When the 2nd witch states, “When the hurly-burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won” it suggests that the witches can fortell the future and that they know who is going to win the battle. The witches to have odd supernatural powers which help them to see into the future because the 3rd witch states, “That will be ‘ere the set of sun” which tells us that the battle will be over in the evening when the sun sets. The witches talk in riddles and in the 17th century, although the first watch was invented in Shakespearean times, most people wouldn’t have had one so the people told tome by looking at the position if the sun in the sky.
The 1st witch then asks her fellow witches, “Where the place?” which is answered by the 2nd witch, “Upon the Heath”. This suggests that the witches know exactly where they will meet again.
As the witches descend to go their separate ways they all call out in a weird language. When the 1st witch shouts, “ I come, Graymalkin”, she could mean her cat ‘Graymalkin’ as cats were seen as evil animals who were bad, unlucky omens and during the Renaissance it was believed that Satan sent witches malicious spirits to help them carry out their evil deeds.
The use of the rhyming couplet “Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air”, has a number of possible interpretations , as it tells us that perhaps everything beautiful is disgusting and everything disgusting is beautiful to them. This gives us the impression that the witches are very evil women who think this. It gives us the notion that the witches are very supernatural & magical because they are possibly going to fly through the air which is so full of mist and perhaps even pollutants and that is why they consider it as filthy. The alliteration makes it sound more like a spell or a chant.
In Act 1 Scene 3, Shakespeare gives us the impression that the witches are very determined to hurt the sailor because the witches plan to torture him simply because his wife wouldn’t share her chestnuts with the 1st witch. The 1st witch states, “But in a seive, I’ll thither sail, and like a rat without a tail” which gives us the impression that she is so mad at the sailors wife that she would have even tried to get to him in a seive. This is normally an impossible task but the witches seem to have wonderful, supernatural powers to be able to do this. She tells us that she would be really vicious like a rat with the use of the simile, “Like a rat without a tail”. The use of the repetition in Act 1 Scene 3 “I’ll do, I’ll do and I’ll do” tells us that she would do it over and over and over again until she causes maximum pain towards the sailor.
The seem to work as a team when the 2nd and 3rd witch offer their companion some wind to help her get across the seas to him. The 1st witch has, supposedly, the most importance and poweras she has all the other things needed to help her harm the sailor. She shows us that she really wants to get revenge and she would “drain him dry as hay”. This simile gives a dramatic effect which gives us an idea of how badly she wants to get the sailors wife back.
Although the witches have much power, Shakespeare makes it clear that they can’t actually kill Macbeth – “Though his bark cannot be lost”, but they could get someone or something to do it for them. When Macbeth is introduced for the first time, we get the impression that he might be just as evil as the witches when he uses alliteration similar to that used by the witches at the end of Act 1 Scene 1 “So foul and fair a day I have not seen”.
The witches seem to be very cunning when they tell Macbeth what he will become in the future and what he is at prestent. Macbeth doesn’t believe them until he is told that he has earned the title ‘Thane of Cawdor’.
Shakespeare characterises the witches as being disobedient and disloyal in Act 3 Scene 5 because they never told Hecate that they were planning “to trade and traffic with Macbeth, in riddles and affairs of death.” Hecate lets us know that she is the cheiftan, or leader of the witches when she says, “And I the mistress of your charms.”
The witches seem to be very evil when they consider their cruel deeds to be art. The witches and Hecate plan the murder of Macbeth when Hecate says, “ Meet me i’ th’ moring: thither he will come, to know his destiny.” Hecate gives us the impression that she would fly up to the cormer of the moon and catch a drop of vapour which she will catch before it drops to the ground. Hecate leaves the when she is calles by a ‘little spirit’ which ‘sits in a foggy cloud’ and stays for her.
In Act 4 Scene 1, the three witches seem to be adding ingredients to make a spell. They throw in a lot of weird and unusual things and after each set of ingredients, the witches chant, “Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” The use of this rhyming couplet gives the impression that it is a spell the witches are casting.
The witches show their supernatural abilty again when the 2nd witch chants “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” This suggests that she knows that Macbeth is on his way or that she could sense his presence because perhaps Macbeth is the ‘something wicked’ as he is destined to murder his King so perhaps that is why she calls him this.
In this play the witches don’t actually kill anyone but they cause a lot of deaths. They stir everything up between Macbeth and others which caused a lot of people to get greedy and murders took place.
In conclusion, Macbeth created his own fate by killing the King and his friend which made people suspicious and resulted in his own death. Macbeth was foolish enough to believe the witches. He was tricked which resulted in him being greedy and wanting the position as King of Scotland as soon as possible so he killed his leader. He was encouraged by his wife, Lady Macbeth, which didn’t help. Macbeth thought he was invincible because the witches told him ‘none of woman born’ could harm him, but little did he know that Macduff was ‘untimely ripped’ from his mothers’ womb. Macbeth was then killed by Macduff. Macbeth wouldn’t have been murdered if he had have just been less desirable for the role of King and waited to see what happened instead of taking matters into his own hands.