Macbeth’s opening line is very significant, it is in Act 1 Scene 3, ‘so foul and fair a day I have not seen’. This echoes the witches’ earlier words, linking Macbeth with them. Macbeth plays on the theme of disorder, what is foul (battle) is also fair (victory). Banquo is startled by the witches, he describes them almost as if the witch’s features are alien like, “that look not like th’ inhabitants o’th’earth”. The witches greet Macbeth with the predictions that he shall be Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. Banquo is straightaway suspicious of the witches. However, he is unafraid, probably because he is a good man and therefore the witches have no power over him. He notices the Macbeth is astonished by the witches’ predictions, Banquo comments to the witches that Macbeth is ‘rapt withal’. This is a pun, a use of a word with a double meaning, where both meanings are appropriate in different ways: Macbeth is ‘rapt’ meaning amazed, and ‘wrapped’ as in a cloak or a garment. Banquo then demands to know his own future, the witch’s prophesy tell him that his descendants shall become king one day. Refusing to answer Macbeth’s pleading questions, the witches vanish. Macbeth’s mind is plagued by the idea that Banquo children shall become king. This is the first indication that the witches have had an influence on Macbeth’s mind, Macbeth is slowly turning against his closest friend Banquo.
Ross and Angus enter the scene and Ross praises Macbeth for his victorious effort in battle. Ross reports that whilst fighting the Norwegians, Macbeth made “strange images of death”. This shows us about Macbeth’s gruesome nature as a viscous warrior who killed the Norwegians in such an ill-mannered method. Ross and Angus reward Macbeth’s victory by making him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth at first fails to understand, he asks “why do you dress me / in borrowed robes? Soon Macbeth will be wearing what he does not deserve, the borrowed robes of a king. Macbeth now becomes certain that all the witches’ predictions already came true in hardly any time. On the other hand, Banquo suspects the witches, he says, “oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / the instruments of darkness tell us truths”. Banquo tells Macbeth that even truth can be means of trickery.
Macbeth is deeply disturbed by the witches’ predictions, he is in two frames of mind, in one mind he is a loyal servant to Scotland, but in the other mind he is power mad and his lust for ambition gets the better of him. In his soliloquy (a speech delivered by a character alone on stage as if he is thinking aloud) he finds himself thinking of murder. The idea is only in his imagination but it shakes him to the core. The thought of what it might bring paralysis him (lines 139-141), although it then occurs to him that chance may make him king without him having to do anything, Banquo again says that Macbeth is ‘rapt’ and comments that Macbeth with his new title, is like a man wearing strange garments which will only fit comfortably within time.
The witch’s timing of meeting Macbeth is very interesting. One of the witch’s predictions was that Macbeth shall become Thane of Cawdor. The prediction came true in hardly anytime, so it ensured Macbeth that the witch’s other two predictions us also be true. It is also interesting noticing how the witches only told Macbeth small descriptions of his future. The witch’s didn’t tell Macbeth the full story of how he would become king and how Banquo shall be the father f many kings to come. Maybe the witches did this because they knew that Macbeth’s curiosity with his lust for power maybe his greatest downfall.
Lady Macbeth is a character which reminds the audience of the witches, although in actual fact Lady Macbeth is human. Lady Macbeth and the three witches where the main influence on Macbeth and probably were the reason why Macbeth decided to kill the king. We first meet Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5. The scene takes place in Macbeth’s castle. It begins with Lady Macbeth reading a letter from her husband about his meeting with the witches. Although the letter does not suggest murder, Lady Macbeth immediately assumes it is necessary. However, she doubts Macbeth’s courage and thinks he is too virtuous of a man to kill the king, “too full o’ the milk of human kindness”. Lady Macbeth sees this as a weakness which she must chastise out of him. This is an indication of Lady Macbeth’s sinful nature linking her to the witches. Lady Macbeth is taken aback form the news that Duncan is coming. She has had no time to prepare. After the messenger has gone, she speaks a chilling soliloquy, in which she anticipates “the fatal entrance of Duncan / under my battlements”. In Lady Macbeth’s chilling soliloquy she calls on spirits to take away every trace of womanly pity that might prevent her from committing murder, “Unsex me here”. Lady Macbeth’s abnormal behaviour reminds the audience of the witch’s, she wants to have no gender, she wants to be totally evil, in general Lady Macbeth basically wants to be a witch.
The last scene in which we meet the witches is in Act 4 Scene 1. As usual the witches meet in the most horrid of atmospheres, in “a desolate place near Forres”. The witch’s prepare a spell to summon spirits for Macbeth. The foul ingredients they throw into the cauldron suggest poisonous evil, savagery, darkness, death and destruction. Many of the gruesome ingredients are the body parts of unusual animals, “scale of a dragon” and “tiger’s chawdron”. The second witch feels in her thumbs that Macbeth is coming, she describes Macbeth as “something wicked”. This indicates to the audience that Macbeth must now be full of evil because the witches, who are the instruments of darkness, have described Macbeth as wicked. As if Macbeth is just as evil as the witches.
Macbeth enters the scene and greets the witches in an extremely casual comfortable way, “how now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!” This shows the audience that Macbeth acknowledges that the witches are evil but does no longer fear them anymore. This is a contrast to Macbeth’s earlier behaviour towards the witches , in the beginning of the play Macbeth ignored the fact that the witches were evil and pretended that they were trying to help him instead of twisting his faith. Macbeth is even confident enough to ask the witches what they were doing. The witches reply by saying, “a deed without a name”. This reminds the audience of Macbeth’s killing of King Duncan, it would be known as a deed without a name because nobody knew the truth about who actually killed the king. Macbeth has convinced himself that as king he has the power to speak as if he is a supernatural, “conjure you” reminds of the witches type of language. Macbeth challenges the witches to answer what he asks, irrespective of the most appalling consequences, “Even till destruction sicken: answer me”. He personifies the word destruction itself goes sick you must answer me.
The witches agree to answer Macbeth’s questions, Macbeth is so confident he agrees to meet the witches’ masters careless of who they are. The first apparition is an ‘armed head’, it could suggest military threat, or the head of Macbeth, cut of at the end of the play. Macbeth carelessly thanks the first apparition for warning him to beware Macduff. The second apparition is ‘a bloody child’. Macbeth, perhaps encouraged by the first apparition, attempts a joke: “had I three ears, I’d hear thee”. The spirit tells him he has nothing to fear from any man of woman born. This reassures him. What he does not know (until the final scene of the play) is that Macduff was born by Caesarean, so in a sense he was not of woman born. The child could be representing Macduff. Both the first apparition and the second apparition repeat Macbeth’s name three times to capture his attention, this makes it more dramatic. It could also be referring to Macbeth’s three different stages of his mind, the first Macbeth was a loyal, brave, honest servant to Scotland, the second Macbeth was when his faith got twisted by the witches and this increased his thirst for power, but Macbeth still had a conscience, the third Macbeth is the current Macbeth, who is totally careless, and shall go to all limits to gain power. The final apparition is ‘a crowned child with a tree’. This may suggest Malcolm, soon to be king, who in Act 5, scene 5 orders his soldiers to cut down trees and carry them as disguise. This spirit tells Macbeth he cannot be defeated until Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth thinks this will never happen – but, of course, it does.
Macbeth now wants to know whether Banquo’s descendants will rule Scotland. The witches try to stop him asking, but now Macbeth is confident enough to threaten them with a curse, “an eternal curse fall on you”. This shows Macbeths ignorance once he has become king. The witches show him a vision of eight kings, followed by Banquo’s ghost. The last king holds a mirror, or crystal ball, showing even more kings. Macbeth is appalled to hear this, “What! Will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?” The witches pretend to be puzzled by Macbeth’s surprise and horror.
In Macbeth, the supernatural have many influences on the atmosphere, events and characters. The supernatural was an ongoing theme in Macbeth, mainly in the form of the three witches and there apparitions. The three witches influence the type of language a character uses, and can easily change a character’s state of mind. The witches always meet each other in the most miserable of atmospheres, in a desolate place and when there is thunder. The events which occur in Macbeth are all because of the influence of the three witches on Macbeth, if Macbeth didn’t meet the witches he will never have tried to kill King Duncan
