caused by nature. In his speech he also uses any images, focusing on one in which a castle is being destroyed. For example he states: “Though castles topple on their warders’ heads” and “Though palaces and pyramids do slope”. The images suggests Macbeth has no more control of the situation nor of himself because the image he used of the castle falling refers to his own castle; Macbeth also refers to the misfortune caused by nature because in his speech all the damages to things are caused by nature.
The impact this speech would have on the audience would be very tragic as it shows that Macbeth tried to be king, but now that he is he has not got the mental strength to support all the responsibilities for all of his past actions. This speech so develops Macbeth as a tragic hero by indirectly describing himself as an unsuccessful hero because he became addicted to the witches’ predictions.
Macbeth is shown three different apparitions invocated by the witches: the first apparition shows an armoured head full of blood; the second apparition is a bloodstained child; whilst the third and last apparition is a child wearing a crown and holding a small tree in his hand, followed by seven other children. The apparitions suggest that: “Macbeth!.. Beware Macduff!”, “Macbeth!... be bloody, bold and resolute!... for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth” and “Be lion-mettled…Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him”.
The actor playing Macbeth should respond to each apparition in a confused way, behaving strangely as not knowing what to think and as needing to ask more and more questions to them.
Now Macbeth believes that he is invincible as particularly the second apparition told him that none man born by a woman could harm him, this will bring him to behave in a way as he is really invincible.
At this point the three apparitions have the total control if the scene because they have control over Macbeth’s thoughts and actions.
The original audience would take the apparitions in a very serious way and believing in them because at those times people were very superstitious; whilst the modern audience would not take them seriously at all.
The first witch states “Ay, sir, all this is so. But why stands Macbeth thus amazèdly?”. This suggests that Macbeth is really amazed by the fact that Banquo’s descendants will reign Scotland in the future even though he already killed Banquo.
Macbeth responds to the disappearance of the witches by cursing the witches and that day and hour in which he met them. He states “Where are they? Gone?” and “Let this pernicious hour stand aye accursèd in the calendar!”. These phrases suggests that Macbeth needed to ask more questions to the witches, and because they suddenly disappeared all of his anger came out suddenly by cursing them.
The actor playing Macbeth should really shout with an angry and powerful tone of voice and move nearly standing on a single point looking around himself frenetically.
The phrases that describe Macbeth’s attitude towards the witches are “infected be the air whereon they ride” and “damned all those that trust them”. The audience may have considered these ironic because up to this point of the play Macbeth has been doing the exact opposite of what he has just said; in fact he trusted the witches and became “addicted” to them.
At the end of the scene Macbeth states: “The castle of Macduff I will surprise…give to edge o’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls…This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool!”. The audience would see Macbeth as a murderer, as someone who needs to continuously kill people to go on, as a weak man who has to eliminate the first even innocent person who blocks his way, as someone who is completely lost and can’t be get back.
This scene would have changed our view of Macbeth because in this scene the witches and the apparitions make Macbeth change and make the audience understand the need that Macbeth has of the witches and how this makes him go crazy.
Ina act five scene five Macbeth states: “…and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death…life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. These ideas link to Act four Scene one because in both scenes Macbeth expresses his desperation towards life.
In may view a modern audience would see Macbeth as someone who tried to get the throne through a not honest way, and therefore afterwards he paid the consequences because he didn’t have the mental strength to support his responsibilities not through continuing to kill other people; in fact he did continue to kill people until he reached the point that he couldn’t make it any longer and therefore he has been killed. I also think that these are the reasons why Macbeth shouldn’t deserve the sympathy of the audience because at the beginning he was a loyal and brave soldier who fought for his king, but afterwards he became addicted to killing and to the witches as he couldn’t make it on his own after a certain point.