They are powerful, but not totally in control. They can do much harm, but cannot kill ‘though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed.’ The witches at the beginning of play actually ‘awake’ or ‘unlock’ Macbeths ambition, so he can realise what holds the future for him, he has been craving it for all of his life, though, it has been laying dormant for some time.
The witches confront Macbeth and Banquo at the beginning, and they make ambiguous prophecies. They make three. ‘All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.’ ‘All hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor. He already is Thane of Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor comes true too right away. So why not being King (the third) he thinks. He is told this, but not how he gets it. So the first striking thought through his head was murder Duncan aswell as other evil thoughts. ‘Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires.’ Macbeth thinks aside, not wanting anyone to see his mysterious evil thoughts. ‘Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound fair?’ Banquo asks Macbeth, when he sees his reaction when he hears the unexpected news.
Macbeth falls for the witches’ temptations, whereas Banquo shows he is a good man, and doesn’t fall for it. ‘But hush, no more.’ Banquo thinks evil for as few seconds then pulls himself together to resist wickedness. This is the first part of Macbeths ride to hell…. ‘I pull in resolution and begin to doubt th’equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth.’ Banquo states and he warns Macbeth that the witches are evil and will get him to take the bait. This is good advice. Though throughout the play, two major influences are upon Macbeth. The witches of course, and His wife Lady Macbeth. They both in a way form an evil axis that work on Macbeth’s ambition.
If the witches actually had total control over Macbeth, it really would not be interesting, because Shakespeare has made it exciting, by making the temptations and persuasions. Macbeth actually had potential to be good and fight evil, not be for it. He could have been a well-liked noble. The witches obviously influenced this, and feel a large sense of achievement. It was all his own choice, he decided to kill his best friends, Banquo and Duncan and other nobles. He actually threw away totally the chance of being great and mighty and to live to his name. The audience actually in a way do feel a little sympathetic at the beginning, they want him to achieve king, now he is and has caused evil, and we don’t feel so considerate.
Lady Macbeth receives a letter that her husband sent her about the encounter with the three witches. She reacts in such a way that she decides that she must seize the moment and assassinate the king almost immediately. She seems so utterly cold-blooded, merciless and ruthless. She also fears that Macbeth is ‘too good’ and needs to harden him up. He is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness,’ It is showed to us that she is correct and Macbeth is a ‘softie!’ She is so into this and unsexes herself to become less feminine and more pitiless. Macbeth at first thinks that it would be great to kill the king, though through out, more and more doubts come into his head. He would kill Duncan if there were no consequences, though of course there are. When Macbeth arrives home Lady Macbeth greets him with thoughts of greatness. They both discuss the murder of the king and Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to hide his deadly intentions behind greeting and pleasant looks. ‘Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.’ But Macbeth puts the subject off hesitantly and says, ‘we will speak further.’Lady Macbeth is also a really evil and deceptive woman she is just as evil as the witches, for she sells her soul to Lucifer.
The second time Macbeth goes to the witches he goes by his own will seeking help from the evil witches, they can sense that he is near, than having to see him. ‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.’ Implying, that he is almost more evil than them, which they can tell that he is evil, and if he were good, he deliberately wouldn’t go back to them. He comes back and asks for them to prophesise again about what lies in his future. They mislead him again, they give him this nasty drink that was prepared before, and he has three visions that disturbs him. He discovers that Banquos descendants will receive the throne, and he of course is totally displeased and enraged by this.
See, Macbeth was told at the second time he meets the witches, that Banquos sons will inherit the throne ‘Horrible sight! Now I see ‘tis true, for the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me, and points at them for his.’ This is why he killed him. Unfortunately he did not succeed in murdering Fleance, his son, although Fleance is more important. This again demonstrates how evil and bloodthirsty Macbeth is becoming, for he killed his best friend.
Macbeth throughout the play gets worse and worse. ‘By the worst means the worst’, this just demonstrates how evil Macbeth becomes. Banquo states ‘win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence.’ Saying that the witches try to make you believe them, and then they betray you, of which they do He even goes back to the witches. This shows how cold blooded he becomes.
Macbeth at the start thinks he can control time and fate. Now we see throughout, that time and fate control him! The witches devote Macbeth into thinking himself invincible, a demonstration of Macbeth being deceived by the evil witches.
Scotland is like a body. It is being slowly hacked to death. Macbeth is turning Scotland into a wasteland. He also is turning too. Macbeth is also compared with Edward of England. They are totally opposite. Macbeth is so evil, that people don’t even say his name now, and so they refer to him as the ‘tyrant’. He is also in league with the witches. Edward is in league with God. Macbeth is a sort of ‘disease’. On the contrary, Edward can apparently cure people by the laying of his hands on them. He is good, Macbeth is evil. Edward is a saint; Macbeth is a ‘monster’!
This play is like a warning. Shakespeare shows to the audience, that going evil is a ‘shortcut’ to hell. Do what’s right; don’t just follow your dreams and ambitions…!
