In the play women are seen as dangerous forces that can emasculate and ruin men, discus.
From the beginning of the play women are seen to be deceitful. The evil done by the women characters is different in comparison to the men because while the men are perceived to be physically violent, Lady Macbeth and the three witches are more indirect in their ‘violence’. The women in the play are seen to use the manipulation to do harm to other characters instead of being physically violent.
In the beginning of the play the witches are introduced to the audience as they meet Macbeth and Banquo, and even then the witches are depicted as scheming. The witches tempt Macbeth and play on his desire as the prophecies that the witches depict are not straightforward and often ambiguous in meaning. At their meeting the witches tempt Macbeth by telling him he will be the king and thane of Cawdor. The witches then go on to tell Banquo the fate of his children as ‘he will be the father of many kings’. After the meeting Macbeth and Banquo doubt the occurrence but increasingly become suspicious as Ross then refers to Macbeth as the thane of Cawdor. The prophecy then immediately drove Macbeth to think of murder; thoughts that were previously inexistent. In the second meeting between the witches and Macbeth, the witches then go on to further manipulate Macbeth as they feed him the illusion that he is invincible and cannot be killed by one born of woman. The witches lead to the destruction of Macbeth. Therefore the manipulation done by the witches is indirect but depends upon deception, in this case it by leads Macbeth to believe in things that are not true or perhaps only partly true. The three witches are effective in their deception.
