The witches are portrayed as outcasts of society, and a danger to ordinary people. Shakespeare displays this in a range of ways. The witches are shown speaking simultaneously or finishing each other’s sentences which makes them seem powerful, and spiritually connected to one another. “Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, and thrice again to make up nine.” Another language device Shakespeare employs to show this is so is that the witches do not speak in iambic pentameter. They have shorter lines, which emphasise the riddles and curses. Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter to create “the perfect line”, therefore the witches are imperfect, as they do not speak, like other characters, in perfect lines, but imperfect spells. “The weird sisters, hand in hand.” Macbeth also displays the lack of normality in the witches’ speech, as he describes them as “imperfect speakers.” Shakespeare highlights the witches’ power through their ability to see into the future, which, being supernatural would bring the audience into the realm of evil magic. Shakespeare shows that the witches are also very intelligent, as Macbeth is easily manipulated by their premonitions for him to be king, and his thoughts instantly turn to murder. “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.”
They blur their sense of morals during the closing lines of scene 1, saying “Fair is foul, and foul is fair!” This would disturb the audience greatly, as the witches have unmistakably crossed the line between right and wrong. The language is violently clear as to the witches intentions, as they not only believe that wrong is right in their eyes, but it is right to do wrong and cause harm to others. The blur between moral boundaries is also shown in the beginning of scene three, when the audience would be shocked by the fact that the witches take pleasure in causing harm and wreaking havoc. The witches discuss the evil deeds they have carried out that day, harming livestock by killing swine, wreaking havoc on a sailor’s wife, and causing a pilot to crash his ship. “Where has though been, sister? Killing swine.” They help each other in their treachery, offering to give each other wind to sway a sailor off course, and delight in their mayhem, as they gleefully reveal their day, and are impatient to see what harm each other has caused. “Show me, show me.” This emphasises that the witches not only speak evil but do evil to innocent people, who the audience can relate to, and will to go to all lengths of evil to do so, setting an atmosphere of unease and evil.
Not only are the witches portrayed as being unmistakeably evil and unnatural by their speech but also by their appearance. Shakespeare employs their appearance to make the audience feel uneasy about their characters and intentions. In Act 1, Scene 3, Banquo and Macbeth stumble upon the witches on the heath, once again, as the witches predicted, in thunder. Banquo states that the witches are withered and wild in their attire, and that they “should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret so.” This adds to the sense of disorder during Act 1, as it is very unnatural for women to look like men, or to look wild in their attire. Shakespeare uses the typical Jacobean stereotype of an ugly witch, bearded, wild and old, to help the audience relate to the stereotype of the witch, hated at that time.
Shakespeare shows that Lady Macbeth is a clear threat in Act 1, as she is portrayed as atypical of the usual Jacobean woman, and he uses incredibly violent imagery to convey to the audience her emotions. Shakespeare draws on the religious story that during the creation of humankind Eve was responsible for the fall of man, therefore women are evil, as during Act 1 the only true evil characters are all female. In this Act, Lady Macbeth is shown to be a culprit of evil and disorder in a range of ways during.
Shakespeare shows the audience that she is intelligent, as she can read and write, which was uncommon for women at the time, and immediately when she reads her husband’s letter, her thoughts support Macbeth’s idea to murder, which shows an unwomanly ambition for her husband to become king. “Only look up clear, to alter favour ever is to fear. Leave the rest to me.” She is indifferent to killing God’s representative on earth, and has no conscience or fear for the murder, showing her character to be truly psychopathic, and, ultimately, evil. Her uncontrolled desire to kill would build up tension in the scene, and the fact that she is excited by the thought of murder would make a Jacobean audience feel uneasy and uncomfortable, as this is not typically a thought a hero’s wife should have. She disobeys and controls her husband several times in Act 1, which was uncharacteristic for women to do as they were expected to serve their husbands, and she scolds him for having a conscience when they plot to murder Duncan. “Screw your courage to the sticking place.” By insulting Jacobean views Shakespeare shows the audience that there is clear disorder in Macbeth, as, despite woman and man having their place in Jacobean society, the women have power over the men, and are contrary to typical Jacobean characters.
The fact that Lady Macbeth, wife to a great hero, has such naked ambition and that she is willing to blur her moral boundaries, shows a distinctive link between her character and the witches – the fact that all are evil. During Scene 5, she calls on evil spirits to help her with murdering Duncan, by unsexing her, and ridding her of all innocence and femininity. “Come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty.” This not only emphasises that her character is psychopathic, as she asks to be evil, she aspires to be evil, but also links with one of Shakespeare’s strongest motifs, the destruction of natural things. The use of long sentences shows she is rushed, excited and impatient, and the words during her speech are predominantly constanents, making the pronunciation of the words awkward to read. The fact that the actress would have to pronounce the awkward words distinctly gives the overall effect of her speech becoming dramatically unsettling for the audience. Lady Macbeth also speaks a great deal in Scene 5, with little apparent punctuation of full stops. “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke up hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes…” This shows the excitement, anxiousness and desire in her voice when asking to be made evil.
The character of Lady Macbeth, with her ambition, willingness to murder and her apparently psychopathic nature that fails to understand her husband’s humanity, is used as a motif throughout Act 1, sustaining the use of disturbing imagery. Shakespeare particularly stresses the destruction of natural things, which would be seen as a clear signal of evil. Lady Macbeth curses innocent things, and uses metaphors of destroying natural and innocent things to convey to her husband her desire to kill. She states that she would turn her milk to gall, and murder her own baby if she would have known that Macbeth would want to back out of the murder. “I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dash’d the brains out.” She had previously promised Macbeth that she would act and play a part in the murder of Duncan, and demonstrates the lengths she would go to using brutal imagery. The use of violent language creates a clear sense of disorder and malevolence, by using imagery that would alarm and disgust the audience, and it emphasises the unnatural cruelty of Lady Macbeth’s character. She even refers to her baby as “the”, as if the baby does not deserve to have a gender in her eyes. Her raw emotion and desire to kill, and rather her lack of emotion towards the image of her own baby shows that her character has no sense of right and wrong contributing dramatically to the sense of evil throughout Act 1.
Macbeth, as a character, helps to set up a classic tragedy. He does so by, remaining, until the end of Act 1, a legend, a hero, and a great warrior. However, through this, the audience is also shown that he is capable of tremendous violence. Macbeth is displayed as a hero who is tempted and led to his downfall, and this situation is signalled in Act 1, helping to create a sense of evil triumphing over the forces of good, which Shakespeare has shown in the following ways.
First, we see Macbeth as a great hero. He gains praise from the king, is portrayed as an excellent warrior, and is respected by his fellow warrior, Banquo. However, there is also a sense of mystery surrounding Macbeth’s character in the first scenes of Act 1, as the witches mention him in their riddles, without the audience yet having any great knowledge of him. “Here to meet with Macbeth.” A warrior then mentions him again, informing the king about his performance during battle, and the audience learns more and more information about him, without meeting the character. “Like Valour’s minion carv’d out his passage…till he unseam’d him from the nave to th’chaps.” This portrays him as a legend, and a much talked about man. However, as valiant a character as he sounds, we know from the talk of his bloody battles that he is capable of great violence, which sets him up for his great mistake and his downfall. This would be unsettling for the audience, as they would already sense disorder through a hero becoming a villain, yet they would be intrigued to discover more about his character.
His downfall during Act 1 is also shown by the great chain of being, a hierarchy that included every form of animal that was strongly believed in during the Jacobean period. Shakespeare uses this to show how drastically Macbeth as a character has fallen. In Act 1 Scene 2 Macbeth’s character is portrayed as an eagle and a lion, by a fellow warrior, as a comparison to the traitors he was fighting against. “Yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion.” However, by Act 1 Scene 5, Macbeth’s character is portrayed as a serpent. “Your hand, your tongue; look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” His character has taken a huge fall in the great chain of being, as creatures such as lions and eagles are near the top of the chain, showing his character to be heroic, however creatures such as serpents are nearer the bottom, showing a steady growth in the amount of evil is character is capable of.
Shakespeare also uses the typical idea of tragedy to build a sense of a catastrophe waiting to happen, using dramatic irony, and a great hero beginning to be influenced by evil, and on the road to making a huge mistake. When Macbeth meets the witches on the desolate moor, they predict that Macbeth will become king, and begin to tempt him to evil. “Lesser than Macbeth, yet much greater.” The audience already knows that the witches have previously plotted against him, and this creates a sense of menace, and tension with the use of dramatic irony, as the audience knows things that Macbeth does not.
The speed in which he is tempted to evil is also key to his downfall during Act 1, as minutes after the witches predict him to be king, his thoughts turn to murder. “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature?” The audience already knows his capability of violence from his bloody battles, and the possibility that he could murder is confirmed by how quickly he formulates a plan of violence and death, showing how simply a force of good can be transformed into a clear force of evil.
Shakespeare, as well as using Lady Macbeth’s character to show disturbance and the changes in Macbeth himself, also uses language and motifs to convey patterns of evil and disorder. The lack of sleep is a clear pattern occurring throughout Act 1, which again harks to the destruction of natural things. In Scene 1, the witches deprive a sailor of sleep, because his wife refused to share chestnuts with one of the witches. They torture him until he cannot sleep as he has gone mad. “Sleep shall neither night nor day, hang upon his penthouse lid, he shall live a man forbid.” Macbeth later deprives Duncan of sleep, as he murders him and then gives a desperate speech to his wife on how guilty he feels. He is also afraid that, because he has murdered the king, he shall “sleep no more”, and the audience later discovers that this is in fact correct, a Macbeth cannot sleep without fearful dreams. This pattern shows that sleep is a natural and essential thing, and, by depriving characters in the play of it, they have destroyed its naturalness, and crossed the barrier between right and wrong, into evil.
Additionally, Shakespeare uses the pattern of the corruption of the innocent during Act 1 of Macbeth. Firstly, the witches corrupt Macbeth by persuading him that, in order to become king, his thoughts need to turn to murder. He is then corrupted again by Lady Macbeth, as when he is having doubts about whether it is morally correct to murder Duncan, she scolds him and tells him to rid himself of weakness and persuades him to destroy his own conscience, and ultimately, himself. “Yet I do dear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness.” Duncan is then corrupted, and despite his innocence, he is murdered. Paired with the strong motif of the destruction of natural things, Shakespeare creates an alarmingly abnormal and twisted atmosphere to Act 1, as destroying innocence is a clear sign of disorder, and, eventually, will lead to all evil.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses a wide variety of techniques to generate a sense of disorder and evil for the audience in Act 1. He skilfully uses layers of ideas, such as treachery and the alternating of good and evil in the early scenes. He uses the witches as symbols of evil, highlights the elements as being in disorder via the weather and the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as capable of great violence. Onto this, he adds the blurring of moral values, the rhythm of the language, the look of the witches, and the motif of the destruction of the natural order as devices to highlight chaos. Taken together, these act as powerful signals to the audience of the disorder and evil that are played out in Act 1 of Macbeth setting the scene for the rest of the play.