The witches’ powers become apparent at the very beginning of the play where the atmosphere is set by the threatening weather as they appear on stage. This makes the audience wary that something bad is about to happen and engages the audiences’ curiosity, “Thunder and lightning, Enter three witches”. We are shown that they can predict in the same act:
“Where the place
Upon the heath
There to meet Macbeth”.
This shows us that Macbeth is condemned from the start. Macbeth’s first line is, "So foul and fair a day I have
not seen” Act 1 scene 3. A repetition of the witch’s last words in scene 1:
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air”
shows the audience that he is already, though he is not aware of it, connected with the witches. At the start of Scene Three again there is thunder which shows us that the witches are evil, dramatic and dangerous like the thunder. To the witches all good is disgusting and all evil is attractive, storm and foul weather make the most complimentary setting for their work. The witches’ wickedness is all apparent through the activities they engage in their spare time,
“Here I have a pilots thumb”, and “He shall live a man forbid” and “killing swine”. The witches speak in trochaic metre. This gives their speech the effect of an incantation and distinguishes it from the largely iambic speech of other characters:
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Cool it down with baboon’s blood, then the charm is done and good”.
The concept of witchcraft has existed since the tenth century and even earlier. All witches would be charged with heresy and burned at the stake by the Church of the time. The peak of both witchcraft rituals and persecutions were in the 1500’s and the 1600’s. Nearly seven million people were subject to persecution, torture, and hanging in the name of eliminating witchcraft. Almost any hardship was marked as the work of a witch. Whether or not they were actually responsible, an accused witch would be tortured to admission.
Macbeth was written in the beginning of the 1600’s. This was a time of religion and great beliefs in things that we today would feel was stupid and irresponsible. A main topic that people in the 1600’s were fearful and afraid of were witches and anything that they felt was associated with witches, such as lightning and thunder. When the play came out originally and was first viewed, audiences were afraid of all the witchcraft in the play. Some even believed that they were being affected by the scenes of witchcraft that they were seeing! These emotions involve the audience in the play and bring it to life.
In Macbeth the witches influence how Macbeth makes his decisions and play a crucial part in contributing to his eventual destruction. The witches are trying to create chaos by prophesying to in order to get him to
do their bidding. The witches tell Macbeth that he will become the thane of Cawdor and then king of Scotland:
“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter.”
They poison his mind with these prophesies, making him greedy and bringing out the evil qualities in his soul. When the first of the promises is proven authentic – that he has become thane of Cawdor - Macbeth then considers the idea of murdering Duncan for the first time. The killing of Duncan starts an unstoppable chain of events in the play that ends with the murder of Macbeth and the suicide of Lady Macbeth. In Act IV Macbeth returns to the witches voluntarily to find out his fate in order to see what actions he should take.
“Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.”
This suggests that the witches did have a great influence on his actions. The witches introduce Macbeth to the evil that grows to dominate his mind. After he murdered Duncan, Macbeth lost his sanity and the witches were easily able to control him. They made him believe that he was invincible, and then he willingly continued to fight when he knew that it would mean his doom. Macbeth, in the beginning had all of the qualities of an honourable gentleman who could become anything. This is all shattered when the witches unlock his ruthless ambition that overrides his sense of morality. Macbeth's downfall was planned by the weird sisters; they are the root of the problem that is the subject for this play. They associate with evil spirits and obey them and they are followers of the evil goddess, Hecate. By using the witches to trigger these events Shakespeare has fuelled the plot and keeps the play moving.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the three witches as the main sources foreshadowing – a technique to give the audience a sense of what is to come or what exactly is going to happen to a character. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the prophecies of the witches and thoughts of Macbeth himself to foreshadow within the play. In the play the witches are conveyed as prophecies. The audience experiences these prophecies almost immediately in the opening scene and act of the play - they talk about meeting Macbeth and say they will greet him, "when the battle's lost and won." And then they yell together, "fair is foul, and foul is fair." These two examples foreshadow that some sort of evil will be coming and that there will also be a victory of sorts, but the audience doesn't know specifically what yet. These also suggest a great battle is to be fought against good and evil and the events that follow will unfold at a rapid pace. This
foreshadowing can be detected by the audience because they can feel the emotion of doom and evil rising. This anticipation of what’s to come keeps the audience interested and ensures they will be hanging on every word the actors utter.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses the witches in Macbeth for many reasons. To gain favour with James 1 by using subject matter which is of interest to him. To keep the plot moving and maintain the sense of foreboding that runs throughout the play. To interest the audience and engage their emotions (such as fear) for a more thrilling performance and finally to make the play up to date by addressing a social issue of the time.
Bibliography
Macbeth – Heinemann edition 1962
www.google.com
York notes for GCSE 2002
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/study.html
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/faq/macbethfaq.html
