Discuss the role of the witches in Macbeth your essay refer to Shakespeare's use of language, devices and structure for dramatic effect.

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Amy Bennett

Shakespeare Coursework

Macbeth

Title: Discuss the role of the witches in Macbeth your essay refer to Shakespeare’s use of language, devices and structure for dramatic effect.

The play opens dramatically with three witches in a dessert place with thunder crashing and lightning flashing. This would immediately gain Elizabethan audiences’ attention that would be unsettled by the scene on stage. Elizabethans really did fear witches and the thunder and lightning would add to the drama. Elizabethans believed extreme weather conditions signalled turbulent times for man. This creates a powerful mood of chaos and confusion. It foreshadows the dramatic events that will unfold on stage. It symbolises the detrimental power of evil and the forces of chaos Macbeth will unleash in Scotland. Throughout the play thunder and lightning always accompanied the witches.  

        In Macbeth the witches have a very important role as in Elizabethan times when the play was first performed the idea of witches was a very real for people. King James 1, who was on the throne at the time, was terrified and also knowledgeable in the subject of witches. He believed that witches had plotted against him and tried to kill him. He even wrote a book about the subject called “Daemonology”. Flattery is also involved in the including of witches’ role in the play, as they were in keeping with the King’s view on witches. King James himself would have gone to watch the play.

        As the witches were seen as evil, mouthpieces of the devil people would know as soon as the witches appeared on stage that evil was one of the themes of the play. Once the witches actually spoke it would confirm the audiences’ first impressions that these wild women were outside normality and not part of society. The way that they speak in chants is as if they are making magic

”When the hurlyburly’s done,

When the battles lost and won”.

It is also very sinister especially when they speak in riddles. This confuses and amazes the audience. At the end of Act 1 Scene 1 the witches all chant “Fair is foul and foul is fair” and these words are echoed in Act 1 Scene 3 when Macbeth comments to Banquo “So foul and fair a day I have not seen”.  These words immediately link Macbeth with the witches in the audiences mind.  

The way they mention their familiars “Greymalkin” and “Paddock” confirm the audiences’ first impressions. Once the audience heard that, they would be completely sure that they were, as it was the devil that gave them their evil familiars to help them in their deeds.

        As the witches speak about what weather conditions they should meet again in (all extreme) “When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning or in rain?” makes the audience aware of the magic within them, as it was thought that witches had powers to create storms. This statement sounds like the witches can control the weather. Elizabethan audiences would relate to this portrayal of the witches. The fact that the witches spoke in rhyming couplets seems as if they speak with one voice, an evil supernatural voice. Their style of language also separates them from other characters. They seem to inhabit a world where moral order has been reversed “Fair is foul and foul is fair” This sets the scene for the rest of the play as one of the themes is of appearance being deceptive of, things not being what they seem. I.e. good and evil will be indistinguishable. Later in the play where Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to

“Look like the innocent flower,

Join now!

But be the serpent under it”

        In act one scene one the witches are in an uninhabited place far from civilisation. They mention Macbeth’s name in this scene as it is embedded within their chanting and rhyming, the audience will automatically connect Macbeth with the witches and the forces of evil. It also suggests that the witches are in control they know that they are going to meet Macbeth.

The second time the audience see the Weird Sisters in Act 1 Scene 3 their evil is made apparent by their spiteful conversation. The scene opens with the witches telling ...

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