Once the messenger had gone, Lady Macbeth went on to deliver one of the most disturbing and supernatural speeches in the play. She wants to kill king Duncan but doesn’t have the heart to, so she asks the sprits to possess her, to wipe all trace of good and conscience from her.
"Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts unsex me here,"
She then goes on to say entirely weird things that suggest she wants to be mentally stronger,
"Make thick my blood"
She is asking the evil sprits to
"Come to my woman's breasts and take milk for gall."
What Lady Macbeth is saying involves the supernatural and she has obviously been sparked off by the witches predictions as she makes decisions very quickly, and always has a quick answer to persuade, when she was encouraging Macbeth to kill
The Witches Chant and not only does chanting icon evil and supernatural requests but the ingredients put into the broth have significance to the supernatural, and are deemed in someway. The adder could kill so it seen as evil "Adder's fork and blinding worm sting," the sting of a blindworm could cause pain, so it obviously isn’t pleasant.
All these wicked components help, to reinforce the evil the witches are performing, the broth makes him hallucinate. " I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not."
When the witches see Macbeth the second time they show him three more prophecies from three apparitions that they summon0 They tell Macbeth that he should be aware of Macduff; he would not be beaten until Birnam Woods move to Dunstane, also that any man born from a mothers womb will not kill him. These fill Macbeth with confidence, and trick Macbeth to have more trust in the witches as he has been told what he wants to hear.
Banquo became suspicious of the death of Duncan. Macbeth realises that Banquo heard the witches' three prophecies. Macbeth doesn’t like his suspicion so he arranges for him and his son Fleance to be killed. Macbeth wants Fleance murdered because the witches have told him that he was the future king.
Unfortunately for Macbeth, there was a mistake in the killings of his son. Although the killing of Banquo was successful and very brutal.
Lady Macbeth uses her apparent power over her husband to persuade him to kill Duncan. When Macbeth seems to be backing out, she says something horrible and evil. She tells Macbeth how she knows what it feels like to give suck to a baby.
Immediately after the death of Duncan, Macbeth is disgusted with himself. This is shown by him when he states
"I have done the deed."
He says this instead of saying that he has murdered Duncan, is trying to avoid the subject, and doesn’t want to talk about it. This demonstrates that Macbeth is ashamed of his actions. Macbeth also feels that the killing of Duncan has cut him from god. " One cried 'God bless us!' and Amen the other: As they had seen me with these hang mans hands"
At this point Macbeth doesn’t feel like a good man anymore and is feeling so awful that he cannot be happy again, the supernatural have control.
With the porters persistent knocking and him talking at the top of his voice, Shakespeare has written this so the audience would be intrigued. The porter mentions the devil, he knows something's wrong. Lennox's speech was very clear that he too knew something wasn’t right " The night has been unruly, where we lay."
In Act 2 scene 2 after the murder, Macbeth is obsessed by his inability to say 'amen' and by a voice crying that he has murdered and will never sleep.
Macbeth is crowned, many things are affected, people are killed, and the appearance that traitors are loyal, 'foul is fair' appears. Everything is doubled and Macbeth turns extra evil. The witches seem to have less to do with Macbeth actions.
Macbeth used to be a loyal, kind, respected hero. His guilt made him want to make sure nobody found out and he even kills his best friend Banquo.
The witches language includes rhyming couplets, which contradict each other and are very powerful.
"Fair is foul and foul is fair: hover through the fog and filthy air" This quote tells us the reader about the witches' hatred for all good things and their love for evil. Shakespeare adds rhyme and rhythm to the witches' language to emphasise their evilness. The quote adds to their image of being witches and would have created tension among Elizabethan audiences.
In Act 4 Scene 1 Macbeth enters with confidence,
"How now you secret black and midnight hags!"
He is returning to the witches on his own accord for the first time, which could show he's dependant on them, and his self assuring entrance is just concealing the fact that he'd been thinking about them and he felt the need to return. In the previous act, Macbeth had become increasingly spiteful, and his language was pervaded with devilish animal to voice his anger.
"We have scorched the snake, O full of scorpions is my mind"
Hannah Brady