Discuss the dramatic importance of the Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

In the opening scene the weather is stormy and wet, this creates a threatening atmosphere to the present audience but to the audience of the 17th century it would have been perceived that withes would be present in the scene.

I think that Shakespeare chose to begin the play with the witches because it would have shown that the play is about witchcraft and evil. Part of the last speech in this scene is:

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair"

This would confuse the audience because fair and foul are opposites and would not usually be called the same thing. This may demonstrate that things are not always what they seem, it may also show that there might be a battle or a struggle between good and evil.

Shakespeare uses the number 3 a lot in Macbeth this is demonstrated with the three witches, in the opening scene the witch says:

"In thunder lightning or rain"

This is an example of triadic structure as she says three weather conditions. The number three was used as people see 3 as a magical or supernatural number. Thus, the audience would get the impression of mystery.

The idea of familiar's runs through this scene, people believed that witches had animal helpers called familiars; this idea of familiars is introduced when one of the witches says:

"I come, Graymalkin!"

The witch is saying this as if she were answering a call from her cat; this would make the audience believe that her familiar was a cat.

As Macbeth is a play the impact that this scene would have on the audience would be greater onstage than it is to people reading the text, in a production the witches would probably be chanting around a cauldron, but in the text we do not get the whole of the picture and it is left to our imaginations.

At the start Act1 scene3 we hear one of the witches telling the others a tale about a sailors wife who would not give the witch a chestnut. The witch felt angry that the sailor's wife had denied her a chestnut and so she says she will follow the sailors ship out to sea and torment him.

King James would have been interested in this because of his experience of witches raising a storm to try and kill him. It also proves to the audience that the witches intend to do what they do and that it is not by accident. The dramatic effect on the audience would be that they would be worried about Macbeth and they would be wondering what the witches would do to him.

The things that the witches say they will do show the powers they were thought to possess, for example:

"But in a sieve I'll thither sail"

A Shakespearean audience would have considered sailing in a sieve to be a mode of transport used by witches and they would have taken the comment seriously. Today that belief would be disregarded, as not many people still believe in witches and supernatural powers.

The witch's tale links in with what they do to Macbeth because they torture Macbeth but do not directly cause his death, just as they propose to torture the sailor but they do not propose to actually kill him.

When Macbeth and Banquo enter Macbeth's language mirrors the witches:

"So fair and foul a day I have not seen."

Macbeth words are similar to the words of the witches in act1 scene1; this would have the effect of the audience thinking that Macbeth will be (or already is) associated with the witches.

Banquo questions the sexuality of the witches because they do not look human, they resemble women but they have beards and hairy chins and they look unnatural.

Banquo thinks that the witches are being ridiculous when they tell Macbeth that he will become thane of Cawdor and king, but Macbeth's imagination starts to work and think about what the witches said to him, this is what the witches wanted to happen because Macbeth goes on to commit murder. The difference in reactions tells us about the characters of Macbeth and Banquo, it shows us that Macbeth is more ambitious than Banquo.

When Ross brings Macbeth the news that the thane of Cawdor has been treacherous and that the king has given Macbeth the title of thane of Cawdor, Macbeth's ambition and curiosity takes over his brain and he begins to believe that it is possible to be king.

In act1 scene5 Lady Macbeth calls upon evil spirits to take her body and to fill her with the direst cruelty so that she will feel no remorse after killing king Duncan:

"Unsex me here and fill me from the crown

to the toe top-full of direst cruelty!"

Lady Macbeth's speech would have a bad effect on the audience because it is not natural to ask for evil spirits to possess your body. The audience would be shocked at Lady Macbeth and they would think that she is linked with the witches. Some people see Lady Macbeth as the 4th witch because her speech is so evil and unnatural.

In act1 scene7 Macbeth decides not to go ahead with the plan to kill Duncan but lady Macbeth tells him weak and is not the man he was:

"Can you want the glittering prize- the crown-

yet be a self confessed coward"

And so, Macbeth feels that he has to kill Duncan to show his wife that he as a man. In this scene lady Macbeth tells her husband that she would bash her own child's brains out while it was suckling from her breast:

"I would, while it was smiling in my face,

have plucked my nipple from its

boneless gums and dashed the brains out"

Here what lady Macbeth is saying links in with the ingredients of the witches' potion (act 4 scene1) for the reason that one of the ingredients is:

"Finger of a birth strangled babe

Ditch-delivered by a drab"

Which links in with lady Macbeth saying she would bash a baby's brain out. This is also showing that the evil has taken over lady Macbeth's mind and she is thinking of evil things. This would have shocked the audience because it is so cruel.

Before Macbeth visits the witches in act 4 scene1 the witches are mixing a potion to show Macbeth the three apparitions, some of the ingredients of the potion are disgusting for example: the mummy of a dead witch, the liver of a blaspheming Jew and the gut of a salt-sea shark. These ingredients show how evil the witches are, as all of the above ingredients would involve killing and death.

As Macbeth purposely looks for the witches in this scene the audience would see that he is in the grip of evil. This meeting affects Macbeth by causing him to send his men to kill Macduff's family, because Macbeth believes that time is getting the better of him so he will act as soon as he thinks of them:

"Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits:

the flighty purpose never is o'ertook

unless the deed go with it."

Here Shakespeare is using Personification, talking about time as if time is a person. I think that Shakespeare chose to use personification because it is as if Macbeth is thinking out loud.

After each meeting with the witches Macbeth commits murder, I think that this is important because it makes you think that the witches mean to do evil and that they have an evil influence over Macbeth.