how does shakespeare present the witches in Macbeth and to what extent do they influence events?

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How Does Shakespeare Present The Witches in ‘Macbeth’ and to what Extent do they influence events?

‘Macbeth’ is a tragic play that focuses on how one man is driven mad with ambition, the play was written in a time of society when witches were greatly feared and believed to exist, so the fact that the witches in the play influence Macbeth’s downfall was scary to them. Did the witches in Macbeth cause him to kill the king?

The witches are without doubt evil, they do no good deeds and only perform acts of evil, ‘enter three witches’ there are three of them, which suggests something to do with the unholy trinity, there are a lot of other implications of the trinity in the play, three types of weather and Banquo being murdered by three people. They make potions with disgusting things in, some which are body parts that earlier belonged to human which shows they do not care about the human race which suggests they are not human. They kill a woman’s husband just because she would not share her food and says ‘here I have a pilots thumb’ which shows they are proud ant take it as a prize. They can control the weather but only use it for bad ‘in thunder lightening or in rain?’ Also, they kill livestock as if it was a hobby and they do not really care. They do nothing good for Macbeth’s life and know what they are doing from the start.

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Without the witches in the play, there would not be a story as they are behind all of the trouble. They influence Macbeth to be exceedingly power hungry and arrogant but one thing they cannot do it control people, they never actually control or give orders to Macbeth, they just ‘guide’ him. They say to him ‘all hail Macbeth that shalt be king’ which then later influences him to kill Duncan so that he himself can become king.  They tell him ‘for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’ which makes him believe that he is invincible which influences ...

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