I would present the witches as old, wrinkly, short, hunchback and “wither’d and so wild in their attire”. Their clothes are black, made out of rags – randomly cut with scissors with patches poorly sewn on so that they “look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth”. They would have long and pointy “chappy” fingers, with pointy and rotting nails. They have dry wrinkly, thin, pale and “skinny lips”. They have a long/bony nose, spots/warts, no eyelashes, open hair, buck teeth, lots of wrinkles and “beards” which prevent us from saying they a women.
In the witches I would like to emphasise their happiness at the first witch’s story of cruelty and their eagerness to tell Macbeth their prophecies. The main pattern in their language is that they talk in riddles. They “win us with honest trifle, to betray’s”. The witches react and interact with Macbeth and Banquo as if they were Gods. However most of the attention is on Macbeth and it seems as if they worship him. This shows that Macbeth copies the witches, because later when he is about to murder Duncan he acts as if he is very loyal and loving towards the King, whereas he really means harm. When the witches vanish they would vanish in a puff of green smoke.
I want the audience to react to them as if they were real and worst nightmare anyone could have. I want this because this will create tension as Macbeth trusts them and is spellbound. Audiences from Shakespeare’s time would react to them as “instruments of darkness” and “the devil”. Some audiences in today’s time may not react to them as horrifying creatures, because the belief of the existence of witches is unrealistic.
In this scene we learn a lot about Macbeth. One of the main things we learn is that there are two-sides to Macbeth. He lies very easily and pretends to be what he’s not for example Macbeth says “my dull brain was wrought with things forgotten” when in fact he was thinking of his upcoming future, the witches prophecies and murder. He is also very easily manipulated by the witches. At first he seems to fear the witches. However by the time he hears the prophecies he is very relaxed and wants them to stay as if he were “rapt”. We also learn that Macbeth is very violent and dangerous. When he thinks of becoming King, murder is what comes to his head and he is the one to speak of murder even though the witches say nothing about a murder.
I would present Macbeth as a high standing man in the beginning and fearing the witches when they first met. After the telling of the prophecies he will relax and feel at home in the surroundings. This will show he is losing his dignity. His language suggests that he is spellbound by the witches and the only thing he thinks about is the witches’ predictions. Later on Macbeth would react to witches as if they are trusted and does not want them to leave. Also Macbeth does not show much interest in what Ross and Angus have to say until he hears he has become Thane of Cawdor. Hearing this he becomes very excited and happy. Moreover straight after this comes the deeply thought aside. I would show Macbeth’s reaction to the characters through expressions and sound effects. I would also emphasise the dramatic irony.
We do not learn much more about Banquo in this scene. However we do learn that Banquo is very loyal and is more reliable than Macbeth. We learn this through Macbeth’s aside. We also learn that Banquo has a very good understanding of Macbeth as Banquo realises when Macbeth starts to change and becomes spellbound. On the other hand Banquo does not realise the spell on Macbeth is the witches’ doing. Banquo does not change and at the end of the scene he is still very loyal to the King whereas Macbeth is already thinking of the King’s murder. I would show this by showing that Banquo does not take the witches seriously and refers to them as “the devil”.
He reacts to the witches as devils and as “fantastical” and I will show this by showing that he does not want to go near them. Banquo’s language is very respectful towards Macbeth but Banquo also repeatedly uses the word “rapt” to emphasise his feelings on Macbeth and how he notices the change.
Banquo reacts to and interacts with Macbeth as an honourable soldier and loyal warrior. This change's throughout the scene from respect turns into a worry. I would show this via Banquo’s facial expressions and language. The audience reacts to Banquo as a noble warrior, a great partner and a loyal man.
The overall affect I wanted to achieve is to emphasise Macbeth’s change and show what ambition and prophesising can do to a man. I also want to emphasise Banquo’s understanding of Macbeth and the character and language of the three witches.
I want the audience to think that ambition can be a bad influence and change a person. A bad influence never has a happy ending as we can see from this scene – vision of murder – and this play – Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo, King Duncan and many others dead.
