In my essay I am going to write about how Shakespeare presents the witches in Macbeth.

The play was written by William Shakespeare in 1606. The story was an old one but the play was new. Shakespeare wrote the play for a performance in front of King James 1. It was first performed at Hampton Court but was also shown at the Globe Theatre.

Macbeth would have been very popular because it would have interested people of Shakespeare’s time. It had witches which people believed were real, it had killings to amuse people and it was the main form of entertainment at the time.

The story of Macbeth is about witches influencing a man to kill his king while is wife pushes him into it as well. When he becomes king he can not enjoy it. Eventually he is killed by Macduff, another noble man jus like Macbeth.

Shakespeare’s audience would have been very interested in this type of play because it involved witches and witchcraft and people in them days believed in witches and what they could do. It was also the only form of entertainment apart from bear beating.

The audience would have been frightened because witches did bad things and they were afraid it would happen to them. Witches were believed to be able to talk to the devil and communicate with the dead. They could make people ill and kill them. They could fly and make them-selves invisible. They made animals serve them and they could cause storms. So people were very afraid of what could happen.

The witches watch Macbeth throughout the play and they influence him to kill King Duncan. They predict what is going to happen to Macbeth and Macbeth seeks their help because of the things they have told him. In the end it is the witches who are at fault for the downfall of Macbeth.

I think the witches appear in act 1, scene 1 to show that they will play a big part in what is going to happen in the play. It shows us that they will be very important as the play goes on.

In act 1, scene 1 the witches plan to meet Macbeth. When the meet they speak in order, oldest speaks first then the second oldest and then the youngest. When they speak, they speak in riddles and they chant to each other.

The way in which I think the witches would move around on the stage would be very creepily, they might even crawl. Their costumes would have been old rags and the clothes would symbolise that they would have only basic possessions. They may have banged things together to make it look like they were doing evil. I think act1 scene 1 is a very effective scene because it sets the scene for the rest of the play. It doesn’t really tell us much about the witches which cause confusion and it makes us want to read on to find out what they are like and what affect they are going to have.

There would have been a storm in the back-ground of the scene and this tells us that there is something evil or suspicious going on.

The audience at this time of the play, I think would have been very afraid of what’s going to happen and they wouldn’t have wanted Macbeth to take any notice in what the witches were saying. A modern audience may find it comical to see the witches because they would look so pathetic and they would want to see what’s going to happen to Macbeth. The difference in this is because people now don’t ...

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There would have been a storm in the back-ground of the scene and this tells us that there is something evil or suspicious going on.

In act 1, scene 3 the witches meet Macbeth and Banquo. When the witches speak to Macbeth and Banquo they predict great things is going to happen to the both of them. When they make their predictions, Banquo doesn’t really take much notice of it but Macbeth takes it quite seriously and this is were his downfall starts. Then they disappear.

In this scene we learn the witches are evil as they kill “swine” create more bad weather and they turn themselves into a “rat with-out a tail”. We can see that they do play a really big part because the predictions to Macbeth and Banquo come true. They predict to Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then become king. Macbeth then becomes Thane of Cawdor. He then becomes “rapt”, which means he is in a trance. The witches then predict to Banquo that his sons will become kings but he will not. This annoys Macbeth because he wants his own sons to be kings if he is to be king.

There would have been no scenery so the witches would have had to move and act in a really creepy evil way. They may have been all bent over or crawled. They called each other sister and they respected each other.

The witches function in this scene is to push Macbeth into doing bad things. They manage to cause a split between Macbeth and Banquo because Macbeth is jealous of the prediction about Banquo’s sons. They try to unsettle the audience and chance their opinion of Macbeth. They try to show that they are really powerful.

The witches have a great affect on Macbeth towards killing King Duncan. Although they don’t tell him to kill Duncan, their influence pushes him into it. Macbeth likes what the witches are telling him and Banquo and wants to hear more but Banquo doesn’t believe any of it and they don’t have any affect on him.

In the first scene the witches don’t do a lot. They just create bad weather and chant but in this scene they have a greater affect on other people. One witch tells of killing swine for no reason, another tells of putting a spell on a sailor so that he cannot sleep and the other witch has a pilot’s finger which tells us that they have been grave robbing. They cause mores bad weather and do more than before.

The audience then would have been very cared of the witches at this point because they believed in every word the witches were saying and thy believed the witches really could do this. The audience would want to see what is going to happen to Macbeth but they also don’t ant him to get involved with them because they know that only bad things can happen when there are witches involved.

An audience now would find quite amusing because it would be funny to see men dressed as witches and trying to act all weird and eerie. They would be able to see Macbeth’s foolishness but want to see where it will take him.

I think this is an effective scene because it makes people take them more seriously than before because they done more this time than before.

Between act 1, scene 3 and act 3, scene 5, Macbeth kills King Duncan. He is influenced to do this by the witches and by Lady Macbeth. He then becomes king. This means that two predictions have become true. Macbeth then tries to kill Banquo so he can stay king and kill Banquo’s son, Fleance, so that his own sons can become king after him. Banquo is killed but Fleance manages to escape. At a party to celebrate Macbeth becoming king, he sees Banquo’s ghost. No-one else can see it had Macbeth goes crazy. In an attempt to save her husband from being questioned about the killing of Duncan, she sends him to bed.

In act 3, scene 5 the witches meet with Hecate, the leader of the witches. Hecate is annoyed with the other witches for including her in their plans with Macbeth. Hecate and the other three witches then plan, altogether, what’s going to happen to Macbeth and they plan when there next going to meet him.

We learn Hecate is the leader of the witches and that sometimes the other witches don’t involve her in their own plan’s, which really annoys Hecate. We also learn that the witches are “beldams” which means old hags. We also learn that Hecate has a little helper. The witches get called “saucy” which means rude. The witches refer to Macbeth as being a “wayward son” who “loves for his own ends”. This means that they think he is not committed to witchcraft, he is only interested in what he can get out of it.

Many people that Shakespeare did not write this scene. Instead, they believe that another play writer added it so that there were more of the witches in the play, but if Shakespeare did write it then I think he included Hecate in it to show that the witches had someone who was superior to them and that they worked under their control.

In this scene they are preparing then audience for Macbeth’s next meeting with the witches. This scene is to show that the witches are still present and that they still influence Macbeth greatly.

The witches predict an affect on Macbeth, “he will spurn fate, scorn death and bare his hope above wisdom, grace and fear.” They again plan Macbeth’s downfall. This scene shows the witches evil intention and shows us that they are not trying to help Macbeth. We will anticipate the next scene will cause Macbeth “confusion”.

An audience’s reaction now would be it would interest them and catch their attention and they would want to see the next scene. They would also find it quite comical compared to the audience of Shakespeare’s time. The audience of Shakespeare’s time would have found it spooky and they would be worried about what’s going to happen.

I think this is an affective scene because it shows the witches are still very much present and that they are still planning what’s going to Macbeth.

The audience would have been expecting to see the witches because they would have been planning to see Macbeth in Act 3 Scene 5, and because they were expecting to see the witches then it would take away the element of surprise.

In Act 4 Scene 1 Macbeth goes to see the witches. They conjure up a spell using “eye of newt and toe of frog, scale of dragon and baboons blood”. This spell shows Macbeth three apparitions. The first apparition was “an armed head” to show a war was going to happen. The second apparition was “a bloody child” which was to show Macduff being born by caesarean. The third apparition was “a baby with a crown on its head and a tree in its hand” this shows Malcolm coming with the English army and the English army being camouflaged with braches from the forest. They also Macbeth eight kings and Banquo’s ghost and then it all vanish.

We learn that the witches know exactly what’s going to happen. We learn that they can conjure things up from the cauldron using disgusting ingredients. They speak in order from oldest to youngest. They would have moved around the cauldron picking things up and putting them in the cauldron. They would have sang and made music. Anything they got would have been handed to them from a trap door on the stage to look like they made it appear from nowhere. The bloody child would probably have just been a doll covered in sheep’s blood and the child with the crown and the tree would have come up the trapped door and went back down it.

In this scene the witches try to confuse Macbeth. They influence him to kill Macduff and his family. Macbeth still thinks he’s invincible and kills Macduff’s family. The witches’ main function in this scene is towards Macbeth and him fighting and being killed by Macduff.

The audience then would have been horrified and disgusted at what’s going on. They would have been scared of what’s going to happen because they believe in the witches being able to cause confusion and death.

An audience now would be aware of Macbeth’s foolishness but would want to see what is going to happen.

I think this is an affective scene because it sets the scene for the end of the play. It motivates Macbeth and sets the situation for Macbeth’s death.

The witches did tell Macbeth the truth but they told it in a way that it would be hard for him too understand what they are telling him so that Macbeth would interpret in the wrong way. Macduff was born by caesarean so he is the one who shall kill Macbeth. The forest that is coming towards Macbeth’s castle represents Malcolm and the army coming to attack Macbeth.

The play ends this way to show good always conquers over evil no matter what, the rightful king is established on the throne and the evil wrong-doer is punished. Shakespeare intended to pay a compliment to King James I. this is the moral of the story.

The strongest influence on Macbeth throughout the play was from his wife, Lady Macbeth. She tells him he is not a man unless he commits the murder and that if he loved her then he would do as she asks. She just tries to make him feel bad so that he has no choice but to commit the murders.

I think the best scene involving the witches was Act 4 Scene1 because it is the scene where they exert more influence on Macbeth and create the situation which brings about his downfall. The apparitions help to make the scene more interesting and exciting as well as maintaining the audiences’ full attention.

I think Shakespeare is trying to keep the audience very interested in the witches throughout the play as well as trying to make them fear the witches. I think Shakespeare was trying to reveal exactly what people witches were like and what they could do and I think he succeeded greatly in creating a interesting yet exciting portrayal.

Scott Brier 12C