The effect of the Whiches in Macbeth at the time of King James I.

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Macbeth Essay

Lewis Stuchbury 11e

In 1606, William Shakespeare first performed the play Macbeth to James I, King of the union between England and Scotland.  The main reason Shakespeare wrote Macbeth was to warn people of the consequences of trying to harm the King, especially as this was one year after the Gun Power Plot of 1605, where a group of Catholics tried to ill the King by setting up lots of barrels full to the brim of gunpowder under the houses of parliament during a speech by the King.  Killing any monarch was obviously a serious offence, but at the time of James I, The ‘Chain of Being’ existed, which was a belief that a process of ‘natural selection’ took place where the King was elected by God, and no mortal is higher than he.  The belief was the God created the universe, he appointed the King as the Governor of these lands, then the King appointed the nobility, then followed by the Clergy and middle classes, and the peasants were at the bottom of the chain.  To upset the chain of being would cause chaos in the land, as the King represented God on Earth.  As Shakespeare’s patron, James I would enjoy the play because he could easily relate to the story, being a descendant of King Duncan I of Scotland.  Another reason for this is James I’s avid interest in Witchcraft, which plays a large part in the play.

        Witchcraft was a form of magic that was a belief in the Sixteenth century, and it was a belief that Witches who could wield this magic also existed.    Witches were mostly women who were believed to possess inhuman abilities including control of the weather and climate, demonic possession of individuals, ability to fly, power to induce nightmares using images within the individual’s mind, they could raise evil spirits, making images and objects appear and interact with the individual, foresight, and power linguistic skills allowing them to turn friends against each other.  At the time of James I, the executions of supposed Witches was at it’s peak, with over 16 000 dying at the hands of witch catchers.

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        The Witches in Macbeth play a key role in entertaining James I, because of his ‘morbid fascination’ with them.  With Shakespeare’s main aim to impress the king, he would gain extra merit for touching on a favoured subject of his.

        When the witches first appear in Act One: Scene One, the atmosphere is instantly set by a stage direction reading:

Thunder and Lighting.  Enter three Witches.

This represents evil brewing, whether it be a rebellion being concocted in a Kingdom, or ‘strife in the minds of men, loosing abroad the forces of evil’.  It was said that the witches had ...

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