Shakespeare has started the play with the three Witches in the scene, as they help to set the tone of the awful and terrible events ahead. ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair!’ are some of the last words said from the Witches and as you read through the play, there are many other things which seem to be turned upside-down. The description of the setting, ‘Scotland: open wasteland. Thunder and lightning’ creates an atmosphere that helps conjure up a threatening and intimidating image of the three Witches and also to try and make the reader feel uneasy about what is to come in the story.
When you read the scene you are able to speak it in a chant-like rhythm. The Witches talk like this by not speaking much and only saying up to a dozen words, they also use rhyme to each line and add in names for animals taken by the Witches’ attendant spirits ‘I come, Greymalkin!’ and ‘Paddock calls.’ It could have been written like this to add effect to the setting and it gives an image of a stereotypical Witch as they would talk in rhyme, rhythm and riddles.
In the scene not much actually happens, it is short and makes the reader want to read on with the story. The Witches meet and bury a hand (shown in the film only) and then discuss when and where to meet again ‘Where the place?’ They mention that they will meet Macbeth on the moor land and then disappear.
‘There to meet with Macbeth.’ The short meeting the Witches had they mentioned Macbeth just the once and didn’t say why and this makes the reader feel curious and interested to what Macbeth has to do with them.
The next scene is based at a camp near Forres and a soldier reports to King Duncan that the rebel Macdonwald has been defeated and tells him that Macbeth and Banquo performed bravely in battle. Duncan announces that he will sentence the rebel Thane of Cawdor to death and that Macbeth will be given his title. Act 1 Scene 3 is based on the moor land that the Witches planned to meet Macbeth and he is told that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King, and Banquo will be the father to a line of kings. After the Witches have vanished, Ross and Angus arrive to tell Macbeth that he is now Thane of Cawdor.
Shakespeare presents the Witches as ‘instruments of darkness’ in several ways. The setting is described as it was in the first scene, thunder and on the heath (open moor land). This carries on the thought of the Witches being frightening and inhospitable. They are alone for the start of the scene and the first Witch describes how she is going to torment a sailor whose wife has been rude to her and the second Witch has been killing animals. ‘Witch 1: Where hast thou been, sister? Witch 2: Killing swine.’ Them discussing death and cursing makes it look like they are very hostile, terrifying and aggressive.
The Witches are made out to have magical powers and that they have power over everything. ‘Witch 1: I myself have all the other’ (i.e. has power over all the other winds) the Witch then goes onto say that she will use this power to destroy all the ports that the sailors’ know. ‘Witch 1: He shall live a man forbid’ (forbid – under a curse) this gives us an idea of how the Witches think and that they don’t use their powers for good but to create evil and disorder.
Banquo describes the Witches as completely unapproachable and revolting. ‘That not look like th’ inhabitants o’ the earth’, makes us think of a thing out in space and nothing like a human. He knows they should be women but can’t quite believe it and it brings up a disgusting image of some foul mix up between a human, alien and animal, ‘You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret, That you are so.’
After the Witches hail Macbeth, Banquo notices that Macbeth’s mood changes, he is seemed to fear these prophecies even though they shouldn’t be, ‘Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair.’ Banquo then speaks to the Witches and asks why they greeted Macbeth as all three titles – Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King - he says that Macbeth seems to have got completely carried away and that they have not predicted the future for himself yet. ‘My noble partner, you greet with present grace and great prediction, of noble having and of royal hope that he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.’ This suggestion of Macbeth getting carried away or in a trance could be down to the Witches themselves and they could of put him under a spell to make these prophecies come true, reiterating how Shakespeare presents them as instruments of darkness.
The Witches vanish when Macbeth tries to question them. This is very effective because it has left his questions unanswered and it leaves Macbeth and Banquo confused and mystified. The disappearance makes them ponder on the future now and what could happen.
When Ross and Angus arrive they break the news to Macbeth about one of the prophecies, ‘call thee Thane of Cawdor’, this information amazes Macbeth and lets his mind wander onto the final prophecy, murdering King Duncan. He knows it is possible as, if one of the prophecies has already come true, why could the last prophecy of being King not come true. It was possible and Banquo even warns Macbeth that the Witches might be leading him to evil.
The prophecies affect Macbeth’s actions dramatically from being a brave, loyal soldier to an evil murderer. Duncan has complete trust and faith in Macbeth and even Macbeth expresses his loyalty to the King, lying to Duncan is totally out of the ordinary for Macbeth and he never would have done it if he hadn’t heard the prophecies from the Witches. This already shows the importance of the meeting with the Witches and the evil they have spread through his mind.
It isn’t only Macbeth’s actions that have been affected, Lady Macbeth fears that he is too good-natured to kill Duncan and she decides to use all her powers to persuade him. He keeps trying to get out of it and make excuses but Lady Macbeth orders that he goes through with it and that everything will end happily once this is done. She bribes him saying things like they will have total power over the land and nothing could possibly go wrong.
Even though Macbeth had already started thinking about murdering Duncan he still had doubts over it and was deeply troubled by what could happen if he killed the King. He considers Duncan’s virtues and the powerful reasons for not committing the crime. So the prophecies didn’t completely turn Macbeth evil but it gradually did with the help of Lady Macbeth.
After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth worries about Banquo’s loyalty and decides that it would be best if he got him murdered as well even though he is a good friend. Another reason Macbeth decides Banquo to be murdered is because he remembers the Witches’ other prophecies about Banquo’s descendants will be kings too. This is when the evil side of Macbeth really comes out. He lies to the two murderers called in about Banquo always being their enemy and they have every reason to hate him. He explains to them that it would be difficult for him simply to have Banquo executed as he has no valid reason and he is too popular. Macbeth finally convinces them and commands them to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, that night.
Macbeth decides to revisit the Witches to find out more about the future. He finds it suspicious that Macduff didn’t attend the banquet and he knows he will have to commit more bloodshed.
The setting with the Witches in is again situated in thunder and this time all three are in a shadowy cavern with ‘a steaming cauldron at its centre’. This alone creates an evil atmosphere and Shakespeare builds on this setting with the Witches language and actions.
The Witches speak in riddles like in the first scene and this conjures up an enchanting feel to the scene. At the start of the scene, they are obviously making a potion or a spell and the previous things the Witches have done lead you to believe that it would be evil and horrible.
The magic potion evidently requires a spell with it and the Witches each say things while they put in the dead animals, ‘Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog’. The things they say seem ghastly, repulsive and foul, but to them they probably would seem normal and this again makes us picture the Witches being very out of the ordinary. After each Witch has said something they all chant together ‘Double, double, toil and trouble – Fire burn and cauldron bubble!’ This you can associate with a stereotypical witch as there would usually be three of them and they would always chant something together like that, these stereotypical witches put a terrible picture in your mind and this chant could have been used by Shakespeare to build on the evil and dreadful image already in your head.
Macbeth greets the Witches in a horrible way, ‘How now, you secret, black and midnight hags! What is’t you do?’ and this lets you know that Macbeth still thinks of them as vile creatures. He commands the Witches to answer all this questions, whatever the consequences, which gives the impression that Macbeth is beyond caring and is desperate to know. He thinks of the Witches as very powerful and can influence and control everything from collapsing palaces and pyramids to destroying ships.
Witch 1 asks whether Macbeth wants to hear the answers to Macbeth’s questions from their mouths or their spirits and Macbeth demands for her to call them. The Witches speak more riddles in the spell and then the first apparition rises above the cauldron after thunder. This apparition is of an armoured head and this could either represent Macbeth’s own head or Macduff himself. ‘Apparition 1: Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! Beware the Thane of Fife! Dismiss me. – Enough.’ Macbeth then tells us that the apparition guessed his fear correctly and he already knew of the danger of Macduff. The second apparition is a bloodstained child and rises after the thunder; the child represents Macduff, ripped from his mother’s womb. ‘Apparition 2: Be bloody, bold and resolute! Laugh to scorn the power of man – for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.’ After the apparition has disappeared, Macbeth is reassured that Macduff can’t kill him but despite this reassurance, he vows to kill him anyway. The third apparition is a child wearing a crown, with a small green tree in his hand and again this rises after thunder. This third apparition tells Macbeth that he cannot be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to his castle. Macbeth feels now completely safe and thinks that he will reign till natural death. Before every apparition there was thunder and then they rose out of the cauldron, the thunder has been mentioned in every scene with the Witches and still gives off a scary and evil atmosphere. The last apparition they show is a procession of eight Kings, accompanied by the ghost of Banquo. Macbeth is shocked to realise that the Kings are Banquo’s descendants and this puts him in some discomfort to know they will rule.
Following the meeting with the Witches, Macbeth decides that he must murder Macduff and all his descendants, as he thinks that unless he performs the deed then it will be too late, ‘this deed I’ll do before this purpose cool!’.
In England, Malcolm is visited by Macduff who wants him to lead an army back to Scotland and overthrow Macbeth. Malcolm is suspicious, fearing that Macduff might have been sent by Macbeth and might betray him to Macbeth. Having tested Macduff’s loyalty, Malcolm reveals he has an army and is prepared to invade. After this decision Ross enters to give the latest news from Scotland, he doesn’t tell Macduff that his family have been killed straight away but once Malcolm confirms his plan to invade Scotland with the support of an English army, Ross then reveals to Macduff that his family have been murdered. This news makes Macduff want revenge and this ultimately will lead to the death of Macbeth.
When the army is marching towards his castle, Macbeth is still comforted by the Witches’ predictions and refuses to hear any more reports of the forces facing him. Later on in the play Malcolm orders every man to cut down and carry a branch from Birnam Wood so that it will be hard to see how big his army is. Macbeth’s confidence shakes a bit as the Witches’ said he would reign until Birnam Wood comes to his castle, which of course it is but in a different way to what he first thought. He realises the Witches’ have deceived him and decides to fight to the end. However, Macbeth is still confident that he cannot be harmed by any man born from a woman. Following the death of the son of Siward, Macduff hunts for Macbeth and is determined that he should be the one to kill him. Killing Macduff’s family didn’t achieve anything but more bloodshed and it has just spurred Macduff for revenge, if Macbeth had not of murdered his family then maybe Macbeth could have survived.
When Macbeth finally faces Macduff, he destroys Macbeth’s confidence by revealing that he was not born of a woman in the usual way, but by a Caesarean operation. At first, Macbeth refuses to fight but rather than surrender to Malcolm, he continues to fight but is killed by Macduff.
The Witches have very cleverly tricked Macbeth with the prophecies that were shown to him and Macbeth realised this before dying. They told things that were untrue or that could have changed like the cutting down of Birnam Wood. The Witches didn’t lie once and told the truth, this truth was twisted to trick Macbeth and Macbeth didn’t suspect a thing. He hung onto every word they said as he thought of them as very powerful and magical.
I think Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the Witches were all responsible for Macbeth’s downfall; they all had a part in it for different reasons. Lady Macbeth had to take some of the responsibility as she persuaded him to murder Duncan in the first place, if it wasn’t for her Duncan would almost certainly be alive and Macbeth would still be Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth always had doubts over murdering the King and was trying to make his way out of doing it, this was not possible with Lady Macbeth on his back and she eventually convinced him that it would lead to happiness, which of course it didn’t.
Although it was partly Lady Macbeths fault, Macbeth still was to blame as he came up with the idea of killing Duncan in the first place, even though he might not have gone through with it he still told Lady Macbeth. But what he did after was his fault; the murder of Banquo and Macduff’s family was his idea. With Banquo, he got him murdered as he thought he was a danger and after this murder he concludes that evil deeds need to be backed up by further crimes. Macbeth didn’t even tell Lady Macbeth about the murder of Banquo or even the murder of Macduff’s family so it lies all down to him.
The Witches started all this bloodshed off I think and they were the ones who interfered with the order of the kingdom. They didn’t need to interrupt, but they chose to predict Macbeth’s and Banquo’s futures, these three Witches were the ones who started Macbeth off on his evil deeds and had a very large part in the downfall of Macbeth. The first predictions weren’t the last, when Macbeth came to them; they tricked Macbeth into thinking that he was safe and guaranteed to live until natural death.
So with these reasons and more I think Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the Witches were all to blame for Macbeth’s downfall and not just one person could be the culprit.
The inclusion of the Witches has reinforced Macbeth’s evil nature and the importance of loyalty and order in the kingdom as the Witches are seen to have an evil nature anyway and they are abnormal to the kingdom, which has disrupted the order of it. In every scene the Witches have been created in an evil atmosphere and this has helped to believing that they created evil in Macbeth in the first place. The Witches changed Macbeth’s thinking and he was one of the most loyal to Duncan, but when the Witches came his loyalty faded quickly and his greed came first. If there is no loyalty and order in the kingdom then it is surely to struggle as a successful one. The evil Macbeth, along with the Witches, has changed everything in the kingdom to what it was with Duncan and the nature of Macbeth was made out to be the making of the Witches. This is why they were included as they produced more evil and gave a wicked atmosphere to the play.
