Many people thought that Macbeth was written for James because of the strong links with witchcraft and the fact that many people thought that he was a descendant of Banquo.
Shakespeare opens the play with all three witches. The stage directions indicate that there would be thunder and lighting. Theses sounds and visual effects would build up the tension amongst the crowd. The audience would be growing more and more scared and nervous of these witches. The crowd would become very suspicious of Macbeth now because in their speech they said there wanted to speak to him upon a heath.
In act 1 scene 3 the setting is a heath this is a lonely desolate place that not many people would be walking on. Once again there is thunder and lighting and the crowd start to become suspicious again. The scene opens with the witches. This is the speech that most people think is directed at James. It involves the witches potting to sink a ship called the tiger. The tiger was actually a ship that was around in the time that Macbeth was written. Macbeth and Banquo then walks onto the heath. Macbeth thens says on line 36 ‘so foul and fair’ this line links him with the witches form the first speech they made.
The description that Banquo gives of the witches ‘by each at one her choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips, you should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret you are so’. This leads us to think that they are very skinny hair women. But look more like a creature rather than a woman.
In act 4 scene 1 Macbeth has know gone truly mad he has killed his best friend. In this scene he actually goes to find the witches, which suggest that he is now possessed by evil. The witch’s speech is with out doubt the most dramatic one of them all. All the witches would have been on stage dressed in there rags dancing round a cauldron. The language that they used in their chants would of scared the audience, as lots of animals would be put into the cauldron.
Finally In conclusion I believe that the whole of Macbeth relies on the reputation of the witches. Shakespeare uses the fear of them to make this into a very dramatic play. I don’t think that without the witches bring there that Macbeth would off committed the offences. But they bring the play alive and have a very big dramatic effect on the play and the audience.
