Macbeth’s opening words are, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” He seems to be under their influence, as he uses antithesis, which the witches enjoy using. It is an echo of “fair is foul, and foul is fair.” Banquo points they “Look not like the’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth,” and is uncertain about them:
“You should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.”
The witches have unnatural looks and their gender is unclear which we are reminded of later when Lady Macbeth wishes to be ‘unsexed’. The witches greet Macbeth, with three titles, “Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King that shalt be.” Banquo responds by saying:
“Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?”
In comment to Macbeth’s reaction, he seems anxious all of a sudden, possibly due to previous deceiving thoughts of becoming King.
Banquo mistrusts them and is cautious but he is interested in his fate:
“Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.”
This is a striking contrast to Macbeth’s reaction showing the difference between the two men. Macbeth had previously been thinking about becoming King and begins to believe in what the witches are saying, where as Banquo doesn’t and has no deceiving thoughts on his prophecies.
As the witches delight in speaking in paradoxes, they continue to do so:
“Lesser than Macbeth, and greater”
Banquo is also given three prophecies, one of which he will be the father of Kings. When messengers tell Macbeth he has been given the title of ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and Banquo’s response “What, can the devil speak true?” shows that he recognises they are evil. In contrast, Macbeth is excited by the witches’ words, as he has proof that the witches know the future and he begins to believe in them. He soon expresses in an aside that he has begun to think of “murder”:
“Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs…”
This shows that Macbeth hates his own thoughts but eventually he decides to leave his future to fate. This decision to let ’fate’ crown him is overturned when he meets King Duncan who announces his son to be king after him: “Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter.”
Next we are introduced to Lady Macbeth, reading a letter from her husband, about the witches’ predictions. She knows that Macbeth has ambition, but fears he is too noble to murder Duncan. “He is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness.” She is startled to learn that Duncan is on his way to the castle and calls on the ‘evil’ spirits to make her ruthless so that she can carry out the murder of Duncan.
Lady Macbeth knows she will have to steel herself and that the murder will need evil power, not something naturally within her.
“Come you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the top-full
Of direst cruelty”
This is horrible and unnatural because, she wants instruments of evil to take away her femininity so she will be overflowing with cruelty.
“Come to my women’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers”
The image shocks because what is tender and gentle in breast-feeding, she wants to replace with bitterness. Lady Macbeth despises her own sex and she wants to do away with her femininity. This can be linked to the witches, whose gender was unclear and unnatural. Their inhuman supernatural presence is similar to Lady Macbeth wanting to unsex herself, which is inhuman and unnatural. When Lady Macbeth gives Macbeth advice on how he should act when Duncan comes for dinner as she urges him to hide his feelings and “Look like th’ innocent flower
But be the serpent under’t”
We are reminded of the witches in this echo of “fair is foul, and foul is fair,” where looking like the innocent flower is fair, good and beautiful but the serpent underneath is foul and bad.
Macbeth’s soliloquy while Duncan’s feasting, seems to confirm his wife’s understanding of him being ‘too full of the milk in human kindness’ and when he tells Lady Macbeth that they will go no further with the plot to kill Duncan, her language to him is deliberately shocking, in its repulsive, violent and unnatural images. It shows her power, aggression and the lengths she will go to make Macbeth continue with the plan. She claims that, whilst breast feeding she
“Would while it was smiling in (her) face
Have pinched (her) nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the bones out, had (she) sworn as (he)
Have done to this”
Lady Macbeth uses concrete nouns giving a graphic image of the hideous distortion of nature. She realises that Macbeth’s doubt needs to be overcome quickly and this needs extreme measures. If they delay one night, the chance is gone. The final decision is made and Macbeth decides to murder Duncan.
Macbeth’s soliloquy just before the murder creates an atmosphere of wickedness and evil as he begins to hallucinate, “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” The dagger is a sign of his guilty conscience and of the supernatural. Even though he tries to grab it, he can’t. Macbeth then sees it covered in “gouts of blood,” which is a horrific image. He is under the influence of the supernatural as his mind is playing tricks on him. Shakespeare creates tension in the atmosphere by using imagery of evil wickedness. “Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse, the curtained sleep” This echoes the witches.
After the murder, Macbeth appears with blood stained hands holding the daggers his mind is in turmoil. Macbeth is horrified that he had heard two men crying, “Murder,” as though early whilst sleeping, they were dreaming of murder. “One cried ‘god bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other.” But Macbeth could not prey as he also heard another voice, “ Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,” In his guilt horribly he believes that he has killed sleep itself and therefore “Macbeth shall sleep no more.” He also believes that no amount of water will wash away his guilt: even if he put his hand in the sea, it would go red,
“The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red,”
Murder has had a terrible effect on Macbeth and he seems unhinged with guilt but Lady Macbeth seemingly has not been affected, “A little water clears us of this deed,” This full force of this ironic optimism appears later in the play, when Lady Macbeth frantically tries to remove blood from her hands whilst sleepwalking.
Lennox later discusses the unnatural events of the night, which “has been unruly.” This reinforces the weightiness of what has happened inside the castle. This use of pathetic fallacy with “Lamentings heard I’ th’ air, strange screams of death,” shows the murder of the king has affected the whole kingdom as if nature is anticipating the revolution and pain of everybody.
“ Some say, the earth
Was feverous, and did shake.”
The whole of nature is disturbed as God chooses kings and murdering one is blasphemy and offends nature itself.
Later in the play the disturbance in nature is explored more when Lennox explains to an old man.
“Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act.” The terrible death of a king is appalling: There has been permanent darkness and
“A falcon towering in her pride of place
Was by a mousing owl hawked at, and killed.”
The unnatural events are associated with the witches as the balance in nature is upset. Duncan’s horses: “Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending ‘gainst obedience!”
This disturbing image of Duncan’s horses behaving abnormally shows the king’s death was unnatural, “gainst nature still.”
After Macbeth is crowned, ironically, he is a deeply unhappy man and his wife too is sad and frightened. Macbeth knows that for Banquo’s issue has ‘… filed my mind,’ and lost “mine eternal jewel” so he has paid a heavy price. He hires two murders to kill Banquo as well as his son, as he is afraid that the witches’ prophecy may come true and he wants to feel safe.
“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck ” Shows that he is starting to exclude his wife from his decisions but acting alone puts pressure on him.
Macbeth disrupts the state ceremonial occasion of the banquet when he sees Banquo’s ghost; this is similar to the air drawn dagger. “Which of you have done this?” Shows his suspicions that someone has done this to frighten him. Once again he is hallucinating. His horrific reaction startles the guests and Lady Macbeth makes excuses for her husband.
“Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.”
This is a rich imagery of a ghost where Macbeth tries to escape suspicion in front of others but the ghost of Banquo is a manifestation of his guilt.
Macbeth decides that he wants to go back to the witches to find out what will happen next. As Lady Macbeth cannot do anything to help Macbeth to become normal, they no longer have partnership
When Macbeth goes to meet the witches he is determined to know what’s going to happen next, he is prepared to sacrifice everything nature itself for the answers:
“Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down;” Macbeth’s faith in the witches means they have full control over him. The three prophecies are cleverly designed to deceive him into believing that he can’t be killed, yet they backfire: ‘None of women born can harm Macbeth,’ this later backfires when Macbeth is fighting with Macduff and finds out he born by a caesarean, so was not ‘women born.’ and ‘Macbeth shall never be defeated unless Dunsinane hill moves to Great Birnam Wood,’ seems impossible until the soldiers cut branches and trees from Dunsinane hill and hold them and walk to Great Birnam Wood so that no one knows about this army, therefore looking like the Dunsinane hill has moved to Great Birnam wood. And finally the third prophecy ‘Be as cruel as you like.’
Later Macbeth decides to kill Macduff’s wife and babies, “His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls,” as he is furious that Macduff has left to England, he can’t get to Macduff so he’ll kill his family to get to him. At this point Macbeth doesn’t care who he murders, they soon become pointless.
Towards the end of the play we see Lady Macbeth for the last time suffering from the nightmarish visions of the earlier murders, her ‘unnatural deeds’ have affected her deeply. The ‘disease’ is in her mind and soul and nothing can be done to cure it. At the beginning of the play she wanted to become unsexed, male but know she’s become all female, “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”
Macbeth gradually discovers the truth behind the witches’ prevarications and is finally destroyed.
In conclusion the witches do not actually push Macbeth to do anything evil - they only put ideas into his head and use his ambition so he will carry out evil deeds. We are still aware of the witches influence even when they’re not on stage by the supernatural events and echoes of the witches’ words repeated by other characters.
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