If I were directing Macbeth and had to present the witches in the opening scene I would keep them in a stereotypical way, because you can create so many effects with this image of witches as it has been done many times before in the past. The setting would be in a dark and abandoned place where there was a lot of smoke, because of the cauldron. The setting would have to be an abandoned place because it will give the impression of the witches wanting to be distant from everybody else and up to no good as they have gone to such a place to carry out their evil deeds. The opening scene will be dramatic as you would suddenly hear thunder, lightning and rain, and the thick and eerie smoke would rise up from the cauldron to reveal the witches standing around it. They will loudly break out into chant and rhyme to fulfil the effect of them being fearsome. They will be old witches, all three dressed in black with very similar looks. By all of them being presented as old witches dressed in long black outfits it will make it look as though they are all up to something menacing as well as disturbing. When chanting around the cauldron they will appear somewhat chilling as they will have no expression on their faces and most importantly as they will hurl certain objects into the cauldron like frog’s legs and dead animals still fresh from their deaths because they’ll be covered in blood. This will be done so that the topic of curiosity arises in the audiences’ minds as to why the witches are carrying out these evil deeds which don’t appear to make any sense. A few clues will be given to the audience as to why the witches are doing what they are doing. For example when they will say, ‘Upon the heath. There to meet with Macbeth.’ The audience will realise that what they are up to may well have something to do with Macbeth. It is very important for the witches to be presented in such a horrific and dramatic way as it will only confirm the views of what people thought of witches in Shakespeare’s time. People thought that they could communicate with the dead and raise evil spirits by boiling up nauseating ingredients into a sickening brew. This is why if I had the chance to direct Macbeth, the witches would be mixing certain things in a cauldron as well as being presented in other stereotypical ways to confirm the view of how witches were presented in Shakespearian time.
In Shakespearian times all people believed in witches and ghosts. They had many superstitions about witches which is why nearly all women were accused of being witches and were cruelly tortured and executed by being burnt at the stake. They believed that witches could cause bad weather storms, affecting ships at sea and spoiling the crops. They also believed that witches could make people fall ill by using spells and potions, and could kill people at a distance. In Act 1 scene 3 one of the witches talks about how she has caused bad weather and put a curse on a sailor, ‘Shall he dwindle, peak and pine. Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.’ This proves to the audience that they did put curses on people and could cause bad weather. Some of the other superstitions about witches were that they had a contract with the devil, who gave the witches demonic powers. People thought that witches could predict the future. As they say in Act 1 scene 3, ‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.’ and ‘Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. So all hail Macbeth and Banquo.’ Here the witches greet Macbeth with the prediction that he will be made Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. People believed that witches could communicate with the dead and raise evil spirits by boiling up nauseating ingredients into a sickening brew. People believed that witches could fly, cause fogs and storms as well as kill animals. People also believed that witches could become invisible at their own will or astonishingly disappear. In act 1 scene 1 the witches disappear after talking to Macbeth and Banquo. Banquo says, ‘The Earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them; whither are they vanished?’ Macbeth replies, ‘Into the air, and what seemed corporal, melted As breath into wind. Would they have stayed!’ This confirms that the witches do have powers as they disappear into the air. The witches are powerful enough to control the weather, ‘I’ll give thee a wind’ and they hint at things to come, ‘Sleep shall neither night nor day, hang upon his penthouse lid.’ In Shakespeare’s time most people believed that witches could do all these things, which is why they were shown in the play, because at the time it was seen as being the “truth”.
It may perhaps be Lady Macbeth who plays possibly the biggest part in influencing Macbeth. She criticises her husband for not being ambitious enough. She says he is “not without ambition” but doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. She is serious about wanting to carry out these murders as she calls on evil spirits to fill her up with hatred, “Come, you spirits And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood.” She wants to feel empty from inside and remove her femininity so that she has the power to carry out these horrific crimes. However it is Macbeth who has the self doubt about murdering the King because he knows it is not right to do this, he says, “We shall proceed no further in this business.” Lady Macbeth tries to shake him out of this attitude. She also taunts him in hope that this will encourage him to commit the murder, when she says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” Here she is saying that he isn’t a proper man, if he cannot go through with this murder. She continues with her mocking when she says “... From this time, Such I account thy love...” Here Lady Macbeth tries to emotionally blackmail Macbeth by saying if he doesn’t go through with the murder; it means he must not love her enough to do it. At the end of Act 1 scene 7 Lady Macbeth has persuaded Macbeth to murder Duncan. Macbeth says, “I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.” At the end of they day, it is Lady Macbeth who gains the upper hand in this whole ordeal as she has the most control and thought over the situation. She is quite cunning in her plan she has made with Macbeth as she tries different tactics to gain what she wants. She is confident in her plan as she says, “But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail” which proposes her to be the stronger partner in the relationship.
Macbeth’s own ambition becomes an increasingly big factor to blame for what happens in the play. He says, “... I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition.....” Here he is saying that his only reason for killing Duncan is ambition. Macbeth’s own ambition to kill has been brought about by the main people around him; his wife and the three witches. They had inflicted many ideas into his mind, the ideas that they thought were truthful and realistic. For example when the witches predict that Macbeth will become King, they made it sound so truthful and honest. Macbeth is brought in by this prediction, and his wife also has many big plans to get rid of Duncan and the King, she influences his thoughts and actions as well. He then begins to think in the way that Lady Macbeth thinks in. He too becomes quite cunning and vicious as so his ambition builds up, as he says, “For in my way it lies Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires.” By saying this he means that he does not want to reveal his anger and desires to anyone. He must keep his attention hidden. Macbeth’s ambition makes the play a tragedy. His ambition was his greatest weakness; it drove him to murder, corruption, treason and evil.
I think the witches play the biggest part in being responsible for Macbeth’s actions because if it weren’t for them Macbeth and his wife wouldn’t have got into the tangled web of murder, madness and deceit that they had eventually created for themselves. It was all down to the witches revelations that the whole ordeal started. Their prediction put false hopes into Macbeth’s mind. It made him think that there was a realistic chance of him becoming King. He didn’t let nature take its course, and let him become King the way it was going to happen. Once the witches had let him know of their prediction and he told his wife, Lady Macbeth soon started making plans to kill the present King and Duncan and Macbeth too got caught up in her plans, because they both wanted him to become King. If the witches hadn’t uttered a word of their thoughts to anyone, especially Macbeth, none of this bloodshed would’ve occurred. If someone told you that something life changing was going to happen to you, this revelation would stay on your mind, and you would naturally do something to make it happen faster. This is most probably why Macbeth and Lady Macbeth acted in the way they did. I think Shakespeare included witches in his play because at the time most of the people believed that witches existed and had powers. If he showed the witches doing the things they had done in the play, which was disappearing, making predictions and essentially leading people onto the path of evil, people would’ve believed that the witches were capable of doing these things. By showing all this in the play, it only confirmed people’s thoughts about witches. It also made the play more affective as people would’ve only turned around and said something like, ‘Well, it was all down to those witches, no surprise there.’ People ‘knew’ that witches existed and to put them in the play and give them such a role would’ve got people interested in the play as it was shocking to see them disappear in the air etc. It would’ve brought many people to see the play as it would’ve been telling people that their thoughts and suspicions about witches was right all along.
