Macbeth Coursework

How does Shakespeare present the witches in Act One Scenes One and Three and what is their role in the play?

William Shakespeare was one of the world’s most famous playwrights and poets. Shakespeare wrote many different types of plays however they all scent to mirror the social questions of the time. Similarly, Macbeth reflects the social fears of the 16th century. At the time there was a morbid and fevered fascination in witches and witchcraft. King James was as fascinated by witchcraft and alleged that a group of witches tried to kill him. In 1604, King James decreed that anyone found guilty of practising witchcraft should be executed. This caused fear and tension, pamphlets were printed and sold and Shakespeare’s society became increasingly more fixated with witches. This influenced Shakespeare to write ‘Macbeth’ which is about greed, power, betrayal, bloodshed and horror.

At the plays onset, the stage directions are used to create an ominous and foreboding atmosphere before the dialogue even starts. The “thunder and lightning” is symbolic of the fear and misery that will permeate the play. Witches were believed to have the power to cause storms. Also the stage direction says it is set in a “battlefield”, this brings to mind images of death, battle and bloodshed and foreshadows the events of the future. The witches form a backdrop to the play by setting the tone for a tense atmosphere. They start doing this by using short, rhythmic sentences. For example they state “when the hurly burly’s done, when the battles lost and won”. The short sentences single them out and differentiate them for the other characters who speak in blank verse. The rhythmic sentences create a spell-like and hypnotic effect. This creates confusion and fear and would remind the audience of their collective fear of the witches and their dark powers, it also sounds like they are casting a spell and makes them strange and inhuman.

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Shakespeare also uses a lot of alliteration to empathise the spell-like rhyming couplets, such as “fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air”. The constant use of the letter “f” emphasises the spell-like rhythm and also adds to the creepy and eerie feeling.

The witches express that they are supernatural by quoting “that will be ere set of sun”, this indicates the witches are gifted with prophecy. They also demonstrate their strangeness by obeying their orders from their familiars calling them away. They say “I come graymalkin!” this shows that there ...

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