The role of the three Weird Sisters in the play Macbeth is to generate imagery, mood,
Macbeth In this essay I will explore and explain one of William Shakespeare's tragically play Macbeth. In this aspect is that of the three Weird Sisters. These three” secret black, and midnight hags" (Mac IV.i 47), hardly noticeable as humans, serve a huge dramatic function in the play. Closely looking at Macbeth, one can distinguish the many functions that they serve in the play. The role of the three Weird Sisters in the play Macbeth is to generate imagery, mood, and atmosphere and to serve as the equivocation that will bring Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, to his downfall. The witches are a powerful influence on Macbeth because they are, in part, responsible for his decision to kill Duncan. Through their predictions they have filled Macbeth with the desire for the throne of Scotland. But, in the final analysis, the witches do very little to influence Macbeth to commit the murder of the king, Banquo, and the others. Macbeth's own inner evil and desire for ambition, coupled with the pressure placed on him by Lady Macbeth to kill the king, are really the factors that most strongly influenced Macbeth. The belief in the existence and power of witches was widely believed in Shakespeare's day, as demonstrated by the European witch craze, during which an estimated nine million women were put to death for being apparent as witches. The practice of witchcraft was seen to subvert the established order of religion and society, and hence was not tolerated. Witch hunting was a respectable, moral, and highly intellectual pursuit through much of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The belief of the majority during the seventeenth century suggests that the witches are powerful figures who can exercise great power over Macbeth; however, strong arguments to the contrary were in existence at the same time. The intensity of the tragedy is dependent on whether the witches are perceived to be able to control the otherwise innocent Macbeth's actions, or if he is entirely responsible for his own downfall. The main type of weather found throughout the play is thunder and lightning storms, which occur when evil deeds are either being formulated or carried out. I first saw this theatrical use of weather when we meet the three witches in Act 1, scene 1. Whether Shakespeare included stage directions for storms is debatable, but the lines of the play suggest the kind of mood and atmosphere the audience should imagine. The stage directions of most versions of the text instruct thunder and lightning, and the first witch inquires: "When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain?" Every time the audience encounters the three witches there is a stage direction for thunder and a mention within the speech related to weather, or some kind of dark gloomy atmosphere is implied. On a heath in Scotland, three witches, the Weird Sisters, wait
to meet Macbeth in thunder and lightning. Their conversation is filled with paradoxes; they say that they will meet Macbeth "when the battles lost and won," when "fair is foul and foul is fair.", foul and fair To the weird sisters what is ugly is beautiful, and what is beautiful is ugly, “fair is foul and foul is fair” throughout the play, fair is appearance hide foul realties. Thunder and lightning crash above a Scottish grassland. Three hag old women, the witches, appear out of the storm. In creepy, sing tones, they make plans to meet again upon the heath, ...
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to meet Macbeth in thunder and lightning. Their conversation is filled with paradoxes; they say that they will meet Macbeth "when the battles lost and won," when "fair is foul and foul is fair.", foul and fair To the weird sisters what is ugly is beautiful, and what is beautiful is ugly, “fair is foul and foul is fair” throughout the play, fair is appearance hide foul realties. Thunder and lightning crash above a Scottish grassland. Three hag old women, the witches, appear out of the storm. In creepy, sing tones, they make plans to meet again upon the heath, after the battle, to confront Macbeth. As quickly as they arrive, they disappear, “Thunder and lightning.” This is the description of the scene before Act I, Scene I, and line 1. The thunder and lightning represent disturbances in nature. Most people do not think of a great day being filled with thunder and lightning. So the witches are surrounded by thunder and lightning. Also, the first witch asks in line 2 about the meeting with Macbeth, "In thunder, lightning, or in rain?" The meeting will also be filled with these disturbances. The witches are also surrounded by more undesired parts of weather: "Hover through the fog and filthy air" (line 11). The weather might personify the witches, meaning that the witches themselves are disturbances, though not limited to nature. The bad weather also might mean that the witches are bad or foul ("filthy air") creatures. The play takes place in Scotland. Duncan, the king of Scotland, is at war with the king of Norway, and as the play opens, he learns of Macbeth's bravery in battle against a Scot who sided with Norway. At the same time, he hears of the treachery of the Thane of Cawdor, who was arrested. Duncan decides to give the title of Thane of Cawdor to Macbeth. Macbeth and Banquo, traveling home from the battle, meet three witches, who predict that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor and king of Scotland, and that Banquo will be the father of kings. The witches disappear, and Macbeth and Banquo meet up with two nobles who inform them of Macbeth's new title. Hearing this, Macbeth begins to contemplate murdering Duncan in order to realize the witches' second prophecy. Macbeth and Banquo meet up with Duncan, who tells them he is going to pay Macbeth a visit at his home. Macbeth rides ahead to prepare his household. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth informing her of the witches' prophesy and Macbeth's following new title. A servant appears and tells her of Duncan's approach. Energized, she invokes supernatural powers to strip her of her feminine softness and prepare her to murder Duncan. When Macbeth arrives home, Lady Macbeth tells him that she will take care of all the details of Duncan's murder. Duncan arrives at Macbeths castle, and Lady Macbeth greets him. Macbeth fails to appear, and Lady Macbeth goes to find him. He is in his room, contemplating the weighty and evil step of killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth taunts him, telling him he will only be a man when he kills Duncan, and that she herself has less softness in her character than he does. She then tells him her plan for the murder, and Macbeth accepts it: they will kill him while his drunken bodyguards sleep, then plant incriminating evidence on the bodyguards. The Weird Sisters meet on the heath and wait for Macbeth. He arrives with Banquo, confirming the witches' paradoxical prophecy by stating "So foul and fair a day I have not seen." The witches hail him as "Thane of Glamis" (his present title), "Thane of Cawdor" (which title Macbeth does not know he has been granted yet), and "king hereafter." Their greeting startles and seems to frighten Macbeth. Banquo questions the witches as to who they are, and they greet him as "lesser than Macbeth and greater," "not so happy, yet much happier," and a man who "shall get kings, though he be none." When Macbeth questions them further, the witches vanish like bubbles into the air. Almost as soon as they disappear, Ross and Angus appear, bearing the news that the king has granted Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth and Banquo step aside to discuss this news; Banquo is of the opinion that the title of Thane of Cawdor might "enkindle" Macbeth to seek the crown as well. Macbeth questions why good news like this causes his "seated heart to knock at his ribs / against the use of nature," and his thoughts turn immediately and with terror to murdering the king in order to fulfil the witches' second prophesy. When Ross and Angus notice Macbeth's distraught state, Banquo dismisses it as Macbeth's unfamiliarity with his new title. Malcolm tests Macduff's loyalty by confessing to multiple sins and ambitions. When Macduff proves loyal to him, the two plan the strategy they will use in attacking Macbeth. Meanwhile, Macbeth murders Macduff's wife, whom he has deserted, along with all his children. The key characteristic of Macbeth's witches is that while they can influence Macbeth's actions, they cannot compel him to commit the evil deeds that he undertakes in the course of the Scottish tragedy. This limitation on the power of the weird sisters, their dependency upon human will to work their black arts, is highlighted by the difference between Banquo's reaction to their initial predictions and that of Macbeth. After their encounter with the witches in Act I, scene iii, Banquo wonders aloud about whether they were real or whether he and Macbeth are suffering from some type of illusion: "Were such things here as we do speak about?/Or have we eaten on the insane root/That takes the reason prisoner?" (I, iii., ll.83-85). It is not Macbeth, but Banquo, who first notices the witches on the heath, asking Macbeth: "What are these/So withered and so wild in their attire/That look not like the' inhabitants of the earth/And yet are on't" (I, iii, ll.39-42). Banquo then asks the witches directly whether they "live or are "aught" and Macbeth demands further, "Speak, if you can, what are you?" (I, iii., l.47). They do not respond to these questions, but simply hail Macbeth, first as Thane of Glamis, then as Thane of Cawdor, and finally as "King hereafter." When Banquo asks that witches if they can foretell future, they hail him as a future sire of Scottish monarchs, and when Macbeth then asks the witches to explain their salutations and the means by which foresee future, they vanish into thin air. Banquo ultimately concludes that the witches are not an hallucination, nor are they of substance, explaining to Macbeth that, "the earth hath bubbles, as the water has/And these are of them" (I, iii, ll.79-80). Since both Macbeth and Banquo actually see the witches, and since both are of sound mind before and immediately after this encounter, the alternative thesis that the witches are only mental figments seems false. Moreover, Lady Macbeth (while she is in her right mind) accepts the reality of the witches having an independent existence. Nevertheless, Shakespeare deliberately upsets any firm conclusions as to who or what the weird sisters are. When Lennox arrives in Act IV, scene I. after the witches have vanished into air, Macbeth asks whether he saw them. Lennox replies with a simply no, and while his failure to see them is most plausibly the result of his having entered the scene too late, we are again thrown off balance. Leaving the issue of the witches' nature aside for the moment, we find that while the weird sisters can influence humans like Macbeth to carry out terrible acts, they cannot force them to do so, neither do they interfere directly in the commission of crimes. In facing the weird sisters, Macbeth undergoes a two-stage process: he first determines that they are credible and then decides to act upon this assumption. The first step occurs when word comes through Rosse and Angus that King Duncan has directed them to call Macbeth by his new title of Thane of Cawdor. Both Macbeth and Banquo then lend credence to the witches' ability to see into the future. Banquo, however, refuses the temptation of taking the second step, saying that, "The instruments of darkness tell us truths,/Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's/In deepest consequence" (I, iii., ll.124-126). Macbeth, however, furnishes the witches with the essential ingredient for the mayhem they are brewing, the agency of his will. He first assumes a neutral stance toward acting upon the prediction that he will become king, asserting that "This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill, cannot be good" (I, iii., ll.130-131). Macbeth presumes that even though his encounter with the witches incites terror in him, it cannot be "ill" because it augured his success in becoming Thane of Cawdor. At this moment, Macbeth has headed down a slippery slope: once he proceeds with "weighing" the value of the witches' predictions he is only a short distance from subordinating his own will into an instrumentality of evil. The contrast between Banquo and Macbeth in relation to the witches surfaces again at the start of Act II when Banquo confides to Macbeth that he has dreamt of the three weird sisters, while Macbeth replies that "I think not of them" (l.22). This is, of course, a lie and a denial of reality, for right after this exchange and once Banquo leaves, Macbeth sees a dagger hovering before his eyes, and places it in the specific context of his meeting with the witches: "Now o'er the one half world/Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates/Pale Hecat's offerings" (II, i., ll.49-51). It is important to note that in his second (and final) encounter with the witches (Act IV, scene i.), Macbeth takes an active hand in conjuring the apparitions that furnish him with an equivocal security about his future as Scotland's king. In the course of the play, the witches paradoxically become less real, but more potent. In the end, the reality of the witches is predicated upon the willingness of human beings to perform their evil handiwork and in the character of Macbeth, this willingness is plainly present. Although Macbeth does take actions that lead to his downfall, I believe that he is not totally responsible for what happens. Although he takes the action that leads to his downfall, he perhaps would not have done this if the witches had not told him that he would be king in Act 1 Scene 3. I believe that it is the witches are more responsible for Macbeth's downfall than he is. In Act 4, Scene 1, Macbeth meets again with the witches, who tell him through apparitions, "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife." In the following scene, we see murderers sent by Macbeth enter Macduff's castle and slaughter both Lady Macduff and her son. The witches are also responsible for this murder, because once again, the witches put ideas in his head. Although the witches can be held responsible for the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macduff and her son, they cannot be held responsible for the murder of Banquo. The witches only speak of Banquo when Macbeth meets with them for the second time and Act 4, Scene 1, after Banquo has already been killed. This murder is the complete responsibility of Macbeth, because the witches had absolutely nothing to do with it and it was only Macbeth's own suspicions that brought him to have Banquo killed. If Macbeth had not taken action to fulfil the witch's prophecies, he would probably have been happily living as the thane of Glamis and Cawdor at the end of the play. It could be said that he was responsible for his own downfall. However, Macbeth only took action after hearing the witch's prophecies, so I believe that Macbeth cannot be held totally responsible for what happens to himself. I believe that if Macbeth had never heard the witch's prophecies, he would have lived a happy, full life, and perhaps he would have become anyway.
