The witches obviously have a big impact on Macbeth throughout the play, as you can see the change he undergoes, from being a savage warrior, to a power hungry king.
“Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps”
This line describes Macbeth’s brutal murder of a Norwegian he was battling against. It shows again the close connection between the brutality of Macbeth and the witches. This way of killing somebody is very similar to the way a witch would go about killing someone, and it is almost like a ritual killing, which not only links with the witches, but also the theme of religion. It comes across as if Macbeth is sacrificing the person he has killed for a certain cause, which is again, a clear link with the kind of ritual that witches practice. This line also shows how Macbeth starts out as a brutal warrior at the start of the play, and this helps enhance the change he undergoes at the hands of the witches.
The witches are always described as being completely abnormal, to the extent that Shakespeare is never clear if they are actually female or not. He always describes their behaviour as being mysterious and strange;
“Where shall we meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?”
This line is a good example of the way Shakespeare describes the witches as being extremely strange. Here the witches are agreeing to meet in very abnormal conditions, they agree on meeting in very bad weather, which nobody would normally, purposely do. This is the first thing the witches say, and it is also the first line of the play, therefore it already prepares the audience for the abnormality of the witches. Shakespeare uses this to open the play to portray confusion at the hands of the witches, as asking when a group of influential characters should meet again before they have said anything is very unusual. However because of this Shakespeare successfully introduces to the main characters and gives us an insight to their mentality, all in one line.
Macbeth seems to have a connection with the witches from very early on in the play, one of the most significant lines to point this out it,
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen”
Here Macbeth contradicts himself in a very unusual way, he uses a saying that you would feel very unnatural for most people to say. However, what makes this more noteworthy is the fact that the witches say in the first scene of the play “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” This line is a direct connection to what Macbeth says. Not only does this show that Macbeth starts the play seeming to be in sync with the witches but that he makes strange and contradictory comments. The fact that the witches share a similar mentality to the main character in the play shows that they must play an important role in the events of the play and therefore have a large dramatic impact on it.
In act 1 scene 3 Macbeth and Banquo communicate with the witches for the first time. This scene is very important for seeing how Macbeth compares to the witches because you can make a direct comparison between the way Macbeth reacts to the witches and the way Banquo reacts.
“Speak if you can. What are you?”
Straight away you can see that Macbeth is not scared of the witches but intrigued by them. The first thing he says to them is a demand that they speak, then he asks them what they are. Macbeth’s frank confrontation of the witches shows that he is almost comfortable around them, which is a very unusual way to treat beings that are said to have the power to control the elements and peoples fate. Banquo’s reaction to the witches on the other hand is very different. He seems to almost be afraid of the witches, as if he is scared of them taking control of him. Banquo also seems to be very cautious of the way that he asks the witches to speak to him
“Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favours nor your hate.”
Banquo, when asking the witches to speak to him tells them that he does not want their favours or their hate, which obviously portrays the fact that he, knows that they have power and does not want to discover the extent of it. Banquo’s reaction tells the audience a lot about what the witches are like to confront. Because Banquo often comes across as a much more normal person than Macbeth the audience can relate to Banquo much more easily and therefore they would realise that Banquo’s reaction to the witches is much more like the reaction that most people would give if they came into contact with the witches. This makes Macbeth’s unusual reaction stand out even more, which, like many other times in the play shows that he has some sort of unusual and strange connection to the witches.
Lady Macbeth often acts and speaks like she could be a witch; she often follows a theme of motherhood, especially the distortion of motherhood.
“Come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall”
Here Lady Macbeth is saying that she would kill any child that she would ever have so Macbeth could be king. This is a very obscure sacrifice to make as she will make no real gain out of it, being as she is already a very important woman. The fact that Lady Macbeth is opening herself up by saying such things, especially after she knows that her husband had been liaising with witches gives the impression that she is not particularly bothered what the witches do to her. This means, that like Macbeth she is not afraid or intimidated by them like most people. This would give the audience the impression that she was abnormal for not being scared of the witches, Lady Macbeths character contrasts greatly with Banquo’s, as does Macbeths which allows the audience to make direct comparisons between them and the way they respond to the witches.
The witches often make connections between themselves and religion, mostly the evil side of religion. The witches are always together as three, which could be compared to an unholy trinity. They often come up with blasphemous ideas, many of which crop up in their main spell in act 4 scene 1.
“Liver of blaspheming Jew…Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips”
Here the witches are throwing ingredients into their cauldron to conjure up the apparitions for Macbeth to see. The witches seem to use body bits of non-Christians, which makes it seem as if they are showing their racist side of their evil. The fact that they are showing they are prejudiced against other religions adds even more to their evil appearance. The witches also depict the theme of distorted motherhood in this spell.
“Finger of birth strangled babe, Ditch-Delivered by a drab”
Here the witches describe what essentially a completely imperfect baby is. They enhance the evilness of the description of their spell even more with this line as most humans would never even conceive something like this in their mind. The spell is the part of the play where Shakespeare uses intense imagery to really enhance what the witches bring to the play. The way Shakespeare describes all the potion ingredients you can really feel the way that the witches irregularity and abnormality comes through. The way in which the witches add items to their cauldron is almost like a religious chant, which ties in with the theme of religion. The chant is very effective in getting across the way in which they are adding things and what they are adding, which, again adds to the effect of the witches on the audience and the play in general.
“How now, you secret black and midnight hags!”
This line shows the change the witches have made on Macbeth throughout the course of the play. Macbeth now greets the witches as if they are friends, which is obviously a dangerous thing to do, because if he treats them like friends it means he trusts them. The fact that Macbeth trusts the witches’ shows that his ambition and power hungry nature have taken over the way he thinks, and it has taken away the little caution he had in the first place. The witches appear to be taking advantage of Macbeth’s ambitious nature and they are using it against him, to get him to trust them more and more. Even thought they never lie to Macbeth they only ever tell him half-truths, which ends up misleading him as he does not think to work out what the witches are telling him. Also Macbeth, because he becomes completely absorbed by his new found power he becomes very cocky, and decides to ignore the fact that there maybe a threat to his life because he doesn’t think about what could happen to him.
